Benefits of pregnancy yoga classes

Love Baby Yoga pregnancy yoga classes provide many benefits to both you and your baby during pregnancy.

Yoga is considered to be ideal exercise during pregnancy because it...

• Keeps the body supple without straining
• Boosts energy
• Helps relieve stress and anxiety
• Promotes awareness of the pelvis and the pelvic floor in preparation for labour
• Provides a space to make new friendships and build the support networks needed for parenting
• Promotes deep relaxation and aids restful sleep
• Relieves common minor ailments during pregnancy (e.g. swollen joints, heartburn, constipation)
• Helps the expectant mother to bond with their unborn baby
• Encourages awareness of breathing techniques to utilise throughout your pregnancy, labouring and mothering

Connect with your baby

The breath forms a special and continuous bond between mother and baby throughout pregnancy, as inside the womb the child hears and feels every breath that the mother takes. This means that all the pranayama techniques provide a very tangible way for the expectant mother to connect with her baby, and to prepare for the relationship with her child after birth.

Balance your emotions

Focus on the breath, and particular yoga asanas, can help to balance the volatile emotional shifts of pregnancy and the post-natal period. They can also assist in lowering the blood pressure, and aid the promotion of deep relaxation.

Yogic breathing to boost your energy

There are many benefits to the expectant mother of breathing deeply, for example in the practice of the Full Yogic Breath, a complete breathing pattern is encouraged which makes optimum use of the decreasing lung space available during pregnancy. This optimal use of available lung capacity can boost energy and lift the spirits of an often tired pregnant or post-natal woman.

For a more detailed explanation of how preanayama can enhance and improve your pregnancy and labour please download and read my article 'Yoga is Movement and Breath combined: An exploration of the benefits of deep breathing (pranayama) in Pre & Postnatal Yoga'.