Yoga’s meaning, union of body and mind, suggest its potential as a tool for birth preparation. In order to give herself the chance of a positive birth experience and outcome, a pregnant woman should focus on preparing both her body and her mind. Though there is no way to secure herself a particular birth experience, and an open mind is essential, preparation can increase the chance of a positive, even empowering, birth experience.

Labour can be physically demanding and yoga helps to improve flexibility and develop strength.Many of the yoga poses naturally help to align the spine, work with gravity and open the pelvis, all of which prove useful during labour. Furthermore, though active birth positions are not prescriptive, an exploration of different labour positions and the repetition of such positions over weeks help to ingrain them in the mind, making a woman more inclined to use them comfortably when the time arises.

During pregnancy, there are increasing demands made on the spine and the curves of back are exaggerated in response to an ever-increasing baby and belly. Gentle yoga positions help to ease tension and iron out the curves in the spine, bringing comfort to the pregnant woman no matter what trimester she is in. Yoga can also help to reduce tiredness, alleviate nausea and gently work to reduce back problems.

Yoga helps to settle the mind, and as such helps to quell fears and the tendency for self-consciousness, enabling a woman to lose herself to her birth experience. Midwives claim that they can tell when a woman has practiced a lot of yoga during her pregnancy; she tends to be calmer, more at ease with her body and aware of its potential for movement and opening, and more able to lose herself to the natural process of birth.

Breathing deeply and an awareness of the breath are integral to birth and to yoga, and regular yoga practice not only helps to deepen and broaden the breath but also helps to focus attention on our breathing and in particular on the exhalation and its capacity to release tension in the mind and the body. The ability and the consequent tendency to breathe through contractions is emphasised time and time again as one of the major benefits of having done yoga in pregnancy.

If you derive no other benefit from your yoga practice, focus on the breath will undoubtedly help during labour and increase your capacity to cope. 

Finally, a regular yoga session enables a pregnant mother to relax and enjoy some time focussing on her baby. The demands of work or older children can often mean that pregnancies fly by with little time to savour the experience or acknowledge the prospect of a new baby and all that it will entail. A designated hour and a half during the week (or more) to indulge yourself is well-deserved when doing nothing less than growing a baby!