Today’s women are strong – at work, at home and in the community. However, they are stretched and stressed and need a way to restore balance.
Yoga has long been shown to be a powerful tool for women to build strength and connect with each other. The right kind of yoga can also support a woman through the hormonal fluctuations of puberty, pregnancy and menopause.
Pre-conception
Women who are trying to conceive often have high stress levels. Fertility yoga can help to reduce that by calming the mind and body and creating a feeling of community amongst women who are going through similar experiences.
Yoga also helps to balance hormones, improving the chances of conceiving and increasing success rates with assisted fertility treatment. For example, one of the most helpful fertility yoga poses is supta baddha konasana (lower back, hip & groin stretch) – this pose improves pelvic flexibility and reduces the amount of stress in these areas by stretching out and strengthening the muscles. This increases blood flow to the ovaries and improves the chance of conception.
Pregnancy
Pregnancy yoga is a therapeutic and holistic intervention that is gaining popularity amongst women. A qualitative evidence synthesis (QES) of seven studies revealed a range of positive outcomes with pregnancy yoga for women, including improved stress levels and quality of life, autonomic nervous system functioning, and labour parameters such as pain, duration and birth weight.
Women also reported experiencing greater confidence in their ‘Intuitive Knowing’ and finding yoga helped them to create moments of genuine silence which enabled them to hear their own bodies and babies, increasing the sense of connectedness that they felt with both. The final analytical subtheme synthesised from the studies was ‘connection’, with 5 of the 7 reports emphasising that practising pregnancy yoga increased baby bonding and connection. This is an important finding for maternity services.
Birth
In the final stages of pregnancy, yoga can help to rebuild a woman’s physical and emotional strength and energy and can offer space to connect with her baby. However, a woman’s experiences with pregnancy yoga can vary significantly depending on whether she is attending classes or practising at home.
Women who attended a regular class were more likely to report feeling stressed or sad than those who did not attend classes. They were also more likely to report having birthed their most recent baby in a hospital or other clinical setting.
Seven studies involving 92 pregnant women were included in this qualitative systematic review. Three key synthesised themes emerged: Equilibrium; Personal Autonomy in Healthcare; and Connection. The studies varied in methodological quality but all reported that pregnant women perceived their pregnancy yoga as an important component of holistic antenatal care.
Motherhood
Motherhood can be a challenging yet deeply rewarding experience. Suddenly, your life and personal time are no longer your own; it’s all about the tiny human you love so dearly. Motherhood is the ultimate yoga practice; it demands everything of you, from compassion and empathy to strength and determination.
A number of studies have shown that pregnant women who do regular yoga have a lower risk of needing to have a cesarean section (CS). In one study, mothers who did regular yoga had more natural deliveries than the control group, which was statistically significant. The practice of a regular yoga regimen can also help to reduce a woman’s fear of childbirth, and improve her self-efficacy in the event of a CS. [24]
Menopause
Menopause may bring about new symptoms, including hot flashes, sleeplessness, mood swings and abdominal pain. Yoga’s soothing poses and deep breathing techniques are linked to a reduction in these undesirable side effects.
The same hormonal fluctuations that occur during puberty and pregnancy can also cause women to lose their train of thought and feel a sense of mental fogginess. Studies show that yoga and other mind-body activities are effective in overcoming these feelings of irritability, anxiety and depression.
If you’re looking for an extra boost to help with menopausal symptoms, join a group class or work one-on-one with a yoga therapist who can use therapeutic methods of yoga to help your specific needs. This will offer more long-term relief and holistic care. The benefits of yoga are cumulative, so it’s important to make a commitment to your practice.