Can fertility yoga help you get pregnant?

Can fertility yoga help you get pregnant? I get asked this all the time. But first, I have a confession to make. 3 years ago I didn’t really ‘get’ fertility yoga. At the time (this was before my own fertility struggles). I was into a strong vinyasa practice and couldn’t really understand why anyone would want to do the slow, gentle, seemingly boring practice that was fertility yoga. 

Jokes on me though. At the time I was also highly anxious without even knowing that was what I was feeling. Back then the restorative style that fertility yoga offers was exactly the thing I needed. (Though it would take three losses and a whole lot of work unravelling my anxiety to realise that.)

Now it all seems so obvious.

Of course slowing down and supporting your nervous system helps your fertility.

Of course balancing out a stressful life with a slower practice is ideal when you’re struggling to conceive.

Of course, understanding the energy of your cycle and adjusting your practice to suit makes sense.

Of course fertility needs balance in the body for it to work.

Just like the natural world that needs the right amount of water and light and nutrients for anything to grow, our bodies need the same. Except we’ve forgotten that our bodies are a part of the natural world. Instead, we ask them to run on little sleep, foods that lack real nutrients and instead of feeling good from doing things we love – we spend much of our day doing work that leaves us feeling highly stressed. 

And then we wonder why our body isn’t able to grow a baby. 

How fertility yoga can help you get pregnant

Make good lifestyle choices

Fertility yoga was the catalyst for me to start treating my body and myself in a new way. The act of slowing down on my mat, meant I started to have the mental space to question other choices I was making in my life as well. It meant I brought my nervous system down from the anxiety high I’d been running on, so that I could finally notice the things that sent me sky-rocketing back up. I.e caffeine, certain people and situations, types of work etc

Tune into body and cycles

Fertility yoga helped me tune into the natural rhythms of my own body and I started seeing my practice as a way to balance out my life through different stages and energies (For example I started resting more when I had my period to balance out the extra energy that is lost when bleeding. Then I would do a stronger practice during more energetic stages of my cycle or if I’d had a really quiet day without much movement to help enhance circulation and give me an energy boost.

Helps Balance hormones

After my three losses my hormones were all out of whack. For a while there my cycle was all over the place and when I was really anxious the stress tended to make my cycle so long. (Anyone who is trying to conceive knows how frustrating this can be. Less cycles per year = less chances of conceiving). Restorative yoga helped to calm the stress and my cycle returned to a regular 28 -30 day pattern.

Relaxes nervous system / relieves stress

It feels somewhat ironic that infertility causes stress and yet stress also causes infertility. If you’ve ever been trapped in this negative cycle you’ll know it’s a really hard one to get out of. I tried tricking myself into getting out of it by pretending that I was going to have a break (because everyone says as soon as you stop thinking about it so much you’ll fall pregnant) but the body always knows. It wasn’t until I took a REAL break and realised how to use my yoga tools to manage the stress of trying to conceive that I was able to calm my nervous system down to successfully conceive and carry another healthy pregnancy.

Improves circulation to reproductive organs

Compressing and releasing parts of the body in yoga helps to hold and flush the flow of blood to certain areas. You could think of it like when you squeeze a sponge to empty it of water and then when you let go it fills back up again. Our body works in the same way. If you press and hold a certain area you cut off the blood supply and it empties. When you release, it fills back up with a fresh supply of oxygen rich blood. 

Movement in fertility yoga focuses on compressing and releasing the womb and ovaries, improving blood circulation and energy flow around the hips specifically but also the whole body. Rather than taking a narrow approach of only focusing on the health of the reproductive system we instead take the view that for optimum fertility the whole body must be in the best health possible.

Okay I could literally spout the benefits of fertility yoga all day but I fear I may bore you. How about you just get into a fertility yoga practice and try it out for yourself. Try this full length fertility yoga for beginners below or if you’d like classes that are tailored specifically for the stages of your menstrual cycle you might like to check out my fertility yoga course here.

If you’re brand new to fertility yoga you might like to download my free fertility yoga guide before you get started.