Background: Pregnancy women undergo bio-physio-psycho-social changes that may cause stress. The resulting changes to the mother's hormonal and immune system may harm the fetus's (and after birth, the infant's) immune function and brain development. Good maternal health can help predict public health challenges for families, communities, and health care systems by preventing preterm birth or child disability and enabling children to reach their full potential. Therefore, it is essential for clinicians to pay special attention to women’s health, especially during pregnancy, and to avoid the negative impacts on their family, community, and society.
Purpose: The study’s aims were to examine the effects of prenatal yoga on women’s psychological stress during pregnancy.
Methods: This prospective, longitudinal, randomized controlled trial recruited 94 healthy pregnant women from a prenatal clinic at a medical center in Taipei using convenience sampling. The participants were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 48) or control (n = 46) group using Clinstat block randomization. The intervention group received 70-minute yoga sessions led by a midwife certified as a yoga instructor twice a week for 20 weeks; the control group received only routine prenatal care. The Pregnancy Stress Rating Scale (PSRS) questionnaire was administered before the first yoga session (baseline data) at 16 weeks gestation (GA), and again before the yoga at 20, 24, 28, 32 and 36 weeks’ GA.
Results: As compared with those women in the control group, which did not receive treatment, the pregnant women in the intervention group had significant long-term effects on perceived psychological stress at 32 (p = .012) and 36 (p = .021) weeks GA.
Conclusion: This study presented evidence that prenatal yoga could significantly reduce psychological stress in pregnant women. Our study evidence can guide clinicians or midwives in providing prenatal yoga to pregnant women throughout the pregnancy. Maternity health care teams could work with personnel certified in prenatal yoga and provide individualized stress-relief interventions to pregnant women based on their needs.