Benefit of Prenatal Yoga for Mum's Social and Spiritual Health

Yoga prepares Mums

Social health is an individual’s ability to communicate with others without conflict, to live in harmony with people and nature, whilst maintaining respect for the environment plus the creatures and others that live therein. The philosophy of Yoga encourages active engagement in sustaining social health in order to create a responsible and caring society for our children. We are reminded that we are all inter-connected beings and as such all share the same desire for peace, happiness and contentment in the world.

Spiritual health is about awakening to the essence of our human nature – our Soul or Self. This can be discovered during states of Deep Relaxation and Meditation when the mind is still, peaceful and calm. Unique to the Yoga in Daily Life system is the Self-Enquiry Meditation technique which is a tool to better understand ourselves and others, and to learn the purpose of our life. With spiritual health being the birthright of every human being it is essential for mothers to nurture this aspect of her life.

My personal testimonial supports this: “It was at my third trainee birth as a Doula and the birthing mother was a very vocal Russian lady determined to have a natural birth in the Birth Centre of RPA Sydney. At one stage she was checked for the third time and told she was just 5 cm dilated after 9 hours of labour - this caused her great stress. She yelled help at me so many times throughout these checks and I was wondering what I could do to help. This being only my third Doula experience I felt helpless and unsure. I sat quietly and patiently holding her hands and while she begged to God, I prayed to God too thinking “God what can I do?” and thanks to God it came to me. I just simply said Trust in yourself that you will be OK, all is OK”. I felt sure these words were for me as much as for her. Well a couple of hours later she was pushing her baby out, all natural birth. Weeks later in her testimonial to me, she said it was these exact words that had reassured her and given her the strength to go on.”

YOGA OFFERS SUPPORT FOR A NATURAL BIRTHING EXPERIENCE

Birthing mothers have found that many Yoga postures are quite natural for her body to position itself in during labour. The more familiar birthing mothers are with the Yoga and Breath techniques, the more easily she may use them to adapt to the different stages of birth. For example, using the ability to mentally and physically relax at will is very helpful in recovery between contractions.

Each mum-to-be will have her own unique experience during pregnancy and the birthing process.
During this special time in life, the practices of Yoga will provide nurturing support for her body, mind and soul.