According to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan has reported that, pregnant women, who practice Mindful Yoga, are significantly less likely to suffer from depression both before and after the birth of their babies.
Depression is a silent trouble maker that can is thought to affect as many as one in five new mothers, even more alarmingly than these statistics are that the child of women affected by the mental health condition is significantly more likely to subsequently from mental illnesses later in life.
Pregnant women are at a higher risk of suffering from disorders including depression, anxiety and stress during pregnancy as a result of drastic changes in hormone levels, some social factors such as changing relationships and genetic pre-dispositions. These women have previously been found to give birth prematurely and find it harder to initiate the maternal bond with their babies.
Mindfulness Yoga requires pregnant women to maintain a meditative state while moving between and holding various yoga positions.
This latest research was intended to scientifically establish if Mindful yoga could be of significant benefit to expectant mums highlighted as ‘at risk’. The women who were between 12 and 26 weeks pregnant completed a ten-week Mindfulness Yoga course which consisted of a 90-minute Mindful Yoga session each week. The yoga poses were specifically chosen to aid the women’s pregnant bodies and increase awareness of how their bodies were changing to support the growth and development of their babies.
It was concluded that the mindful yoga boosted the expectant mothers energy, significantly reduced symptoms of depression and was reported to have a positive impact on the attachment between mother and her baby.