Spring Into Fertility with Yoga

By: Kristie Lindblom, RYT

Spring: the time of year when the whole world starts to come alive and all of nature is creating new life.  Procreating is part of the circle of life and while for many, making a baby happens quickly, for many women infertility becomes a struggle they didn’t expect.  It can swiftly become stressful, clinical, and frustrating.  While practicing yoga cannot guarantee results, many of the tools yoga offers can assist in increasing the odds of conception.

All the doctors appointments, monitoring of body functions, temperature taking, tests, and questioning of the unknown coupled with deep desires for a baby can create a great deal of stress in the body.  Paradoxically, stress is an inhibitor of conception.  Nature has ensured that a woman who is struggling to survive will have a harder time getting pregnant because her success is less guaranteed if she has to nourish not only herself, but someone else.  Dr Timothy McCall talks about this in his book, Yoga As Medicine, where he describes how stress shunts the blood flow away from pelvic organs to areas critical to the flight or fight response.  Additionally, the increase in cortisol (the stress hormone) with prolonged stress can cause menses to stop and interfere with the release of eggs from the ovaries.  It is because of this that regardless of the cause of a couple’s infertility, yoga will only be beneficial.  Whether yoga is used as a tool on its own or in conjunction with other infertility treatments, its ability to fight stress is one of the key ways it can assist conception.

The yoga sutras provide two keys to Yoga’s success with infertility: Abhyasa (dedicated practice) and Vairagya (non-attachment).  Swami Jnaneshvara tells us that the two work together: Practice leads you in the right direction, while non-attachment allows you to continue the inner journey without getting sidetracked into the pains and pleasures along the way.  In other words, with a daily practice we can continue to work towards our goals while letting go of trying to control the outcomes.  The simple act of effort combined with surrender to what you cannot control is the first step to reducing stress.

So what should one include in their daily practice to assist their body in creating space for a baby?  First, focus on mothering yourself. Nurture!  Accept that less is often more and the gentle practices offer great healing.  Beginning with the breath, invite it to be steady and smooth, and work towards maintaining that as you move through your postures.  Avoid poses that harden the belly, such as navasana (boat pose), urdhva prasarita pad asana (upward extended feet pose), and intense twists.  Below is a simple and brief asana practice with poses that offer support to the pelvic region.

1.  Easy Pose.  While in sukasana,  practice some breath awareness, allowing yourself to come in to the space.

2.  Pelvic Awareness Exercise.  In a modified balasana (child’s pose) in which the thighs are vertical and the buttocks are in the air, come in to the awareness of the breath in your belly.  Gradually drop that awareness down to the pelvic floor, the perineum, the genitalia, and the anus radiating on the inhale and softening on the exhale.  Sense the pelvic region relaxing with each breath.
3.  Cobblers Pose.  Baddha Konasana relaxes the mind and the reproductive area as well as increase blood flow to the abdomen.

4.  Cat/ Cow.  This opens and releases the abdomen.

5.  Standing Forward Bend.  Uttanasana calms the brain and help relieve stress and mild depression.  It also reduces fatigue and anxiety.

6.  Triangle Pose.  Utthita Trikonasana stretches the hips, groins, hamstrings, and calves.  It stimulates the abdominal organs, helps relieve stress and is therapeutic for anxiety.

7.  Extended Side Angle Pose.  Utthita Parsvakonasana stimulates the abdominal organs and increases stamina.

8.  Come back to Uttanasana (standing forward bend) and repeat steps 6 and 7 on the other side.

9.   Seated Forward Bend.  Paschimottanasana calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression. Additionally, it stimulates the ovaries and uterus

10.   Reclined Heroes Pose.  Supta Virasana stretches the abdomen and helps relieve symptoms of menstrual pain.

11.  Supported Shoulder Stand.  Salamba Sarvangasana balances hormones, reduces fatigue and alleviates insomnia in addition to calming the brain and relieving stress.

12.  Corpse Pose.  Savasana calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression, relaxes the body, reduces headache, fatigue, and insomnia and also helps to lower blood pressure.

Kristie Lindblom, RYT is a yoga instructor that specializes in therapeutic and restorative practice. She is a Stress Management Specialist at the Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease. www.searchingforsattva.blogspot.com