How Yoga Helped Me Embrace Pregnancy
10 key benefits I experienced from yoga practice during my pregnancy (they're not what you think)
What yoga practice has helped you most in your pregnancy? Please share your advice in the comments!
Yoga is not “for” anything. Yoga is yoga. Yoga for Pregnancy, Yoga for Back Pain, Yoga for Runners, Yoga for Anxiety, Yoga for Golfers, Yoga for Cancer, and Yoga for Athletes has nothing to do with Yoga and everything to do with late-stage capitalist strategic marketing. The fact that yoga can be beneficial for both cancer patients and athletes is a testament to its power. While specific poses, breath practices, mantra, meditations, mudras, and teachings shared in a Yoga for Cancer class may be different than those shared in a Yoga for Athletes class, the same class could be taught to both groups and they’d all benefit.
As a modern millennial feminist, I studied PR in college and worked in a corporate yoga studio marketing department. I understand the benefits of niching down. But I also understand the benefits of contemplating Yoga Sutra 1.51:
“And yet, there is still one more level of samadhi. It is the Pure Samadhi that requires no object of concentration. It is achieved when you are able to integrate the state of true wisdom that comes about as a result of achieving the state of mind called yoga. Then, only the True Self remains.”
~Patanjali
Yoga is about meeting your True Self. Yet here I am writing a publication called Yoga for Women’s Wellbeing. I sat with the title for a long time and compromised by eliminating “yoga for” in the url womenswellbeing.substack.com.
Yoga and pregnancy
In an effort to support women as they move through their natural transitions (my niche), I do publish posts with insights as to how yoga practices might support fertility journeys, perimenopause, menstrual pain, and other life events specific to a woman’s journey. But I also know the practices I share can be helpful to anyone, anywhere, whether or not they have a womb.
That is why I was hesitant to write a piece called “Yoga for Pregnant Women.” There is no one pose good for pregnant women, no magical breath practice only pregnant women will benefit from. The wisdom, as it always has been, is listen to what feels right in your body.
Yoga is beneficial during pregnancy. I’ll always remember one pregnant student who came to my 9:30am Flow class every Tuesday right up until 36 weeks. It wasn’t a prenatal-specific class—I never changed my planned sequences for the week except to make tiny modifications I knew would benefit her body. I taught the modifications to the whole class. The students in the class—all ages, abilities, and genders—were none the wiser they were practicing “prenatal yoga.” Yoga is yoga.
Here’s a little secret. I felt totally disconnected from yoga in my first two pregnancies, and that made me feel like a fraud. How can the full-time yoga teacher not do yoga during pregnancy!? 🫢. Yoga poses did not feel good in my body. However, yoga practice has helped me immensely in my current pregnancy journey. Rather than telling you what 10 prenatal yoga poses you should do because SEO rewards click-bait and culture is obsessed with the physical (there is no such thing as a prenatal yoga pose, BTW), I want to share how yoga practice generally has helped me throughout this pregnancy. I had to shift my mindset to figure out how yoga could best support me this time around and I’m so glad I did. I hope you feel empowered to explore how yoga practice may help you embrace wherever you are on your life path.
10 ways yoga benefitted me during pregnancy
Yoga poses don’t always feel good in my body when I’m pregnant. I tend toward hyper-mobility; the added relaxin coursing through my body during pregnancy makes me feel unstable. Stretching is not my friend. Squats, sometimes supported with props, and standing postures that build strength have helped me relieve pelvic girdle pain and joint discomfort. Have you done the 7-day Squat challenge?
In the first trimester, I did not “practice yoga.” I chose to practice letting go, resting, and listening to my body instead—all essential yoga philosophy lessons.
Breath work has been the most useful labor prep. Golden Thread Breath and Ujjayi are my trusty go-to’s.
Yoga nidra helps me access a deep inner peace and restores calm to my anxiety-prone mind. It also invites me to start developing a special connection with my baby.
Restorative postures feel supportive and nourishing when I’m tired. Queen’s Chair is my favorite.
Setting Sankalpa reminds me to come back to what matters most. Checking in with my sankalpa daily, monthly, and seasonally keeps me focused, aligned, and clear despite whatever chaos may be unfolding in my life.
I’ll be experimenting with a modified mula bandha practice (garbha mula bandha) to cultivate apana energy while also supporting my pelvic floor muscles as I move into the last few weeks of my pregnancy. This subtle practice is outlined in Uma Dinsmore Tuli’s book Yoni Shakti (475). In all three of my pregnancies I’ve tried to assist baby on the way out by cultivating downward-flowing energy.
Reading yoga philosophy brings me joy, allows me to inhabit my own space, and is a way for me to make time for my own interests.
Presence helps me savor these last weeks with my kids before we become a family of 5.
Sangha (community) keeps me motivated. You are my motivation for showing up even when it’s easier to doom-scroll IG instead. Staying connected keeps my mind engaged and my thoughts positive. Thank you for being part of my journey and practice!
How did yoga help you (or not) in your pregnancy?
What yoga practice has helped you most in your pregnancy? Please share your advice in the comments below!
Not pregnant? Please forward this post to someone in your life who is!
What’s your wellbeing worth?
You can get yoga practices anywhere. Yoga for Women’s Wellbeing is the only place where the content is designed specifically to hold space for women moving through the natural transitions of life. If you’re at the beginning of your mothering journey, entering perimenopause or menopause, about to become an empty-nester, caring for elderly parents (and possibly young kiddos too), you’re in transition and it’s completely natural. This space provides support and inspiration for you during your messy moments and reminds you weekly that you are enough as you are. You are going to be okay. It will get better. If you need a weekly boost, plus occasional practices to help you get out of your head and into your body, then this community is for you.
Ashley, I can’t agree with you more about the “for” part! Yes, yoga is yoga. Maybe that is why I instinctively preferred calling my course “the yoga of creative writing” , instead of “yoga for creative writing?” Hmm. I don’t know. As for yoga during pregnancy, the best thing this time has taught me is to listen to my body and avoid pushing myself into a pose that didn’t feel right. Before pregnancy I had way more ego. During pregnancy I had to consider another human being growing inside me, so I was “forced” to be kind to myself. Ahimsa and Satya have become an inseparable part of my practice. Much more important than an impressive yoga pose. But, I still laugh at my practice of controlled breath for giving birth. When the time came, I howled like an animal! :) good luck during this adventure!