European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

YOGA IN PREGNCY – THE GUIDE TO HEALTHY PREGNACY AND CHILDBIRTH

Dr. Aishwarya Kalyan Karande* and Dr. Ashwini N. Karandikar*

ABSTRACT

Motherhood is pleasant gift given to women. Pregnancy is a period in a lady life when she faces so many kinds of changes. It is an amazing time when she will experience both physical and emotional changes unexpected and surprising. The period of pregnancy is associated with maternal stress and host of negative consequences which might affect the fetal development. The fetal exposure to maternal stress and stress related peptides is a risk factor for adverse outcomes on the programming of the nervous system and brain morphology of fetuses, infants and children. Hence it is important to reduce stress and provide quality of life to expecting mother for healthy development of fetus. Yoga serves as an important entity in the reduction of negative symptoms associated with pregnancy and birth. The studies suggest that approximately 35% of women aged 28-33 years already practice yoga, it is important to evaluate its effects on the maternal experience of stress, anxiety, pain, discomfort, and other variables as well as on labor and birth outcome. Yoga practicing includes physical postures and breathing techniques which minimizes the complication of pregnancy, like pregnancy induced hypertension, intrauterine growth retardation and pre-term delivery etc. An approach to yoga in pregnancy can improve birth weight; decrease pre-term labour, decreased IUGR with least or no complications.

Keywords: Pregnancy, Yoga, Asanas, Pranayama, Birth weight, stress.