Yoga For Fertility
by Joanne Yanke

For couples facing challenges conceiving, a yoga class and regular practice geared specifically for fertility can greatly increase your chances of getting pregnant. The yogic path of deep breathing, stress reduction, and opening up tight musculature has been proven to increase your odds of natural conception and increase success of reproductive technologies. In cases of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) patients’ stress reduction practices increased success rates from 20% to 52%. In a class geared specifically for fertility, we are free to discuss topics of stress reduction, body weight, nutrition, Ayurveda and Eastern medicine, overcoming emotional barriers with the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), and sharing knowledge of various things that enhance or hinder fertility. As infertility is a sensitive issue, a class creates a place for friendship, support, and communication with others facing the same issues.

The physical asana practice, pranayama breathing, along with the healthy lifestyle principles and teachings of yoga can help you to conceive naturally because it encourages a healthy natural lifestyle and diet, provides relaxation and inner awareness to decrease stress, opens up tight musculature to improves circulation, cell nourishment, lymphatic drainage, and much more.

In yoga for fertility, we execute specific asanas (poses) to open up tight pelvic musculature to increase blood flow to the reproductive organs which can balance hormones and increase activation of the lower chakras (energy centres associated with the reproductive glands and overall health). In women, yoga can help improve egg quality and regulate the cycle. For men, it can decrease stress levels that affect erectile dysfunction and impotence as well as improve sperm quality, count, and motility.

Practicing yoga is beneficial to both partners when trying to conceive and practicing together can improve communication and intimacy by tackling the stress and issues that arise from trying to make a baby. “Trying” to get pregnant is in itself stressful and can create a strain on the relationship. It is said the two biggest things that create stress are uncertainty and loss of control. With the practice of yoga, you can at least regain control by knowing you are able to “do something” about the problem and are able to feel good that you are taking care of yourself. This is particularly so if the practice is focused on deep breathing and relaxation techniques to reduce stress, anxiety, and improve sleep.

Yoga is based on the science of energy and our frequency of energetic vibration. Beautiful spiritual things have a high vibration and attract the same and if we are stuck on a setting of anger or pity toward our body for not getting pregnant, we just bring more anger and negativity into our lives. Yoga is a practice of turning inward, getting your mind, body, and spirit to be open, loving, and strong, and in doing so we increase our vibratory frequency and attract the beauty and love we seek in a child.

Joanne Yanke, BSc-Kin, CPT, RYT, teaches Yoga for Fertility at Inside Out Therapies & Wellness Centre in Saskatoon. Visit her website www.jyyoga.ca for more information and also see the display ad on page 17 of the 18.5 January/February issue of the WHOLifE Journal.