Discussion
anger, low back pain, anxiety, bending, meditation, breathing exercises, depression, Depression
BLOOD
Our study underscores the impact of advancing gestational age on the neuropsychology of pregnant women, which can increase their vulnerability to symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. The findings emphasize the significance of prioritizing the psychological well-being of expectant mothers, particularly through Yoga, which can enhance their psychological resilience, as evidenced by the positive outcomes reported by the Yoga group. While the study findings suggest that Yoga can enhance psychological resilience in pregnant women, it is crucial to acknowledge the challenges associated with engaging a large population in such interventions. Despite offering the intervention at no cost and making it convenient to attend from home, with flexible scheduling options, a considerable number of eligible participants declined to participate and a few dropouts also occurred. This may indicate a need for healthcare providers to increase awareness among the pregnant population about the potential benefits of such interventions. Nonetheless, for those who are willing and able to engage in such programs, Yoga can provide significant benefits in terms of building psychological resilience and improving overall wellbeing. The intervention of prenatal Yoga demonstrated significant improvement in the psychological health of pregnant women, as reflected by reduced levels of perceived stress, depression, anxiety, and psychological stress. Furthermore, the intervention contributed to an overall enhancement of the quality of life. The effect size for the differences observed in the Yoga group was moderate to large, with a Cohen’s d value of 0.5 or greater. These findings suggest that the prenatal Yoga intervention had a substantial impact on the psychological well-being of pregnant women. In this study, we used a prenatal Yoga protocol that incorporated safe and gentle practices such as stretching, mild bending, meditation, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques. These practices are considered to be beneficial to pregnant women and have been widely used for the general maintenance of their health. However, scientific evidence to support these claims has been limited until now. This study aimed to bridge this gap by designing a Yoga intervention that specifically focused on improving the attention and mental wellness of pregnant women. The results of our study suggest that this approach was effective in improving the psychological resilience and mental well-being of pregnant women, thereby highlighting the potential benefits of non-pharmacological interventions for this population. It should be noted that the practices used in the Yoga protocol were safe and adapted to the unique needs of pregnant women. Our study findings are in line with a previous study conducted by Abbas Rakhshani et al., which also reported improvement in psychological, social, and environmental domains of quality of life (QOL) through integrated Yoga practice during pregnancy (Kusuka et al. (According to a study conducted by Field et al. (When compared to a waitlist control group, an RCT by Vieten et al. (Quality of life during pregnancy affects the pregnancy outcomes and impacts both the mother and the developing fetus. Depression and anxiety are independently associated with poor quality of life and vice versa which implies the need for healthcare professionals to give attention to the quality of life of women visiting prenatal clinics. Mild muscle relaxation exercise combined with music therapy has been shown to significantly improve quality of life parameters in pregnant women with low back pain (PSS measures the degree to which an individual perceives life to be unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded for the previous month which can impact the psychological state of the individual. To predict specifically the role of Yoga in changing the perception toward their situation we individually compared the questions in the PSS scale, which depicts that after Yoga practice women were able to control their emotions in challenging situations, handle anger, and face difficulties with a more positive attitude, as suggested by the results. The present study specifically examines the effects of Yoga on both psychological distress and quality of life during pregnancy. By focusing on both outcomes, our study provides a comprehensive assessment of the potential benefits of Yoga during pregnancy. Additionally, it adds to the limited body of research on this topic, which will help inform healthcare providers and pregnant women about the potential benefits of incorporating Yoga into their prenatal care.Based on the findings, Yoga may be used as a primer to reduce or prevent stress, anxiety, and depression-like symptoms, and improve QOL during pregnancy. One of the limitations of the study is the small sample size. We suggest that similar kinds of studies can be done using similar Yoga protocols to evaluate the impact on psychological parameters, quality of life, and other pregnancy outcomes on a bigger sample size and using molecular markers of the same parameters assessed in the study. To gain a deeper understanding of the impact of prenatal Yoga on pregnant women, future studies may consider exploring the molecular-level changes by analyzing Umbilical Cord Blood. Various biological components like cells, serum plasma from Yoga practitioners can be transplanted into animals to see the changes driven by Yoga at cellular and molecular level.