Читать книгу Stand and Deliver!: And other Brilliant Ways to Give Birth - Emma Mahony - Страница 32

The safest forms of ‘aerobic’ exercise to take when pregnant are walking (an hour a day is ideal), swimming (which supports all the muscles, increases blood flow and urine output, and reduces swelling) and yoga. Yoga classes are particularly good, especially if you can find or persuade a yoga teacher to set up an antenatal one, because then there is group support as well. Yoga works so well in pregnancy because it makes the most of the natural increase in suppleness due to the hormone relaxin coursing through your body. In addition, Janet Balaskas, who runs the antenatal yoga programme at the Active Birth Centre in north London, lists its benefits as: helping you to ‘make friends’ with your pain and to go beyond your normal limits while stretching; improving blood circulation and breathing; regulating blood pressure and heart rate; and correcting posture to help prevent backache. ‘I would say that after a whole 25 years of being a childbirth educator, I’ve never found anything to be more potentially effective than yoga in pregnancy,’ she says. Although Balaskas does not keep ongoing records of the births of her students, one year she estimated that 80 per cent of her students went on to have a natural birth without intervention – not even an epidural. ‘Natural Active birth is not just for lentil eaters and brown sandal wearers,’ says Balaskas, ‘it is practical and safe.’

If there are no antenatal yoga teachers in your area, you can always start to do it yourself by buying one of Balaskas’ books, such as Preparing for Birth with Yoga (Thorsons, 2003).