good morning for you mummy to be ... ♥ =) Prenatal Yoga Benefits Some yoga poses are particularly beneficial to you and your baby. Certain poses can help your baby turn, and others tone your body for labor and for being a mom. You need strong legs and arms to birth a baby, and carrying a child around is a lot easier with a strong body, too! It’s tough to walk as far and as fast with a bowling ball in your belly, and some yoga poses are impossible or even unhealthy during pregnancy. You need to avoid poses where you are lying on your belly, and in the second half of pregnancy too much spinal twisting can be uncomfortable. As your baby grows and your uterus takes up more and more space in your abdomen, you might also notice that you get out of breath more easily. That’s because your baby is actually crowding your lungs. This can definitely impact your endurance during both walking and yoga! Whether you’ve reached the exhausted phase of pregnancy or are full of energy, incorporating some of these prenatal yoga poses can make a big difference for your pregnancy and your birth! ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● 1. Cat/Cow Pose Cat/cow is especially beneficial in the third trimester, but it’s a great pose to practice throughout your pregnancy. This is actually two poses that you practice together, and the combo is great for stretching and strengthening your spine and gently stretching and strengthening your abdomen. That can help relieve back pain, which a lot of pregnant women deal with. By stretching and toning your abs, you can also help relieve some of that round ligament pain: those out-of-nowhere belly cramps you are probably experiencing as your belly stretches to make room for your growing baby. Cat/cow helps make room in your uterus toward the end of your pregnancy, so that your baby can turn. During the early stages of pregnancy, your baby might be positioned any which-way, but toward the end of the third trimester, you will want him to turn to the head-down position. He’ll still move some, but head-down is where he should be resting, and cat/cow helps him work with gravity to turn the right way. It also keeps him off of your spine, which can help with back pain and may even help prevent painful “back labor” during your birth.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 22:13:31 +0000