What are the benefits of post natal yoga for mothers?

Mum and Baby yoga can provide a gentle environment to care for you as well as for baby.

Even if a woman were to have the most uncomplicated pregnancy and birth experience, the transition to motherhood is almost always a sharp upheaval of life’s fundamental pillars. “We still barely acknowledge the psychological and physiological significance of becoming a mother,” writes Lucy Jones in her book Matrescence. “How it affects the brain, the endocrine system, cognition, immunity, the psyche, the microbiome, the sense of self.” Women can often arrive on the other side of birth physically and mentally changed, with the societal expectation to just ‘get on with it.’ “When they have a baby, women are expected to transition with ease – to breeze into a completely new self, a new role, at one of the most perilous and sensitive times in the life course,” Jones goes on to add. These cultural expectations can have an isolating effect on new mothers; anxiety about being perceived as a ‘bad mother,’ fears around feeding in public, and lack of support from partners or family can contribute to a feeling of loss. A small qualitative study of first-time mothers in the UK found that all of the subjects had felt lonely in the transition to motherhood. 

Mum and Baby Yoga provides a safe space for women to come together and share worries or fears they may be having during this wonderful but challenging time. Simply providing an incentive for women to leave the house can be a step in the right direction. A study conducted in 2012 where a group of women received peer-support phone calls from the last three months of their pregnancies to two months postpartum found that peer-support significantly reduced the mean depression score compared to the control group, who only received routine care. This innate need to share, to be part of a group of new mothers, is an ancient instinct that can be linked to a primate cousin of ours: the Bonobo monkey. In her book Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage, Rachel Reed explains that “Bonobo birth is a social event, attended by a group of females who collectively protect and support the mother and welcome the newborn.” Being able to share experiences, normalise feelings and worries, and build a friendship group of women with babies of a similar age, is natural, instinctive, and a great benefit to women who have the opportunity to attend. 

Mum and Baby Yoga teaches the concept of mindfulness; the ability to enjoy the present moment, and not ruminate on the past or the future. This is an incredibly helpful skill to cultivate as a new mother. It is very easy to disappear down a rabbit hole of past freedoms, or future anxieties. But acceptance of elements being outside of your control (such as how many times your baby will wake up at night), and that the present moment is what it is, but also that it will inevitably change, is a fundamental element of making peace with motherhood. Baby Yoga encourages this thinking through mindfulness, breathing techniques and the asana. Each week, when a mother returns to class, she and her baby have changed in some way. Noticing this and remarking on how far they’ve both come on their journey can be very beneficial for women’s confidence levels. A systematic review of studies in which yoga intervention had been used to support women in their postpartum period found a greater reduction in stress as well as social anxiety in women who had practised yoga. One study in the review which had looked specifically at mindfulness, found that “mindfulness tendencies increased” after yoga was introduced. The same study also found that “those who had greater increases in mindfulness tendencies also demonstrated greater reductions in depressive symptoms.”

Western culture is not kind to the postpartum body; celebrities whose bodies have ‘bounced back’ are heralded, stretchmarks and weight gain is not tolerated and women who are in the fourth trimester can be negatively influenced by these notions. For many, the abrupt change from pregnancy to postpartum is distressing, and women can easily develop body dissatisfaction. Conversely, some women may celebrate having their body all to themselves again after being pregnant, and may unintentionally cause harm by overdoing it in the early stages. There is minimal guidance through routine care on appropriate physical recovery in the postpartum period for women; often the focus is on the baby. Some women may not address common physical issues that they may be experiencing, such as incontinence, as they are too embarrassed to seek help. 

Mum and Baby Yoga offers gentle, appropriate exercises that encourage women to develop an understanding of their bodies, as well as common physical issues that can occur during the healing process. There is breathing to re-strengthen the pelvic floor and core muscles, and asana that targets the muscle groups that often become strained in early motherhood, such as the upper back and shoulders, and the lower back. Getting women to explore their postpartum bodies’ capabilities can increase body confidence; a 2019 study of 1,664 young adults showed that “yoga may be associated with body satisfaction, particularly among young adults with low prior body satisfaction.” Building class themes around self-love, including facts around the natural and realistic healing process of the postpartum body, as well as identifying physical issues, normalising them, and signposting and referring to health professionals can be instrumental to postpartum wellness.

References

 Lucy Jones, Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood

Mums Alone: Exploring the Role of Isolation and Loneliness in the Narratives of Women Diagnosed with Perinatal Depression, Billie Lever Taylor,, Louise M Howard, Katherine Jackson, Sonia Johnson, Nadia Mantovani, Selina Nath, Antoaneta Y Sokolova, Angela Sweeney, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8197355/

The Effect of Peers Support on Postpartum Depression: A Single-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial, Mahin Kamalifard, Parisa Yavarikia, Jalil Babapour Kheiroddin, Hanieh Salehi Pourmehr, Rogayyeh Iraji Iranagh, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4134152/

Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage: Weaving Ancient Traditions with Modern Knowledge, Rachel Reed 

The effects of yoga-based interventions on postnatal mental health and well-being: A systematic review. Munns, Lydia, Spark, Nicola, Crossland, Anna et al. 2024, https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/210534/1/1-s2.0-S2405844024014865-main.pdf

Yoga and Body Image: Findings from a Large Population-Based Study of Young Adults, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Richard F MacLehose, Allison W Watts, Carly R Pacanowski, Marla E Eisenberg, 2019, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5869146/#:~:text=Young%20adults%20practicing%20yoga%20had,%2C%203.4)%2C%20p%20%3C%20.