Almost any yoga pose can help enhance your fertility if done mindfully and with ease. The science that supports yoga helping to increase your fertility is centered around how it creates a state of relaxation. That’s not to say that doing a power vinyasa won’t affect your ability to conceive. The important thing to remember is that your body and brain need time to rest and relax in order to know that it’s a safe time to bring new life into this world. Spend time in a few restorative postures, observing the breath or noticing how you feel while trying to keep the stories at bay, and allowing your own experience to happen.
If you’re trying to conceive or going through infertility treatments, here are three yoga poses to help increase your chance of conceiving.
Constructive Rest
Go ahead! Put your feet up and relax. This pose uses gravity to move the weight of your organs off of your pelvic floor, giving it a reprieve. If you’re on medication that requires you to lay down for 5 minutes or longer (think vaginal suppository), this is an excellent pose for just that reason. While you’re here, close your eyes and feel the wave of breath as it rises and falls.
Child’s Pose (Balasana)
Everyone’s favorite resting posture. This pose uses gravity to help you stretch your low-back. To add to it you can build support with blankets (placing them between the legs and the torso), or if you have natural flexibility you may find the torso connecting to the legs. This contact of the belly to the legs (or the blankets) can create a wonderful digestive massage when you practice diaphragmatic (or belly) breathing. This pose is great for belly aches of any sort, whether it’s from digestive discomforts, endometriosis, aunt flo, injections, or anything else you can find comfort in balasana.
Supported Fish
Open your heart in supported fish. This restorative posture allows gravity to help enhance your posture. Supported fish opens up the muscles in your chest and relaxes the upper back muscles. While in this pose, notice where you feel your breath moving. Can you feel a stretch from the inside out? This pose is excellent to do after a long car drive, a flight, or if you sit at a desk for several hours per day. Stand up tall, and shine bright, improve your posture, and improve your mood. Allow yourself to give and receive love in this heart opener.
Practice each pose for five minutes each, together or separately. Notice how the quality of breath changes from the first few moments when you start compared to how you feel 5- or 15-minutes into the practice.