Document Type
Article
DOI
10.71071/JAM/v11i2.1.9
Department
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Pakistan
Abstract
Pregnancy results in enlarged uterus and diaphragm elevation, which may cause shallow breathing. These changes often cause nocturnal dyspnea, chest discomfort, and difficulty breathing, especially late pregnancy. Training of pregnant women for extending their exhalation reduces suffocation during movement, increasing comfort during pregnancy. In prenatal yoga, deep breathing is practiced and has a relaxing effect.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether yoga exercises during pregnancy improves exhalation length.
We enrolled 152 pregnant women and used a chronograph to measure their exhalation length pre- and post-yoga exercises and compared exhaled breath length by gestational age group. The pre-yoga exhalation length for the first session was 17.87 seconds, whereas the post-yoga exhalation length for the last session was 20.58 seconds. Improvements in expiratory length were observed after just one yoga session. Although at 9 months pregnancy pre-yoga exercises exhalation length was longest compared with 8 and 10 months pregnancy, yoga exercise at 9 months pregnancy made the greatest improvement in exhalation length compared with those at 8 and 10 months pregnancy.
Midwives should be aware of the change in respiratory function in pregnant women. This study showed that yoga exercises improved exhalation length. Therefore, midwives may consider yoga as an intervention to improve respiratory function in pregnant women.
Recommended Citation
Ito-Kaneko, H, & Uehara, M. Enhancing respiratory health with post-yoga exercises during pregnancy. Journal of Asian Midwives. 2024;11(2):3–11.
