Top 10 Tips for Practising Yoga in Pregnancy

by Claire Corcoran from Stretch it Yoga

If you are pregnant or planning to get pregnant you may have already heard that Yoga is a safe and beneficial practice at this time. Indeed, yoga is pretty much an ideal way to nourish your wellbeing during pregnancy. As well as the obvious physical benefits, a regular Yoga practice can reduce fear and anxiety around birth and motherhood and may help you to enjoy your pregnancy more. 

Many of the women that come to my pregnancy class have never done yoga before. If you are new to Yoga it’s a good idea to wait until the second trimester before beginning and I would recommend going straight into a prenatal yoga class. Remember it’s always a good idea to check with your doctor or midwife before beginning any new exercise regime.

If you have been practicing yoga consistently prior to finding out you were pregnant it is fine to continue if you feel up to it, however many women feel too tired or sick or worried in the first trimester and its best to listen to your body and your own intuition here. There is plenty of time to resume physical activity in the first trimester when your energy levels improve.

At this point, even if you are continuing on with your regular class or a home practice, it’s a good idea to start attending a specific pregnancy yoga class. There are extra benefits you cannot get in a regular yoga class, for example, birth preparation and support from other pregnant women.

As a Mum who practiced Yoga throughout her pregnancy and a Prenatal Yoga teacher with nearly 10 years experience, here are my top 10 tips for practicing Yoga in Pregnancy 

1. Just Breathe

Yoga is all about the breath and pregnancy yoga is no different in that respect. In my pregnancy yoga class the first thing we do is learn how to breathe properly. That might sound silly, after all breathing is something we do unconsciously every minute or every hour of every day – of course we know how to breathe properly – right? Wrong actually, most of us are doing it incorrectly! Poor posture, anxiety, stress and pregnancy itself can lead to incorrect breathing habits. Once we nail breathing properly, we can begin to utilise the breath to help soothe the nervous system, creating a greater sense of calmness, promoting the production of pain killing endorphins and keep the body from tensing up too much. If you attend a prenatal class throughout the second and third trimester, by the time you enter the labour ward – you will be an expert at using your breath as a tool to help you birth your baby

2. Use lots of props and make plenty of space for your baby

Your body is undergoing so many changes as your baby grows and movements that used to be easy can become much more difficult. Props are an amazing way to help you feel more comfortable in yoga class. In my class we use birth balls, blocks, straps, bolsters, cushions and blankets and even the wall as props. Some classes will supply props and others will ask you to bring your own. Either way it is completely, 100% worth any extra time and effort. Using props properly will help you feel more steady, more spacious, more comfortable and able to get a deeper stretch and strengthen safely and effectively.

3. Be aware of changes in your centre of gravity and your balance and be ready to adjust accordingly

This one is related to the last one. Generally the larger your belly gets, the more your centre of gravity will change and the more this effects your balance. It is wise to make adjustments to accommodate. As the trimesters progress you may find a wider then hips stance in mountain pose provides a more solid base. Balance poses should be practiced near a wall or modified accordingly – for example you could move your foot from your upper leg to your lower leg in Tree Pose. Even poses that are not usually associated with balance may feel more wobbly so it may feel better to shorten your stance in poses such as warrior poses and triangle pose. 

5. Keep it cool

During early pregnancy your basal body temperature increases. Later on in the pregnancy your core body temperature can be more susceptible to outside influence and it can be easier to over-heat. Doctors recommend taking care to discourage too much of a rise in core body temp. If you are attending a regular class that gets crowded arrive early so you can pick a spot that is closer to the door or window. I would caution against doing hotter, sweatier kinds of classes, especially in heated rooms. If you feel yourself getting over-heated take a break and drink some water. Don’t be afraid to ask the teacher to open a window as she/he might not be feeling as hot so may not realise. This is another reason why a pregnancy yoga class is a good idea – you will move more slowly and not be asked to do anything that causes too much heat in the body.

