Alternative Therapy, Yoga, an Integrated Form of Physical Exercise in Ameliorated Psychological Health in Women with Stillbirth

Kyle J. Norton 

Yoga may be used as integrated form of intervention in improved mental and physical health of  women who lost their babies due to stillbirth, some studies suggested.

Stillbirth is one of the tragic event to the mother characterized by the the death or loss of a baby before or during delivery.

Yoga, the ancient practice for harmonized external and internal body well beings, through breath control, meditation, bodily movement and gesture..... has been well known for people in Western world and some parts in Asia due to health benefits reported by various respectable institutes' research and supported by health advocates.

In the study to evaluate women in ages 19 and 45 experienced stillbirth within one year of the study, through online survey related to 1) pregnancy and family information (i.e., time since stillbirth, weight gain during pregnancy, number of other children) 2) physical activity participation, 3) depressive symptomatology, and 4) demographics, researchers found that over 88% reported of depression with score of >10 on depression scale and 23% stillbirth mothers who participated yoga  practice displayed an improvement of greater than 58% in reduction in depression.

In compared to control, decreased symptoms of depression also were observed in the group engaging to yoga exercise.

The findings indicated that yoga practice may serve as an unique opportunity to help women to cope with the multiple mental sequelae after stillbirth.

Additionally, in the concern of increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms in women who experience stillbirth, researchers at the Arizona State University conducted a study to investigate whether yoga as a strategy can help to cope with PTSD symptoms of  women who have experienced the death of their baby. Out of 26 women in each group completed randomly assigned to either > 3 wks of yoga, or < 3 wks of yoga) researchers found that regardless to the periods of participation, 75% of women in both groups expressed that yoga intervention was very enjoyable or enjoyable, and very helpful or helpful to cope with grief.

Truly, yoga breathing exercise induced  deep relaxation and meditation showed to induce a state of consciousness to cope with psychological stress caused by grief and unfortunate of present event by facing the loss with the positive feelings in reduced anger and increased more compassion towards the body and mind. Physically, the mental expression in the right direction in yoga intervention  eventually induced the returning of proper hormone secretion.

Karla Helbert, LPC. Therapist, Certified Yoga instructor, in the article of Yoga for Grief & Loss. recommended yoga asanas and practices for the relief and release of grief opening poses such as mountain pose, sun salutation, yogic eye movements to help to "establish a ritual and energize the body and mind", "counteract feelings of depletion and sadness" and "(encounter) processing thoughts and memories of traumatic grief".

In deed, women in both groups of the study also indicated a higher levels of satisfaction and perceptions

More importantly, participation of 6-week and 12-month follow-up assessments among women with a history of stillbirth (N = 22) also indicated an improvement of negative psychosocial symptoms and reduced levels of perinatal grief in four of the five facets of mindfulness.

Impressively, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an yoga intervention which has been found to exert a significant effect in increased functional self-insight and quality of life, improved emotional balance and coping with distress, induced decreased state and trait anxiety, depression  total mood disturbance, particularly in restored balance between affective and sensory neural networks.

Dr. Roberts LR, the led author said after taking second look of the results, " Yoga mindfulness was significant mental health needs,......... following stillbirth, (as the program) successfully addressed by a promising MBI with potential scalability and sustainability"

Taking altogether, yoga as a safe and low cost may be considered as an integrated form of physical and mental exercise used conjunction with primary treatment  in reduced psychological symptoms in women after having stillbirth.

For More information of yoga lessons tailor to a complete well being for women, please visit: YOGA BURN

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Author biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrients, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published on line, including world wide health, ezine articles, article base, healthblogs, selfgrowth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bio science, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Physical activity and depressive symptoms after stillbirth: informing future interventions by Huberty J1, Leiferman JA2, Gold KJ3,4, Rowedder L5, Cacciatore J6, McClain DB7.(PubMed)
(2) Experiences of women who participated in a beta-test for an online-streamed yoga intervention after a stillbirth by Huberty JL1, Matthews J1, Leiferman J2, Cacciatore J3.(PubMed)
(3) Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Perinatal Grief in Rural India: Improved Mental Health at 12 Months Follow-Up by Roberts LR1, Montgomery SB2.(PubMed)
(4) Mindfulness-based Intervention for Perinatal Grief after Stillbirth in Rural India by Lisa R. Roberts, DrPH, MSN and Susanne B. Montgomery, PhD, MPH(PubMed)