How Yoga Gives Support and Nurturing During IVF
When you’re investing significant amounts of time, money, and emotion into an IVF cycle, you want to do everything you can to make it successful. There are a myriad of benefits from yoga before – during – after IVF. It can’t be emphasized enough: Always begin with a moderate yoga regimen – not high intensity exercise – and always get pre-approval from your fertility specialist. Look: Too much high-intensity yoga or other exercise has been shown to hinder successful IVF pregnancy outcomes. But, low-impact yoga can significantly increase conception success rates in women undergoing IVF treatment. Even if you’ve already started an IVF cycle, you can receive support and nurturing from yoga.
IVF Soft Yoga
Whether there is a clear medical reason – or when infertility is unexplained – life under the weight of IVF treatment can be an extreme struggle. Don’t despair. During IVF treatment, yoga is a magnificent and holistic way to prepare one’s body for pregnancy and birth. The best part? As a pregnancy enhancement tool, yoga is proven to reduce stress, balance hormones, and revamp one’s whole wellness in body, mind, and spirit.
Benefits of IVF Yoga
Yoga during an IVF cycle combines mindful meditation with physical movement. Physical activity prepares the body for undergoing the challenges of an IVF cycle. Yoga prepares the body for pregnancy.
- Reduces stress
- Balances hormones
- Balances body, mind, spirit
- Reduces BMI
Yoga in conjunction with IVF will:
- Elicit a relaxation response in your body to reduce chronic stress
- Counteract harmful stress hormones
- Direct blood flow
Creative yoga sequences are specifically designed to:
- Center attention on breathing
- Center attention on relaxing the mind and body
Customized IVF Treatment
Because every patient’s personal, medical, and financial needs are different, we offer customized IVF treatment.
We offer the highest quality care timed precisely around your body’s optimal state of performance.
Candidates for IVF
- Women with extremely damaged Fallopian tubes
- Couples suffering from male-factor infertility
- Couples suffering from idiopathic – unexplained – infertility
- Women suffering from recurrent pregnancy loss – more than two miscarriages
- LGBTQ couples using donor eggs and/or sperm
At New Hope Fertility Center, every one of our patients is provided with a unique IVF protocol. Our array of IVF protocols are specially designed to provide the highest standard of IVF care at the most optimal times for each patient’s body. We welcome difficult cases, regardless of the potential adverse effect on our IVF pregnancy success rates.
Supportive and Nurturing Yoga
You will discover a love for restorative or Yin style yoga practices that will nourish your mind and body while alleviating the stress associated with IVF treatment.
Warning: Avoid practicing high-intensity yoga, such as:
- Ashtanga
- Power
- Vinyasa
- Hot Yoga
Yoga is easily adaptable to your lifestyle choices. If you have been practicing high intensity yoga methods – pump your brakes and adapt to a more moderate routine.
Remember: Your body will be working hard to produce healthy eggs and make a baby.
- Soft Yoga Routine
- Medium to Low Intensity
- Nourishing Yoga Routine
Yoga Leading Up To IVF Treatment
In the months leading up to the beginning of your IVF cycle, scale back high intensity yoga practice with a more gentle and less forceful routine.
Avoid:
- All twisting postures
- All inversions
- All postures requiring jumping
- All postures requiring unstable movements
- All intense forward bending
- All intense backward bending
Goals leading up to the beginning of your IVF cycle:
- Reduce the amount you sweat
- Breathe steady and evenly – practice pranayama
- Become in tune with your egg growth and ovulation
Yoga During Your IVF Cycle
Once you have started your IVF cycle, make sure you are practicing a very gentle pregnancy-appropriate yoga.
For self-control, include:
- Meditation
- Visualization
- Soft pranayama
- Mindfulness
To honor the intensity of yoga, maintain a ritual afterward:
- Sip a cup of tea
- Enjoy a healthy juice
- Indulge in some quiet time
Egg Retrieval
On the morning of your surgical egg retrieval, allow time for meditation or pranayama.
Embryo Transfer
Practice meditation or pranayama on the morning of your embryo transfer. Then, refrain from any physical yoga in the days following.
Yoga and Customized IVF Care
It is important to work with a fertility doctor having the clinical experience required to design a customized IVF treatment plan meeting your personal and medical needs. To schedule your initial consultation with Dr. John Zhang at New Hope Fertility Center – call 917.525.5496.
