If You Are Pregnant, Here is a Mood Booster

As your pregnancy progresses, it will demand more from your body. Some women experience astronomical changes in their body as they knew it. Others experience depression or extreme emotional instability due to the influx of hormones in the body.

Prenatal yoga is one way that you can prepare your body for this process while at the same time staying in shape. It is a win-win for both you and the baby. During a period of only 10 weeks, it has been proven that yoga can have awesome benefits for those who are diligent and engage the process completely, not to mention the fact that it is a great mood booster.

Associate Prof Battle’s study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and published in the Women’s Health Issues journal, used a yoga program that mimicked those already available in many communities.

She says the results are “encouraging”. The study found yoga “could be feasible, acceptable, safe, and effective for mild to moderately depressed women”.

According to BabyCenter, one in 10 women suffers prenatal depression. But Associate Prof Battle says research has found depressed pregnant women are often reluctant to use medications and individual psychotherapy.

“What we feel like we’ve learned … is that prenatal yoga really does appear to be an approach that is feasible to administer, acceptable to women and their healthcare providers, and potentially helpful to improve mood,” Battle says.

“This is really about trying to develop a wider range of options that suit women who are experiencing these kind of symptoms during pregnancy. What we don’t want to do is have people fall through the cracks.”

Researchers hope to now conduct a larger-scale study to ascertain whether yoga should become a frontline treatment for prenatal depression.

Did this story interest you? See the complete version here.

[Photo: Mikadokids.com]