During both pregnancies, finding ways to get moving that were both safe and satisfying was a challenge. I love exercise and I try to stay fit, but like all mothers the health of my children was going to come first. In the end, what made the most sense for me was practicing yoga. I loved how positions could be tailored to the different stages of pregnancy and the added benefit of doing it from home in the later months meant I never missed my “practice.”

Postnatal yoga was a pleasant surprise, too – gaining abdominal strength and loosening tight neck and back muscles from breastfeeding was a big bonus. Little did I know how scientifically proven the benefits of yoga are on childbirth, as Debra Flashenberg’s article points out here. And she should know! Debra is the director of Prenatal Yoga Center, a veritable institution for expectant NYC families, and as a doula herself, she has witnessed countless benefits to new moms who turn to yoga like I did during pregnancy. Namaste, indeed.

-Tracey Frost Rensky, CEO and Co-founder, Citibabes

I am a bit of a self proclaimed geek! I love to examine studies and findings that are related to childbirth education and prenatal yoga. I spend countless hours reading Medscape, childbirth blogs, and Midwifery Today. A few years ago the Journal of Perinatal Education published a study from the Department of Obstetric Gynecological Nursing and Midwifery out of Prince of Songkla University titled  “Yoga during pregnancy: effects on maternal comfort, labor pain and birth outcomes.” I have seen first hand how the tremendous benefits of yoga aid my prenatal yoga students and doula clients during their labor and delivery. You can only imagine how delighted I was to see it substantiated and supported by science.

The study followed two groups of women: one that did not practice yoga and one that attended a series of six 1-hour yoga classes every two weeks in the final trimester. In brief, the study provides evidence that regular yoga practice in the last 10-12 weeks of pregnancy improves maternal comfort in labor and may facilitate labor progress. The “yoga” group experienced approximately a 2 ½ hours shorter first stage of labor then the “non-yoga” control group. So what is it about yoga that was helping these laboring moms? The researches have three theories.

First, yoga involves synchronization of breathing awareness and muscle relaxation which decrease tension and the perception of pain.

Yoga can certainly offer the practitioner both physical and emotional challenges. From personal experience, I have often found solace by using my breath to get through certain yoga poses. By focusing on the exhalation of the breath, I was able to relax my muscles (and my mind!) and soften into the yoga pose, which allowed me to surrender to the natural tightness my body was feeling. The same idea can be applied to labor contractions. In class, the expectant mother is faced with some challenging yoga poses and is asked to use her breath as a comfort technique. When it comes time for labor, the yoga mama has already established a correlation between breathing and relaxation, and can move more easily through the sensations.

Second, yoga movements, breathing, and chanting may increase circulating endorphins and serotonin, “raising the threshold of mind-body relationship to pain.”

When endorphins are released into the blood stream, not only does one experience a “natural high,” but discomfort is not perceived as intensely and the threshold of pain is pushed higher. A few years ago, I attended my friend’s (Liz) birth of her second child.  She described the endorphin rush of labor as “I was in such a bizarre zone of pain and power and determination and anticipation. From that point on I was on a level that I can only compare to a psychedelic drug experience *I feel funny using that analogy, and I apologize if it’s not appropriate, but I have been searching for a way to describe how I felt, and that is truly the only thing that compares.*” Liz was literally “breathing through the pain” and was letting her body’s natural pain response take her to a new level of consciousness- a technique often explored through the “mock contraction” exercise in prenatal yoga classes.

Third, practicing yoga postures over time alters pain pathways through the parasympathetic nervous system, decreasing one’s need to actively respond to unpleasant physical sensations. 

From a physiological point, deep-belly breathing (which is what we do in yoga class) promotes the function of the parasympathetic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is divided into two parts: the sympathetic nervous system (the fight-or-flight response), and the parasympathetic nervous system (the rest-and-relax response). The body responds to the parasympathetic nervous system by slowing the heart rate and decreasing blood pressure while increasing the release of endorphins. This can be translated into: Yoga Reduces Stress!  If the Mother is less stressed, the baby will be less stressed.

As a side note: while the study did not explore this idea, I would like to add, that many of the yoga poses- like all four positions (cat/cow and body circles) hip circles and gentle hip openers- we practice in prenatal yoga can directly be incorporated into labor and delivery. Movement during labor facilitates a quicker, less painful labor by relaxing the body and also helping the baby into an optimal fetal position. When the laboring mother is stuck sitting or lying still, not only is she going to perceive the pain more intensely, but she is not helping baby move around the pelvis to find the easiest “fit” through the pelvic outlet and birth canal.

It would be irresponsible of me to rely on only this study and my own experience to proclaim and promise that just because an expectant mother steps on the yoga mat, she is guaranteed a better, quicker labor than someone that has not. However, I DO feel confident in saying that just by participating in class, the pregnant mom is arming herself with coping skills and confidence for whatever lies ahead.

By Debra Flashenberg CD(DONA), LCCE and CitiScoop‘s Support Doula and Prenatal Yoga Expert

Deb Flashenberg is the director of Prenatal Yoga Center (251 W. 72^nd Street, 2F, New York, NY). To learn more about the Prenatal Yoga center, please visit their website or call 212.362.2985.

Be Sociable, Share!

•