Pregnancy Yoga Classes
Pregnancy can often times be a confusing, emotional and exciting time in a woman’s life! Your body is
changing, your hormones are changing and your life is about to completely to change! Yoga can be a
great way to help you cope with these changes and prepare your body for childbirth.
Yoga encourages stretching and relaxation of the muscles which can contribute to a quicker labor,
mental centering which supports a calmer pregnancy and less fearful approach to child birth; and
focused breathing can assist in coping during labor and deliver. Furthermore, yoga classes can:
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Improve sleep
Reduce stress and anxiety
Increase the strength and endurance of muscles needed for child birth also contributing to an
easier recovery post-partum
Decrease in lower back pain, hip pain, nausea, carpal tunnel syndrome and headaches
Decrease in the risk of preterm labor
Increased awareness of your body and awareness of the growing baby inside
Connection to a community of other pregnant women
In a prenatal yoga class you can expect to first learn some pranayama, or breathing techniques, followed
by some gentle stretching and postures and finally a nice final relaxation period. Some of the types of
yoga classes you want to avoid if you are pregnant are any types of hot yoga or power yoga classes. It’s
important to regulate body temperature while pregnant so being in a highly heated room doing yoga
isn’t the best idea. Also, prenatal yoga should focus more on gentle stretching, breathing and relaxing as
opposed to some other forms of yoga, especially power yoga, which focuses more on the physical
benefits of asanas.
Pranayama: Bee’s Breath
One of the breathing techniques you might learn in a prenatal yoga class is Bee’s Breath. Come to a
comfortable seated position on the floor, in a chair or sitting against the wall. Whatever is most
comfortable for you. Take your index and middle fingers, using them to gently plug your ears. Gently
close your eyes. Inhale deeply, as you exhale keep your lips closed and make a buzzing or humming
sound, resembling a bee sound.
Bee’s breath encourages you to bring your focus inward, easily eliminating external distractions. Do this
10-15 times. Afterwards you should feel more focused, calm and less anxious. This is a nice breath to
have in your toolkit during labor.
Mula Bandha
Bandhas are energetic locks at specific locations in the body. Although they are energetic, we can locate
them and strengthen them through our anatomy. Mula Bandha is located in the pelvis, by the cervix. It’s
sometimes referred to as the pelvic floor. In pilates you will sometimes hear teachers say, ‘we are
strengthening the pelvic floor.’ To locate it, you want to contract the same muscles you would use to the
stop the flow of urination. Once you locate those muscles you want to imagine you are zipping up a tight
pair of jeans just to the top of your pubic bone. This is how you want to strengthen mula bandha while
pregnant. After giving birth, you can imagine zipping up those jeans all the way up to your diaphragm.