6. Minimise lying on your back

The main reason for cautioning pregnant women from lying on their back is because of the potential to compress the interior vena cava, which is a major vein leading from the uterus back to your heart. However If this is happening you will start to feel dizzy and light headed. If this does happen just roll over onto your left side (blood flow is optimal on this side), wait for any dizziness to pass and slowly sit up when you feel ready. Most pregnancy yoga classes will avoid supine (back lying) positions or spend very little time on the back which is another good reason to attend one!

7. Avoid deep, closed twists

If you are someone who has practiced a lot of yoga, you are probably aware of how beneficial twists are and how nice they feel. However, all closed deep twists are contraindicated in pregnancy ESPECIALLY in the first, most delicate trimester. There are a couple of very good reasons for this. The first is that closed twisting (which includes poses like Lord of the Fishes Pose, Chair pose twist or revolved Lunge Twist) involves deep compression of the abdomen which can cause strain to the abdominal muscles and restrict the blood flow. The second reason is that deep twisting can cause strain to the sacroiliac joints at the back of the pelvis which can become more unstable as your ligaments get stretchier and also in the spine. 

But that doesn’t mean you cannot do any twists. Gentle open twists are fine and actually beneficial as they keep the spine mobile and help release tension in the back. The trick is to keep the twist nice and open in the abdominal area and focus on mobilising the mid and upper spine – where we all tend to be less flexible anyway – especially during pregnancy.

8. Avoid laying on your belly after the first trimester

It is recommended to avoid prone poses (poses that require you to lay on your belly) in the second and third trimester – they are generally uncomfortable anyway so it is pretty intuitive. Some people are happy to do them in the first trimester and they are considered safe so if you have been practicing prone poses before you found out you were pregnant please do not worry. However many prefer not to practice these poses once they know they are pregnant as it can feel uncomfortable and intuitively it can feel wrong to put pressure on the lower abdomen in this most delicate trimester. 

Poses like crow pose are out as well because of the abdominal pressure.

In general, avoid poses that involve very forceful engagement and/or a lot of pressure on the abdominal muscles – so this applies to intense core work as well. Gentler core work like pelvic tilts for example are not only safe they are very good for the health of your core and pelvic floor muscles during and after pregnancy. We include many different types of pelvic tilts in prenatal yoga class.

9.      Move slowly – especially when transitioning in and out of poses

Again – another simple straight forward one. Believe it or not most yoga injuries happen in the transitioning, even in regular classes and with pregnancy the chances of injury increase. Any pregnant Mamma will relate to the feeling of making a movement that was too sudden and feeling a sudden pain somewhere as a result. Slowing down is the key. For this reason faster paced yoga styles are not (in my opinion) a good idea. A prenatal yoga class will give you tips on how best to transition from the floor to standing and vice versa and will give you ample time to transition comfortably from one pose to the next.

10.      To invert or not to invert?

A Yoga inversion is technically any pose that brings the heart down lower than the head. So that includes gentler inversions like puppy dog pose, standing forward bends, legs up the wall and downward dog. All of these poses are considered safe in pregnancy and I include modified versions of them all of them in my pregnancy yoga classes

So are more intense inversions like headstand, handstand, forearm stand and shoulderstand safe and beneficial in pregnancy. If you have been practicing inversions long before you were pregnant and feel comfortable continuing with them, this should not be a problem, although I would recommend checking with your doctor and moving your mat next to a wall for safety. Pregnancy is definitely not the time start doing inversions – for the same reasons that you might be advised not to take up roller-skating or skiing! For this reason I would never teach these kinds of inversions in prenatal yoga.

If you are practicing inversions in the third trimester and your baby turns from breech to head down please stop inverting at that point as a precaution to encourage your baby to stay head down.

Trust your body

Hopefully these tips may have cleared up some questions or concerns you may have about practicing yoga in pregnancy. Of course the most important thing is to trust your body and your own intuition. If something doesn’t feel right then think about how it might be modified to suit your changing body or simply drop it from your practice altogether.

Remember you are your own best guide and the Yoga is there to serve you and your baby, not the other way around.

If you have any further questions please feel free to get in touch. My website is www.stretchityoga.ie and my email address is Claire@stretchitoyoga.ie. I teach Pregnancy Yoga in Sutton, Dublin 13.