The Eightfold Path of Prenatal Yoga: Asana and Pranayama
Part Two: Asana and Pranayama
I’ve split up the eight limbs over three posts to offer an in-depth look at each of them through the lens of Yoga and Motherhood. This is the second post in this series. The first post covered the Yamas and Niyamas and the final post covers Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.
“Being pregnant is not for your childbirth experience. Being pregnant is living here and now, this moment. Childbirth is just another moment you will transcend.”
If you’ve been practicing yoga for a while, you know that the path of yoga goes much further than the physical postures. Ashtanga Yoga, or the eight limbs of a full Yoga practice, are laid out in the Yoga Sutras. They act as a kind of practical roadmap for you to follow in order to reach enlightenment. Each of the eight limbs is as important and necessary as the others, and there is a logical order to them.
It was during my first pregnancy that I fully realized the beauty of the eight limbs of Yoga. As my physical practice slowed and I was unable to practice Asana the way I used to, I was able to focus more easily on the other limbs and truly practice Yoga. Imagine my delight when I was able to connect these limbs to motherhood, thus deepening my fulfillment of both yoga and motherhood at the same time.
The practice of the eightfold path of Yoga through pregnancy prepares you for conscious motherhood. Moving through them sequentially builds a strong moral and ethical foundation for living well, promotes physical strength and a healthy body (ideal conditions for a growing baby), increases self-awareness, focus and attention and fills you with a sense of contented bliss. Of course, working with the eight limbs of Yoga isn’t a one-and-done practice. It’s a journey, as these limbs weave and shift to create a life filled with purpose, meaning and contentment.
Asana
Asana, as the postures of Yoga, bring connection between the mind, spirit and body. They promote strength, flexibility, balance, and focus. Our physical body is the way for our Self to experience the world. Without a healthy body, it’s challenging to move into the higher levels of the mind and spirit; if we’re constantly thinking about how our lower back hurts, it’s hard to fully relax and be present in a meditation practice.
Asana is the limb most familiar to modern Yoga practitioners. If this was your introduction into the world of yoga, your pregnancy can quickly make your Yoga practice more challenging. You might get frustrated in your regular yoga classes when you learn all the poses you’re not “supposed” to do anymore. But there is so much more to a physical practice than complicated poses.
The physical practice of yoga is tremendously helpful during pregnancy. Beyond creating strength and flexibility needed for pregnancy and labor, practicing yoga while pregnant can offer quicker healing after birth. During the different stages of labor, various asanas may be useful in helping the baby move through the birth canal. And of course, the pose malasana, or Garland (squatting) pose is how women have been giving birth for millennia.
Another benefit is the reconnection we gain with our body. Women today have become very out of touch with their physical selves. Diet culture wants us displeased with our body, consumer culture wants us to buy the latest fashion to cover it up, and society’s insistence on doing over being leaves our bodies weary and exhausted. But nothing forces you to become one with your body quite like pregnancy. While many women struggle with positive body image, pregnancy is an opportunity to celebrate and delight in the miraculous ability of the body to create and sustain human life. Practicing asana while pregnant allows us to enjoy the physical capabilities of the body and gives us the opportunity to rest.
Asana also helps us develop stamina and focus. Giving birth to a human is no small feat. Labor is physically and emotionally challenging and requires both stamina and focus. There is often a moment in asana practice while holding a challenging pose, where the mind starts to say, “This is too hard. I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this anymore. This moment can happen time and time again in labor as well. By practicing asana throughout pregnancy, you are mentally and physically preparing yourself to get through these moments.
Pranayama
The fourth limb of Yoga, Pranayama is control over prana, our universal life force, through the breath. By consciously regulating our breathing we are able to direct the flow of prana to aid in healing and secure the mind-body connection. Pranayama breath control is done by regulating the inhale, exhale and space in between.
Of course, it becomes more difficult to breathe with ease the farther along you get in pregnancy. There are many pranayama exercises that you can practice to find something that works with your changing body. In fact, the more you practice pranayama, the easier breathing becomes!
Pranayama can help bring energy and relaxation into your body as needed. There are exercises that can cool you down, lower your blood pressure, calm your nervous system and help you focus. Not only do you benefit from these exercises, but your baby does as well. Geeta Iyengar, author of Yoga: A Gem for Women puts it like this: “It is considered that not only the mother’s physical health but her state of mind has a profound effect on the unborn child. The foundation is laid in the womb itself for the child to develop on a morally and spiritually higher plane.”1
Focused breathing is one of the most helpful pain-relieving tools during labor and delivery. Every childbirth class you’ll take will likely include some variation of a controlled breathing exercise...and this is exactly what pranayama offers you.
Once the baby is born, your pranayama practice is the first re-entry into Yoga, during the first several weeks postpartum. While your body is still healing, and your psyche is still making the emotional shift into motherhood, pranayama offers the necessary space to bring yourself back into balance.
Conclusion
Asana and pranayama are the physical limbs of the eightfold path of Yoga. Each of these limbs offers tremendous benefits to practitioners and applying them consciously to your pregnancy journey makes the experience of both Yoga practice and pregnancy richer and more fulfilling.
