From Oh Baby To Child's Pose: Yoga’s Health Implications For Women Across Maternal Life Stages

Regular yoga practice is known to support health and may contribute to physical activity (PA) guidelines. Yoga is recommended for pregnant women, yet little is known about yoga’s benefits among those who are mothers or breastfeeding. PURPOSE: To identify and describe how yoga influences health behaviors and body perceptions among women at different maternal life stages (mothers = M, pregnant = P, breastfeeding = BF). METHODS: Respondents (N = 317; M = 64.0%, P = 18.3% P, BF = 17.7%) were participants in EAT-IV, the 4th cohort of the population-based Eating and Activity in Teens study. Using SAS 9.4, participants’ responses about their exercise, eating behaviors, and body perceptions were cross-sectionally examined by maternal life stage and past-year yoga practice (none, some, frequent) categories. Qualitative, open-ended responses about eating habits, body image, and weight were coded to further examine yoga influences among participants who frequently practiced yoga. RESULTS: Regardless of maternal life stage, over half of participants reported “some” or “frequent” past-year yoga: M = 56.2%, P = 56.9%, BF = 51.8%. Moderate-vigorous PA (hours per week) was highest among those who most frequently practiced yoga (M: n = 65, 4.9 ± 3.9; P: n = 19, 4.0.0 ± 2.8; BF: n = 21, 4.4 ± 3.2). Other outcomes were highly mixed across maternal life stage and yoga frequency categories. Qualitative analyses suggest that pregnant yoga practitioners had more internal influences: “I feel like my body is happier when I am doing yoga, my soul feels replenished, aware, and calm.”; yet, practitioners who were breastfeeding or mothers were more externally influenced “I am more toned... [I] lost fat weight.” CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary analyses indicated those who frequently practice yoga report more PA than non-practitioners. Yoga is a promising intervention that may support women’s health behaviors and body perceptions. To harness yoga’s holistic benefits across all maternal life stages, internally-focused programming may be needed. KT Adams, MR Jacobsen, and EN Kramer-Kostecka were supported by NHLBI Grant Number T32HL150452. This study was supported by Grant Number R01HL116892 (PI: D.N.-S.) and Award Number T32HL150452 (PI: D.N.-S.) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.