For most of us, it’s a common occurrence: Mild to moderate stress. But for mothers expecting their first child, stress can sometimes be a daily occurrence, thanks to concerns such as delivering a healthy baby, avoiding gestational diabetes, or even trying to stay financially afloat after giving birth.
But now researchers say there may be a way to nip these common stressors in the bud–by doing yoga.
This research now study appears in the health journal Depression and Anxiety.
“There is a growing body of evidence that maternal antenatal anxiety may increase the risk of preterm delivery and the likelihood of giving birth to a low birth weight child,” says James Newham, a Ph.D. student at Tommy’s Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre at the University of Manchester in the UK, who helped research the study. “If we can reduce these risk factors, and perhaps reduce the rate of postnatal mood disorders in mothers and negative health outcomes in their offspring, then that can only be a good thing.”
Yoga oftentimes is an exercise recommended specifically for pregnant women as it’s safe to do during nearly all three trimesters. In turn, anecdotal evidence suggests it calms down people and acts as a stress reliever–though it’s never been proven to work in pregnant women. Newham decided to see if yoga had the same stress-relieving effects, conducting his own experiment.
First, he recruited 59 women who were pregnant with their first child, and then split them into two groups: Those undergoing a weekly yoga session for 8 weeks, and those who received standard prenatal treatment.
“It is surprising this has never been looked at before,” says Newham. “We have long believed that it works but no research had been done to back up the theory.”
Then he asked both groups of women to self-report how they felt emotionally during the eight weeks–and found that his hypothesis was correct. For those who took part in the weekly yoga fitness session, their self-reported levels of anxiety and stress decreased by 14 percent. Better yet, these effects kicked in after just one session.
For John Aplin, co-investigator of the study, he says these results just confirm what scientists have guessed all along.
“The results confirm what many who take part in yoga have suspected for a long time,” says Aplin. “There is also evidence yoga can reduce the need for pain relief during birth and the likelihood for delivery by emergency cesarean section. Perhaps we should be looking at providing yoga classes on the [British National Health Service]. It would be relatively cheap to implement, could help mothers and their children be healthier, as well as reducing the costs of longer term health care.”
What You Should Do
So the evidence is clear: Just one yoga session could get rid of stress and anxiety in a snap. If you’re pregnant, or planning to become pregnant, consider adding this to your workout just one day a week to get rid of stress and anxiety–just make sure to get the OK first from your local healthcare provider first.
Readers: Do you do yoga? What sort of yoga do you do?
Study: Yoga May Reduce Stress, Anxiety in Pregnant Women – MedicalNewsToday.com
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