During pregnancy your emotions can swing from one extreme to another.
The breath reflects your mental state, but it can also anchor and support you. Yoga increases awareness and control of breathing, so if you notice that your breath has become shallow because you are stressed, you can use it to bring yourself back into balance. The breath is something you can’t leave behind, even if you forget your hospital bag. And if labour starts before you’ve had time to pack, you will still have your main tool with you – so use it!
Gently deepening and slowing the breath and keeping it moving calmly through your body will act as a needle, stitching movement to movement, enriching you and your baby’s life-support systems and connecting your physical being with your emotional and spiritual self. Breathing well, and feeling the mind and body responding, can remind us that we are responsible for the way in which we take care of ourselves, but also that we have to let go and trust nature to do the rest.
Learning the simple technique of allowing your breath to flow freely can assist both you and your baby on a number of levels throughout pregnancy as well as during labour and birth. Breathing in a calm, fluid, steady way helps you to move through life in a similar fashion, whereas restricted breath can lead to feelings of being stuck and unable to move forward. the state of your breathing has an impact on and is reflected in every area of life – from your level of confidence and the way you hold yourself to how you relate to others and manage everyday matters.
With yoga we can learn to breathe more deeply, naturally and without effort, and so encourage the vital capacity of the lungs. The quality of our inhalation affects our openness to receive love and joy, to feel fulfilled and to be as comfortable with receiving as with giving. The quality of our exhalation helps us to let go of emotional and physical tensions. We learn to use our breath to tune in to ourselves at a profound level and to find an infinite source of inner support that we can draw on throughout pregnancy and when giving birth.
Inhalation and exhalation can affect your physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual states, as well as your baby’s wellbeing. At its very basic level, breathing sustains the essential biological functions of you and your baby. With an awareness of your breathing you can also directly influence your state of mind and reduce stress throughout pregnancy and while giving birth. The breath can become a tool for you to draw on in any situation to regain a feeling of equilibrium and nurture yourself and your developing child.
In our frantic modern lives we are bombarded with external stimuli saturating the senses. Coming back to the simplicity of the breath helps to calm the mind and allows you to find your own natural rhythm. During pregnancy and birth your senses and emotions are naturally heightened, allowing you to tune in to the inner world of your mind and body more easily. This gift of awareness is also helpful during labour as you become fully attuned to your contractions and your breath in order to facilitate your baby’s birth. The shift in focus from the frantic concerns of the world to something that is so simple and basic is a relaxing meditation at your disposal whenever you need it.
If you’re interested in taking some pregnancy Yoga classes from the comfort of your own home, check out my online studio.
