Effects of a prenatal yoga programme on the discomforts of pregnancy and maternal childbirth self-efficacy in Taiwan

Yoga Interventions in Pregnancy: A Qualitative Review

“…5,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Table 1 summarizes the studies, including the year of publication, authors/country where the study was performed, study design and sample size, age of participants, intervention modality, intervention dosage, outcome measures, and salient findings. The studies are arranged by year of publication in ascending order starting from 2010.…”

“…Of the 15 studies,6 were done in the United States, 13,15,18-20,23 6 in India, 5.14,16,21,22,24 2 in Taiwan, 17,20 and 1 each in Korea 12 and Thailand. 11 Nine studies used randomized controlled designs, 5,11,14,16,18,20,21,23,24 1 used a quasi-experimental design, 17 4 used pretest/post-test designs, 13,15,19,22 and 1 used an observational nested case-control design.…”

“…Total sample sizes were typically fewer than 30; 4 studies 13,15,19,22 fell into that group and only 2 studies had a sample size over 100. 12,16 The sites of the yoga intervention were primarily in hospitals (10 studies), 5,11,12,16,17,18,20,21,23,24 followed by outpatient clinics (1 study) 14 and community settings (2 studies); 13,15 and for 1 study the site could not be determined. 19 Six studies identified the school of yoga : 5,11,17,19,23,24 mindfulness-based Iyengar yoga by 2, 13,15 integrated yoga by 3, 14,16,21 Hatha yoga by 1, 18 sophrology by 1, 12 a combination of yoga and tai chi by 1, 20 and Bhramari Pranayama by 1.…”

A qualitative study exploring how the aims, language and actions of yoga for pregnancy teachers may impact upon women's self-efficacy for labour and birth

“…Most YfP research 5,6 does not discuss the benefits of women-only learning environments but stresses instead aspects of yoga practice such as postures, breathing, meditation and relaxation.…”

“…2 Increasing pregnant women's self-efficacy beliefs through antenatal education should lead to fewer obstetric interventions as anxiety and pain perception are associated with increased use of pain medications and caesarean. 3,4 Yoga for pregnancy (YfP) may have the potential to increase women's self-efficacy by firstly enabling women to manage the intense physical sensations of labour 5,6 ; and secondly by increasing confidence which may enable ownership of care pathway decisions and enhance the internal locus of control. 7 Variable use of YfP is reported worldwide, 8 with a recent study showing it is accessed by 11% of pregnant women in the UK, 9 but no study to date has identified specific factors of YfP which actively promote self-efficacy for labour.…”