While researchers rethink ways to reduce the rate of medical intervention during pregnancy, Stacey Astley-Clark asks, “Is it really so surprising that connecting with your baby and learning to trust your body can make for a better birth?”
SBS World News: Researchers call for a rethink of childbirth education. Watch the video.
As a pregnancy yoga teacher and childbirth educator, I thought I’d seen it all. So imagine my surprise when I discovered a man in my class this Wednesday. A man with a big notebook and an even bigger camera.
This was some committed father-to-be.
However, it turns out he wasn’t here to perfect his birth breathing, he was actually an SBS journalist.
It appears pregnancy yoga is now big news.
A study released this week, by Western Sydney University found that including yoga in your childbirth preparation, dramatically reduces the need for epidural and C section.
The very fact that this made the headlines is worrying in itself. Is it really so surprising that connecting with your baby and learning to trust your body can make for a better birth?
The truth is, deep down, women intuitively know how to give birth and when you remove the fear, a lot of the problems disappear. Prenatal yoga helps create strong, conscious mothers, who trust themselves, their bodies and their decisions.
In fact, pregnancy could be seen as yoga in its truest form. The word yoga means ‘union’ and what greater union could there be than that between a mother and her unborn child?
Pregnancy is a fleeting moment in our lifetimes and a rare opportunity to participate in something truly profound. Women often come to my classes seeking relaxation or relief for an achy back or neck. What they leave with is a sense of excitement rather than fear about their impending birth and an inner strength they never knew existed.
That’s what keeps them coming back.