kspeelman

Hi pregnant yogis,

I have been doing Bikram for 9 years, as well as other types of Hatha yoga, and I am an RYT.  I did heated yoga through pregnancy once a week and unheated at least once a week.  In the last trimester I stopped attending the 100 + degree yoga (because I was concerned that my baby seemed to sleep a lot after instead of being active, and it freaked me out…) and found a Bikram class that was around 90 degrees, which was perfect. I also did lots of hip opening exercises at home.

However, I will tell my future students that my humble opinion is to TOTALLY NIX yoga in the last month.  Because my baby was turned to the side and dropped really low and was unable to turn, thus I had a C section. Not the end of the world, but it was actually a little traumatic to try to unsuccessfully to push him out.  I now regret doing so many long held hip openers, seated forward folds, and gentle squats near the end of my pregnancy, although I will never know if they were actually contributing to his low position.

If you practice until the 34-35th week you will still be in great shape to recover and return to practice.  LET THE EGO GO and focus on letting your body naturally prepare for delivery without pushing the baby down farther.

I will say that practicing through pregnancy (minus perhaps the last few weeks) increased the health  of my baby and me.  My recovery was great and he is healthy and beautiful.

Good Luck Pregnant Yogis!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by kspeelman.