Practicing yoga during my pregnancy

I started writing this blog a couple of weeks ago, then I got immersed in my 50hr Pregnancy Yoga Teacher training with Yogacampus, led by the amazing Uma Dinsmore Tuli and Lisa White.  

I’m glad my writing came to a pause, as it’s given me so much to think about, some of which I can share with you here.

To date I’ve not really spoken publicly about my pregnancy - in the first 3 months I took the typical British approach and I didn’t tell anyone, whilst I waited for my first scan. Then after that I shared our news with family and friends, as and when I saw them, my husband and I took our time to do this - it felt sacred and we didn’t want to rush or broadcast it on social media.

However, now that I’m almost in my third trimester, the final hurdle, I thought it would be a good time to share my experience of pregnancy so far, and some insights into continuing my yoga practice.

Please note, I am not a medical expert and the insights I am about to share are based on my own experience - every pregnancy is different, as well as every practitioner’s body.

Beginning my pregnancy journey...

When I found out I was pregnant I wasn’t sure whether I should be continuing my ‘normal’ yoga practice. I would typically practice an asana (physical) practice 4-5 times a week and had a relatively strong practice. Discovering your pregnant for a lot people (not all) is a magical moment and you want to protect yourself and your baby as much as you can, even from those early days.

I had read, and I checked with my GP, that if you already did something physical that you could continue e.g. run, cycle, practice yoga, but it also advised that you might want to rest the first 12 weeks.

I’ll admit, I didn’t rest or stop my practice, but what I did do was practice less and naturally I held back in class - not taking my body to the edge, which happened almost instinctively. Those first 16 weeks were tough at times. I had nausea every day, low blood pressure and quite bad headaches, with a 4 day work trip to Beijing, thrown in for good measure (at 5 weeks), my body felt all over the place and not like my own.

Although yoga isn’t just about the asana (physical) practice, (there’s meditation, yoga nidra, pranayama) my body is used to movement and when I don’t do an asana practice, I really notice the difference - I can feel quite stiff and suffer backache, which as I get further along my pregnancy is increasing.  

A lot of people would have thought I was crazy continuing my asana practice, but I actually found it helped me - breath is a powerful medicine, as I’m hoping to discover even more during my labour!

As soon as I stepped onto my mat and consciously connected with my breath I found that the nausea lifted and I felt so much better after. This might not be true for everyone, but for me it worked. I took child’s pose a lot more (especially if I felt a bit dizzy) and took my time coming up from any downward poses. I really just tuned into my body, which is the most important thing you can do. Because I’ve been practicing yoga for a long time and am trained as a yoga teacher, I might have a better understanding of my body than someone who is fairly new to the practice, but we all have the ability to tune in and listen to it.

To date I’ve still been going to Vinyasa Flow or Hatha classes and continuing to scale back my practice, by modifying to suit my growing bump. For me, as mentioned above, this came intuitively, but that might not be the case for everyone.

So, here are some tips for continuing a regular practice or maybe even starting a yoga practice during pregnancy.

DO:

• Speak to your GP before you continue your practice

• Breathe fully on both the inhale and the exhale

• Move slowly and gently - be kind to yourself

• Rest whenever you need to - remember that in yoga there should be no judgement

• Use props as much as you need to support your practice

• Practice postures that focus on the pelvis

• Practice yogic relaxation techniques: Meditation, Pranayama, Yoga Nidra

• Listen to your body

• Go to prenatal yoga when you feel ready or are advised - especially if you’re starting yoga for the first time

DON’T:

• Take up a general yoga class for the first time - go to prenatal instead

• Practice inverted postures

• Move quickly jumping from one pose to the next

• Overstretch

• Fold forwards if it feels uncomfortable - you’ll get to a point in your pregnancy when naturally you won’t be able to, because bump will be in the way!

• Lie on your front or overstretch in frontal postures like cow, cobra, upward facing dog

• Push your body

• Twist deeply

I continue to listen to my body and my movement is slowing down. In fact, following my training I feel comfortable now that I can practice a safe asana practice at home. I’ve also signed up to prenatal yoga classes, with the fab Kat King, which I’m really looking forward to.

There were many learnings from this recent teacher training that don’t just apply to pregnant women - there’s a lot to be said for all of us, to slow down and offer ourselves a delicious, nurturing practice. That’s what I fully intend to do - to continue to listen to my body and give myself and my baby the nourishing practice we both deserve.