Imagine the next time you join a discussion about yoga during pregnancy. When you start sharing the fascinating facts about yoga during pregnancy that we are going to share with you, your friends will be absolutely amazed.

Yoga can be an excellent way to reduce stress and prepare your body for labor and delivery while you are pregnant. Many experts insist that practicing yoga during pregnancy should be a requirement for all women. There are numerous benefits to practicing yoga while you are pregnant. If you are in good physical health and listen to your body, yoga will be a wonderful way to help produce a healthy baby and a healthy mom as well.

Labor can be very demanding, both physically and mentally. By practicing the breathing techniques that are unique to yoga, you will have a much easier time relaxing during the birth of your child. When you first go into labor, your body produces adrenaline due to the excitement and anxiety that usually accompanies the experience.

Adrenaline has been known to stop the production of Oxytocin, which is the hormone that causes labor to begin. By practicing yoga breathing techniques during pregnancy, you will be able to calm yourself down, block the over production of adrenaline, and let your labor commence more rapidly.

Practicing yoga during pregnancy will also teach you how to meditate. Practicing meditation takes some work, but once you get the hang of it, you can slow down your breathing and relax your heartbeat. This is beneficial to both yourself and your baby during labor and delivery.

There are a few positions you need to avoid while practicing yoga during your pregnancy. Back-bending poses can put unnecessary strain on your back. And aggravate the back pain that normally occurs at some point during any pregnancy. Also, when doing a forward bend, you will be forced to spread your legs farther apart as your pregnancy advances due to the increasing size of your stomach.

I trust that what you've read so far has been informative. The following section should go a long way toward clearing up any uncertainty about yoga during pregnancy that may remain.

As a general rule, when practicing yoga during pregnancy do not lie on your back for long periods of time after the 4th month. This slows down the blood flow to your legs and your heart, which can lead to dizziness, nausea, and hyperventilation. While there are some women that can lie on their backs and have no problems at all, listen to your body. It will tell you what you can and can't do while practicing yoga during pregnancy.

If you will be practicing yoga during pregnancy, there are some yoga poses you should avoid completely, especially if you have never taken yoga before. For example, inversions should not be attempted for the first time while you are pregnant. If you have been practicing yoga prior to becoming pregnant and your body is used to the position, you can perform inversions as long as your body will allow it.

During the third trimester, you may feel somewhat off-balance. The larger your stomach becomes, practicing yoga will become more challenging. To avoid injuring yourself and/or your baby, try poses that have you balance on one foot against a wall. These types of poses will give you more balance and help you avoid a fall.

As long as your doctor has not prescribed bed rest and you have no other health conditions that prevent it, yoga during pregnancy can be a great resource to help you stay healthy and fit throughout your pregnancy and the birth of your child.

Ideally, you will leave this article with an enriched perspective on the topic of yoga during pregnancy. The facts and analysis presented here were written with a single goal: to help the you the reader to learn more about this fascinating topic of yoga during pragnancy.

Ken Austin is the webmaster at My Pregnancy , a pregnancy resource site.

For more great pregnancy articles, please visit The Pregnancy Resource Guide.