Easy Yoga Poses For Pregnant Women | Best Pregnancy Yoga Video Exercises.

Are you pregnant but want to keep fit? Because of the gentle nature of yoga and its effectiveness in maintaining a healthy cardiovascular system as well as building muscle strength and flexibility, yoga is increasingly popular among pregnant women as a mean of maintaining fitness. Yoga practitioners claim yoga provides the mental, emotional, psychological and physical strength that makes childbirth an easier process. If you are going to have a baby, it is best to get started right away by preparing yourself for motherhood, mentally and physically, and understanding what yoga can do for you with these easy yoga poses for pregnant women.

The very essence of yoga lies in attaining mental peace, improved concentration powers, a relaxed state of living and harmony in relationships while pregnancy is a period of anticipation, filled with both, the fear and the joy of having a baby. It is also a time when your body goes through various physical and mental changes. Therefore practicing yoga can help you prepare your mind and body for labor and birth and keep you healthy. Pre-natal yoga makes the body stronger to carry the baby. It gives one overall strength and propagates a general sense of well-being. This versatile discipline has also been modified to suit the physiological needs of the moms-to-be.

Prenatal yoga not only relieves the pregnant women from the mental stress of pregnancy, but also allows the body to remain fit during labor and childbirth. It can help in providing respite to pregnant women, from common problems like fatigue, weight gain, mood swings, cramps and swelling.

The yoga postures are gentle ways of keeping your body active and supple and minimize the common pregnancy symptoms like morning sickness and constipation. It can also help in ensuring easier labor and smooth delivery by relieving tension around the cervix and birth canal and by opening the pelvis. Breathe control in yoga also helps in restoring your body shape, uterus, abdomen, and pelvic floor, and in relieving upper back tension and breast discomfort after childbirth.

Special care, however, is needed in choosing the yoga poses that you will practice. Most of the times, strenuous exercises like the Surya Namaskar should be avoided for pregnant women as the body of a pregnant woman tend to be weaker and for that reason, prone to easy injury, which might also affect the inborn. This, however, is not to say that yoga itself is damaging to the health of a pregnant woman. In fact, some postures in yoga are extremely healthful for a pregnant woman. We all know about the fact that few women are able to give birth naturally these days owing either to complications or lifestyle problems. Some easy yoga poses will actually help the woman have a natural childbirth, free of complications or Caesarean section operations and so on. Here are a few prenatal yoga poses for pregnant women.​

Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)

This pose is known to strengthen the spine, open the chest and the lungs to make breathing better and easier and is also effective for stimulating the thyroid gland. For this pose, you need to begin by lying supine on your back. Then, bending by the knees, bring the soles of your feet close to your buttocks so that they are parallel to each other. Interlace your fingers and bring them under your back. Now, lift your body, from the hips to the ceiling. Stretch your interlaced fingers bringing them as close to the ankles of your feet as possible. Even as you stretch, do not forget to inhale deeply. Now push your shoulders above the ground too, one at a time. Exhale and relax the fingers, even as you bring down your upper middle and finally lower body to the ground. Let the body loose, allow your knees to knock against each other and relax completely.

Cobblers’ Pose (Badhdha Konasana)

This pose is known to open and stretch the lower abdomen, hips, and the groin, giving it a thorough exercise. For this pose, you will have to begin by sitting erect on the floor with your legs outstretched. Bending your legs at the knees, bring the soles of your feet together so that you create butterfly’s wings-like structure with your legs. Keeping your hand on the knees, press the legs down gently as much as you can, and then slowly release.

The Child Pose (Balasana)

The child pose proves to be immensely helpful in opening up your chest and pelvis. For this, you will need to go down on all fours, with your knees spread out just a little wider than your hips. Gently and gradually now, support your buttocks firmly between your heels, stretch your arms out, with the palms of the hands pointing towards the floor and rest your forehead on the ground; exhale while you are in this position. Raise your arms from the ground so that only the palms touch the ground while your whole upper body is supported by your hands, like a baby about to crawl, even as you inhale deeply. Repeat this exercise at least ten times, but do remember to know your limitations.

For the first trimester, standing yoga poses are advised as this will help strengthen the legs, improve circulation, bring forth more energy, and reduce leg cramps. It is also advisable to do some stretching such as the hamstrings stretch. During the second and third trimester, you may reduce your time spent for practicing the Asanas to prevent fatigue and overwork. It is also not advised to practice from the tenth to through the fourteenth week of pregnancy since these are crucial delicate times. Supine poses, backbends, and twisting can also be done with modification or if the body is on an incline. Do not overstretch the abdomen; the emphasis of your twisting poses should be on the shoulders and the upper back and not on the abdomen. Avoid doing inversion poses though some experience Yoga practitioners usually still feel comfortable doing this until the seventh month.

Breathing Exercises: The basic yoga techniques taught to pregnant women, are the breathing exercises which are considred vital for the control of the energy (prana). A few simple Pranayams (breath control) helps in releasing the emotional tension and the likelihood of post natal depression. Some of the suggested breathing exercises are a mild form of kapalabhatti and lots of anuloma-viloma.

• Kapalabhati: Take two normal breaths and then inhale. Exhale while pulling in the abdomen (remember not to stretch the muscles of the stomach) and repeat as required while keeping the emphasis on exhalation. Now inhale and exhale fully before inhaling once and holding your breath for as long possible. Exhale very slowly.
• Anuloma Viloma: This involves adopting the Vishnu Mudra. With your right hand, tuck your index and middle fingers into your nostrils while placing the thumb and other fingers on either side of your nostrils. Inhale through the left nostril while holding the right one closed with your thumb and count to four. Now close both nostrils and count to 16 before breathing out through the right nostril. Now repeat the exercise by inhaling through the right nostril and exhaling through the left.

Word Of Caution

It is important to note that many yoga practitioners warn against practicing yoga from the tenth through the fourteenth week of pregnancy since these are crucial times in development. Poses that put pressure on the abdomen and other difficult poses should not be done during advance stages of pregnancy. You do not have to do all these Asanas and remember not to push yourself on a pose. It is important to keep in mind, that if a particular yogic posture causes any discomfort, then it is advisable to stop it immediately. There are many prenatal yoga classes for pregnant women to exercise during pregnancy, which have trained yoga practitioners to help you. With the right technique and guidance, yoga can be beneficial in keeping the moms-to-be fit, while they get ready to welcome their new child.