The benefits of yoga during pregnancy: a literature review

Abstract

Yoga has become a popular form of complementary alternative medicine, and is oftenadvocated for a wide range of conditions. Yoga explores the mind and body. Every woman goes through a different pregnancy journey with a variety of physical and psychological symptoms. In today’s western world, health services focus a great deal on the medical management of pregnancy. The aim of this literature review is to offer insight into and understanding of the benefits of yoga in pregnancy. Electronic data bases of PubMed, CINAHL and Science direct were searched in December 2017 for primary research studies published in the English language from 2005 to 2017. A total of 12 studies were included in this review. Three themes emerged; ‘benefits on mental health’, ‘reduction in pain’ and‘birth outcome benefits’