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The Effect of One Month Yoga Intervention on Perceived Stress and Anxiety in
Pregnant Women

Article · January 2016

DOI: 10.4172/2325-9795.1000233

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Bapat et al., J Womens Health, Issues Care 2016, 5:4
http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2325-9795.1000233
Research Article
The Effect of One Month Yoga
Intervention on Perceived Stress
and Anxiety in Pregnant Women
Rashmi A Bapat*, SonyKumari and Nagendra HR
Abstract
The effect of one month yoga intervention on state anxiety and
perceived stress in pregnant women (n=40) was examined. The
participants were divided into two groups- yoga and control group.
Yoga group was given one month yoga intervention of asanas,
relaxation technique, praṇayama, and AUM meditation (thirty
minutes) for one hour every alternate day. Results indicated that
yoga intervention based AUM meditation contributed significantly to
reduce the perceived stress and anxiety in pregnant women.
Keywords
Pregnant women; State anxiety; Perceived stress; One month
yoga; Aum meditation
Introduction
Pregnancy is a very precious and important event in a woman’s
life. It is a state of physiological stress that necessitates physical,
mental and social adaptation. Human pregnancy is the most studied
of all mammalian pregnancies. With recent advances in obstetrics
the little life inside the womb can be visualized from the very first
day of fetal life, from the moment of conception until birth. It is
indeed artistic, accurate and awesome; the new life taking shape and
becoming active inside the mother to be so vivid and complex [1,2].
Today’s urbanization and hectic life style pattern have increased risk
of complications during pregnancy. Emotional stress among all is
found to be more in urbanized population [1,3].
It is true that the development of the baby is affected by several
maternal as well as several fetal factors. Hypertension, diabetes,
malnutrition, high stress levels in life style can cause harmful effects
on the fetus. Similarly chromosomal abnormalities in embryo
and infections in mother can cause several birth defects. These are
prone to several complications in new born period and even later in
childhood. Apart from these psychological stresses, fear, anxiety in
mother can cause serious problems resulting in poor outcome [1,4,5].
It is now well-recognized that stress causes psycho-neuro-
immunological changes in the body leading to pregnancy
complications. It can lead to irregular, in coordinate uterine
contractions causing distress ending in operative surgery.
Hypersensitivity of mother leads to intolerance to pain, requiring
*Corresponding author: Rashmi Bapat, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research
Foundation and University, Banglore-560011 India, Tel: 09870489477,
09742060024; E-mail: rashmibapat29@gmail.com
Received: March 4, 2015 Accepted: January 25, 2016 Published: January 29,
2016
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heavy dosage of pain killers which are not safe for unborn [6]. Prenatal
stress and outcomes-maternal stress and anxiety during pregnancy
have been associated with: Shorter gestation & higher incidence of
preterm birth. Smaller birth weight and length, increased risk of
miscarriage. Prospective studies have shown that maternal stress and
anxieties during pregnancy are related to infant outcomes; such as
Temperamental problems and increased fussiness, problems with
attention, attention regulation, and emotional reactivity, lower scores
on measures of mental development [1,5].
Our ancient teachings and techniques from Yoga and Ayurveda
are found to be more effective. There can be many yogic relaxation
techniques that can be used to minimize emotional stress and to
create harmonious environment for coming child [6-9].
An ancient holistic Indian science, yoga, has been used for
centuries for stress reduction and health promotion [10,11]. Positive
effects of integrated yoga modules have been demonstrated in women
with high- risk pregnancies [1,10,12] but no studies have looked the
effect of one month yoga intervention based on AUM meditation on
perceived stress and anxiety (Tables 1 and 2). The objective of the present
study was to assess the effect of one month yoga intervention. AUM
based meditation on perceived stress and anxiety in pregnant women.
Material and Methods
A total (n=40) forty pregnant women receiving antenatal care at
various obstetrics units in THANE and Mumbai, India were selected
for yoga intervention. The selected women, who were aged between 25
years to 35 years and between 20th weeks to 28th weeks of pregnancy,
were randomized to the yoga or control group. Yoga group (n=20)
twenty and control group (n=20) twenty were divided randomly.
Both the groups were assessed for the pre and post physiological
parameters blood pressure, weight, pulse rate tests and psychological
PSS, STAI (form –X) tests. They were not informed about the hypothesis
of the study. Informed consent was obtained from them all.
Measures
The State- Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is a psychological inventory.
It was developed by psychologists Charles Spielberg, et al. in 1964.
Their goal in creating the inventory was to create a set of questions
that could be applied towards assessing different types of anxiety. Several
items on the STAI were reversed coded (Items 1, 2, 5, 8, 11, 15, 16, 19, and
20). State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used to assess the anxiety
level of the pregnant woman in the initial stage and end stage of both 30
days of control and 30 days of experimental group
The Perceived Stress Scale was developed to measure the degree
to which situations in one’s life are appraised as stressful. This was
measured before (1day) yoga intervention and after (30th day) for
both the groups. It contain 10 questions that would applied towards
assessing perceived stress level. Several items on PSS were reverse
coded (items 4, 5, 7, 8) High psychological Stress is associated with
high blood pressure, higher BMI, larger waist to hip ratio, shorter
Telomere length, higher cortisol levels, suppressed immune function,
decreased sleep, and Increased alcohol consumption.
Procedure
PSS and STAI (form -X) and parameters like blood pressure,
Citation: Bapat RA, Kumari S, Nagendra HR (2016) The Effect of One Month Yoga Intervention on Perceived Stress and Anxiety in Pregnant Women. J
Womens Health, Issues Care 5:4.

