Prenatal Tips
If you’re expecting there’s no need to shelve your yoga practice and if you’ve never tried it, what a perfect time to begin! Practicing yoga during pregnancy is a great way to prepare the body for labor with hip opening poses and deep breathing. There are specific guidelines for moms-to-be and I highly recommend finding a prenatal yoga class if you’re new to yoga completely. But if you have a regular practice and don’t have prenatal available to you, you can go to a beginner class and make some modifications.
These may be obvious tips, but I’ve had to remind pregnant women about these things in my classes:
- Avoid lying down on your abdomen once you have a “bump.” No on the stomach poses or chaturanga to upward dog.
- Avoid closed spinal twists that twist towards the opposite leg. Keep your twists on the open side, so in a regular class, you’ll most likely twist in the opposite direction of everyone else.
- Keep the legs/feet wider apart in forward bends either on the floor or standing to avoid compressing your abdomen. For example, during Sun Salutations your feet will be wider than hip width and you’ll step right back to downward dog with a wide stance.
- Standing balances should be done next to a wall for comfort. Your balance will be off, especially in the later months, so be safe and have a wall within reach in case you tip forward.
- No inversions except for legs-up-the-wall pose. Really, no going upside down because the blood will flow AWAY from the womb.
- Take more breaks than everyone else if you’re taking a regular yoga class. Sit back on your heels in child’s pose and breathe to cool down. It’s important to keep the womb and baby cooler even if you’re used to working out harder.
- Avoid any heating breath exercises, for example, Breath of Fire or any kind of breath retention exercise. Cooling breath exercises are great like Lion’s Breath.
- Avoid deep backbending. A bridge pose is okay but deeper back bends like wheel pose and upward dog should generally be avoided.
And listen to your body. If something doesn’t feel right while you’re pregnant, then it’s better to be safe than sorry. Take this time to relax into a gentle, hip-opening yoga practice for a healthy mom and baby.