3 yoga skills every pregnant woman should learn

Yoga has helped me so much throughout all of my pregnancies (and births) that I’m not even sure where to start.

But if I had to narrow it down these three yoga skills are what I think every pregnant woman should learn.

3 yoga skills every pregnant woman should learn

Breath

Yoga teachers us how to use what we call Ujjayi breath.  This just means that we create a sound on the exhale by gently constricting the throat.  How is this helpful you ask?  When shit gets real during labour and you start feeling like you want to escape your own body – having this sound to focus on is a way to calm down and not fall into stress breathing (short sharp chest breaths).

Mula Bandha 

The Mula Bandha or root lock helps you to connect your brain to your pelvic floor (possibly something you’ve never even tried to do before. This is important not only in pregnancy when you need to keep this area strong, but also during birth when you need to be able to actively relax to let the baby pass through.

Meditation

Above all else meditation gives us the skills to know how to relax our bodies when life around us feels stressful.  This is exactly what you need to be able to do when your birth becomes stressful or your contractions feel too hard to manage.

My first experience of birth wasn’t the greatest, but my second and third were the most empowering experiences of my life. I share all these yoga tools that helped me in my birth education course ‘Yoga Wisdom for birth’. 

It includes everything you need to educate yourself on how your body works and know how to work with it and the medical system. You can access the whole course via my Online Yoga Circle with a free 30 day trial.  Or if you prefer to read you can purchase the ebook version here.

The Online Yoga Circle is also full of yoga classes for all stages of pregnancy.