Pregnancy anxiety - can yoga during pregnancy really help?

They say pregnancy is magical. But for a lot of women, pregnancy is also a time of stress and anxiety. This is most common with first pregnancies, when everything feels unknown or different, or when your journey to get to this pregnancy has been a long and difficult one, maybe with fertility treatment and/losses along the way. Not to mention being pregnant in unprecedented pandemic times, with the unknowns, the isolation and in some cases, the prospect of antenatal appointments and giving birth without a birth partner that it brings.

Among the many benefits of yoga, its effects on reducing stress and anxiety are the most known, praised and scientifically proven.

So, if you’re suffering from pregnancy anxiety, how can practicing yoga during pregnancy concretely help you?

1/ Focus your mind

When we are anxious, we can feel flighty and caught in the whirlwind of our mind, trapped in our worrying thoughts about what might happen in the future or something that might have happened in the past. Yoga during pregnancy, with practices such as breathing awareness, balances or other more challenging poses, and mindful movement, is an effective way to focus the mind on the present moment and sensations in the body, effectively taking our awareness away from our thoughts and giving our mind a little break.

2/ Calm the nervous system

Pregnancy yoga offers a variety of easy tools to help soothe the nervous system and come back to a calmer state. Many breathing practices explored in pregnancy yoga aim to lengthen the exhalation, which triggers the body’s natural relaxation response, lowering blood pressure and triggering the release of endorphins. These techniques are great to help you find and enjoy better sleep, which is easily perturbed by stress and anxiety.

3 / Uplift and energise

Anxiety can often lead us to a state of ‘freeze’, where we don’t feel like moving our bodies at all. If you’ve experienced a miscarriage, the idea of practising yoga, or any form of exercise, can initially cause more worry about possibly doing something that would cause another loss. However, there is no evidence that any form of movement can cause early loss. Quite the opposite, actually: movement triggers the release of endorphins, our feel-good hormones, helping to uplift our spirits and find more energy. Movement is also an effective way to release tension in the body, helping us find more ease in the mind too. To reassure you, always choose a teacher who is fully trained in pregnancy practice.

4/ Build resilience

With some demanding (but safe) physical postures, visualisations and the use of  'mantra' (positive affirmations), pregnancy yoga offers an effective way to explore and build up your inner (mental) and outer (physical) strength, which you can tap into at difficult times and help you feel ready to face any challenges that comes your way.  It’s worth noting however that pregnancy is not the time to explore or push your boundaries; always listen to your body and rest as soon as you need.

5/ Feel more connected with your baby

Anxiety during pregnancy most often relates to our baby and whether they are ok. This is most common in the first trimester or until we finally experience the joy of regular baby movements, and in pregnancy after loss. One of the main differences between a regular yoga class and a pregnancy yoga class is that the latter offers specific practices that promote feelings of connection with your unborn baby: through breathing practices, sounds, visualisations or regular reference to your baby throughout the practice.

If you’re experiencing anxiety or anxious feelings in your pregnancy, my brand-new pregnancy yoga online course ‘Pregnant in Anxious Times’ can help you feel more relaxed, resilient, positive and connected to your baby, for a calmer, more enjoyable pregnancy, even if you have no yoga experience.  Click here now to find out more and get unlimited access.