The Efficacy Of Yoga On Physiological And Psychological Discomforts And Delivery Outcomes In Primiparas

Background:Pregnancy is a normal physiological process in the life of women and is accompanied by numerous changes involving anatomical,physiological,hormonal and psychological changes.Almost every pregnant woman will experience some physiological discomforts during pregnancy,including nausea and vomiting,polyuria,heartburn,low back pain,lower extremity edema,leg cramps,fatigue and so on,which are very common.Furthermore,pregnancy as an important stressor,easily leads to a series of psychological problems,such as prenatal depression,anxiety,bipolar disorder,schizophrenia,etc.These symptoms may affect the life quality of women,limit their daily activities,lead to a lot of inconveniences to their daily life and work,even endanger the health of their fetus.Unwell pregnancy physiological and psychological discomforts can affect each other,finally maybe cause a vicious circle.The duration and severity of these symptoms vary significantly among pregnant women,and these symptoms may occur throughout the pregnancy period of some women.Since the fear of the adverse effect of medication on fetal health,pregnant women tend to take safe and effective measures to relieve the symptoms of discomforts without any medication.Yoga has been recommended by the 2019 Canadian guideline for physical activity throughout pregnancy to improve the life quality of pregnant women.Yoga helps to promote the strength and flexibility of key muscle groups involving in the delivery process,and takes an effect on the endocrine system and autonomic nervous system of pregnant women.However,there are no studies to comprehensively and systematically explore the efficacy of yoga exercise on physiological discomforts,depression,anxiety,childbirth self-efficacy and delivery outcomes among pregnant women.Few studies evaluating the effectiveness of prenatal yoga for improving physiological discomforts and childbirth self-efficacy,and the conclusion with regard to the effect of yoga for delivery outcomes still remain controversy to date.Purpose:To explore the efficacy of yoga exercise on relieving symptoms of physiological discomforts,prenatal depression,prenatal anxiety,improving childbirth self-efficacy and delivery outcomes in primiparas.Methods:Pregnant women(n=64)were recruited during routine prenatal care in a clinic,and divided into intervention group and control group.Participants in the intervention and control groups received routine prenatal health care while the participants in the intervention group received the additional 12-week yoga exercises three times per week.The yoga exercise program was designed by a yoga specialist and the researcher based on literature reviews,education resources and professional recommendations from obstetric practitioners.Data were analyzed by the SPSS 22.0statistical software.Descriptive statistics were used to analyze general demographic data.Comparison of continuous variables between the intervention and control groups were estimated by independent samples t-test or Nonparametric test,the Chi-square test method were used for the categorical variables.The paired sample t test was used to test the difference of pre-test and post-test in each group.Results:There were no statistically significant differences in demographic variables between the two groups.Yoga played a role in improving the symptoms of physiological discomforts during pregnancy(t=-2.155,p=0.036),relieving prenatal depression(z=-3.160,p=0.002)and anxiety(t=2.201,p=0.037),elevating childbirth self-efficacy(t=-5.656,p=0.000),as well as promoting vaginal delivery(x~2=4.150,p=0.042)and shortening the labor duration(t=-2.119,p=0.041;z=-2.912,p=0.004;z=-2.679,p=0.007).Conclusion:This is a well exploration to find a comprehensive,systematic and effective scheme of implementation and evaluation in the application of yoga in Chinese primipara.It provided a reference for further research on developing standard,feasible and effective yoga training program in pregnant women.Yoga is deserved to be recommended by obstetricians and midwives to help low-risk pregnant women improve the physiological discomforts,prenatal depression and anxiety,childbirth self-efficacy and delivery outcomes.The results of this study have added powerful evidence for supporting the utilization of yoga during prenatal period.And randomized controlled trial with large sample size is needed in the future to take further exploration and verification.