Dunedin Health & Wellness Center
Prenatal Yoga
The practice of yoga offers ways to release physical tension, emotional stress, fatigue, and other common discomforts associated with pregnancy. Learn gentle yoga postures, breath awareness, and relaxation techniques to restore balance. This class will help you prepare for childbirth, deepen your connection with your body, baby, and other pregnant women in the community. Classes are open to all healthy pregnant women. Please consult with your physician or midwife before beginning.
Increases strength and flexibility: The regular practice of yoga helps increase flexibility in the muscles and surrounding tissues. This helps enhance blood circulation. The regular practice of prenatal yoga stretches and tones the muscles, making them stronger and more flexible.
Helps diminish swelling and joint inflammation: Swelling and inflammation is caused by water retention and decreased circulation. Since yoga helps promote circulation, it is effective at preventing and reducing swelling. This reduces the common swelling of the ankles, feet and hands.
Prevents and decreases pain in the lower back and sciatica pain: Lower back pain and sciatica are common complaints during pregnancy. The change in posture is responsible for much of this pain. Regular prenatal yoga practice stretches the muscles of the lower back and strengthens these muscles. It also helps improve posture which helps with back pain.
Creates and maintains a sense of well being: Yoga helps release tension from the body. It is also a powerful tool for relaxation, which helps maintain a feeling of well being. This combined with increased flexibility and fewer aches and pains enhances the feeling of well being.
Stress Relief: Pregnant women often feel stressed. Yoga is very effective for stress relief. With regular practice of prenatal yoga, you will feel better able to handle stress.
Helps prepare you for labor: In yoga, you learn how to find and release tension in the body. Learning this technique will be very helpful in labor. Tension in the muscles makes the body produce less oxytocin.
Powerful relaxation tool during pregnancy and in labor: Since you have learned to locate and release tension in the body, you will be able to do it during labor. As a result, you will be less likely to tense up with every contraction. The ability to relax through the contractions results in less pain as well as better progress in labor.
Relaxation, imagery and breathing are useful in labor: Breathing is stressed in prenatal yoga classes. The breathing technique involves taking air in slowly through the now and exhaling completely. This relaxed breathing technique is helpful at relieving tension and brings more oxygen to the muscles and the baby.
No yoga experience necessary.
