Yoga Day 2021: Why yoga is important for both infertile and pregnant women

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Yoga is used to treat a wide range of immunological, neuromuscular, psychological, and pain-related issues. It helps enhance pregnancy, labor, and delivery outcomes, according to recent research. Stress levels, quality of life, infertility, autonomic nervous system functioning, and labor parameters such as comfort, discomfort, and length may all benefit from yoga.

This is the reason why Yoga is a doctor-recommended practice for a better pregnancy. While Yoga helps you in various ways during your pregnancy, it also has a long-term effect on your overall health to recover from post-pregnancy problems as well. 

Here are few reasons why you must consider practicing Yoga during pregnancy

Reduces stress levels

Pregnancy is a situation in which women experience significant physiological and psychological changes, as well as specific physical and psychological demands. Managing the many physical, emotional, mental, and pain states that emerge throughout pregnancy and labor is necessary. During pregnancy, maternal stress and anxiety are linked to a slew of unfavorable outcomes for the fetus and its development. For example, prenatal exposure to maternal stress and stress-related peptides is linked to negative consequences in fetuses, babies, and children's nervous system programming and brain morphology. Hence, practicing Yoga is extremely important to relieve stress. You can practice the following asanas-

• Marjariasna (Cat Stretch)
• Konasana (Standing sideways, bend an arm or both hands)
• Veerbhadrasana (Warrior Pose)
• Shavasana (Corpse Pose)

Helps in reducing labor pain

Research has suggested that Yoga is a simple-to-learn mind-body medicine and complementary health practice that can help with labor pain relief and perhaps ease out the delivery process. Some yoga poses that must be a part of your daily routine include-

• The half butterfly pose
• Goddess pose
• Hip rotation

Helps in easy labor

If you want to have unmedicated labor, you can practice yoga poses that can be done during your labor. Many women do not want to have a C-section baby, but undergoing labor hours may be extremely painful. To ease this process, you can practice some pelvic-floor focused Yoga poses such as-

• Malasana (Yoga Squats)
• Supta Baddha Konasana
• Kegels in Supta Baddha Konasana

Yoga for Infertility

Yoga has been found to be beneficial to women who are receiving reproductive treatments. According to a study of 87 research on yoga, daily yoga practice can help women who are undergoing reproductive treatments. As a result, several fertility clinics are now offering "fertility yoga" as part of their services.

Yoga has been known to improve the blood flow to the uterus and ovaries, strengthen and stretch the back muscles and helps in flushing out toxins from the body. It is also known to relieve stress and anxiety.

Few Asanas known to help in this are:

• Seated forward bend- Paschimottasana
• Standing forward bend- Hastapadasana
• One-legged forward bend- Janu Shirasasana
• Butterfly pose- Baddha Konasana
• Legs upward the wall pose-Viparita Karni

Yoga is an ancient gift to us. It is time we conduct larger studies of the benefits of yoga and pass the benefits to pregnant women and those having difficulty in conceiving.

(This article is attributed to Dr. Kaberi Banerjee - an IVF Specialist)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of India TV)