Common Pregnancy Discomforts And How Prenatal Yoga Can Help

At the beginning of every prenatal yoga class I check in with my mamas to see how they are feeling.  Many times they feel great, other times discomforts are mentioned such as hips, lower back pain, sciatica nerve.  Our bodies are undergoing such crazy changes, it’s not surprising, discomforts can arise.  Prenatal Yoga can help with all of these discomforts.

I’ve had some requests recently about poses for sciatic nerve discomfort.  Pain from the sciatica radiates in the lower back, down the leg and sometimes to the feet and toes.  This is due to where the baby is resting, pressing on the nerves of the spine and hip, specifically the sciatica.  It can also be due disc problems in the lower back or a tight Piriformis muscle in the hip.

Remember to always listen to your body.  Yoga should not hurt.  If something doesn’t feel right come out of the pose.

Here a few prenatal yoga poses you can do to help relieve this discomfort:

• cat/cow- hands under shoulders, knees under hip starting in table top position inhale. On an exhale round your back.  On a inhale come into cow.  This helps drop baby forward and warm up your body, stretching back and hips. While in this pose, move into a flat back and look over right shoulder.  Do the same with looking over the left shoulder to feel a slight lower back stretch.

 

• Downward facing dog- with slight bend in knees- pressing fingers into ground, lifting from the hips and pressing back with your heels. Carve out your armpits to open your upper back.

• Wide Leg forward fold- step legs out to a wide stance.  Fold forward hinging from hips.  Using blocks or folding forward.  This pose stretches the back and hamstrings.

• Seated Pigeon pose- a great pose to do at work.  Sitting on the edge of a sturdy chair place an ankle on the knee.  Sitting tall, hinge from your hips and exhale forward.  This pose stretches the gluteal muscles

• Thread the needle- same as above, however lying down.

 

Full Circle Yoga in Overland Park was founded in 2017 by yoga teacher Jenny Hellman focusing on wellness in the early stages of family life from prenatal to early parenthood and the older adult years. Full Circle Yoga KC is an Overland Yoga Studio specializing in Prenatal Yoga, Baby Yoga and Chair Yoga for seniors.