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2325-9795.1000233

weight, pulse rate were assessed before and after yoga intervention.
From Table 1, Yoga intervention includes of AUM meditation
sessions 30 minutes and yogic practices, set of loosening of joints,
breathing techniques, asanas, and pranayam alternately one hour for
four week [13,14].
From Table 2, AUM meditation is a type of meditation in
which the person experience love and peace attune with the fetal
movements, journey within. Everyday life is interaction between the
senses and the outer world [15]. It is a technique for withdrawing
the senses from the outer world and bringing them together (fetus
and mother, union with cosmic soul). The union between you and
your bigger self gives the seat for creativity and peace [16]. Aum
meditation decreases oxygen consumption and heart rate and
significant decrease in skin resistance level. It produces a state of
alert full rest [17,18].
Result and Discussion
Means and SD, percentage, p value of the Measure of variables
by Yoga and Control groups before and after intervention is shown
in Table 3.
The performances of the control and yoga intervention groups
on the measure of PSS, STAI and other variables are shown in Table 3.
A close perusal of the scores reveals considerable gain by the intervention
group. The mean (M) and SD value of PSS, STAI, pulse rate (PR), systolic
blood pressure (Systolic B.P), diastolic blood pressure (Diastolic B.P), of
yoga group has reduced whereas in control group value increased. The
weight increased both in yoga and control group. The percentage change
of PSS & STAI was significant within the group, whereas control groups
shows no significance expect weight.
As the scores were not normally distributed, Wilcoxon’s
Signed Rank Test was used. Table 4 shows that, there were reduced
percentage change of PSS & STAI value in yoga group (69.8%, 47.9%)
compared with control group (88.7%, 61.04%)respectively and p
value<0.05 of PSS & STAI (0.019 & 0.006 ) were significant within
the group. This was supporting to the previous studies based on only
IAYT intervention given for pregnant women.

Table 1: Yogic practice.

1 Hasta yam śvasanam (Hands In and Out Breathing- ‘A’kar, ‘U ’kar,’M kar’ chanting)- 1 min
2 Hastavistāra śvasanam (Hands Stretch Breathing-‘A’kar, ‘U ’kar,’M kar’ chanting) - 2 min
3 Ka iparivartanaśvsanam (Side Twist Breathing) -1 min
4 Vajrasana -5min
5 Deep Relaxation- 15 min
6 Uttānapādāsana śvasanam (Leg Raise Breathing) -1 min
7 Setubandhāsana śvasanam (Hip Raise Breathing) -1 min
8 Vyāghrāsana śvasanam (Tiger Stretch Breathing) -1 min
9 Quick Relaxation techniocque ( “U”kar chant 5 times)-5min
10 Gulphagūra am (Ankle Rotation) -2 min
11 Jānuphalakākar a am (Kneecap Contraction) -1 min
12 Ardhātitaliāsana (Half Butterfly Exercise) -3 min
13 Poornātitaliāsana (Full Butterfly Exercise) -1 min

Table 2: AUM meditation.

1. Opening prayer
Sitting position ; vajrasana,sukhasana,sidhayoni asana
2.PURIFICATION: kapalbhati here avoided. Abdominalbreathing with “U”KARchantings -5times.
3.PREPARATION:
i. Nadishodhan pranayama: 5 rounds ( linear awareness)
ii. Shitali pranayama: 5 rounds ( surface aware ness)
iii. Sitkari pranayama: 5 rounds ( surface awareness)
iv. Brhamari pranayama: 5 rounds((3D-Three dimensional awareness)
4.Dharana:this is holding the same action.one is dharana on rupa “the form”,second is the wave “shabdda”.
(Dharana of chakras:from muladhar to sahastradal chakra)
5. Chanting of chakra mantras and AUM bijamantra repeatedly with the fast speed.
6. Slow down the speed of mantra chanting.
7. MERGING INTO SILENCE.
8. Closing prayer

Table 3: Means and SD, percentage, p value of the Measure of variables by Yoga and Control groups before and after intervention.
Yoga( n=20) Control (n=20)
variables pre post % P value pre post % P value
M SD M SD M SD M SD
Weight 60.455 12.75 63.460 11.90 44.51 0.000* 51.1 7.40 54.5 7.59 55.55 0.000*
Sys. B.P 117.3 12.63 114.2 5.67 19.94 0.404 116.2 10.07 114.9 5.2 17.31 0.598
Dia. B.P 77.4 10.59 78.15 7.24 67.30 0.551 75.8 7.40 78.8 8.2 28.15 0.130
PR 76.6 8.82 74.65 8.2 20.7 0.090 73.6 3.96 73.6 3.6 26.4 0.638
PSS 19.85 4.28 17.8 3.22 69.8 0.019* 20.3 4.6 22.0 3.19 88.07 0.107
STAI 46 5.7 43.2 5.66 47.9 0.006* 41.6 6.49 42.7 7.69 61.04 0.123
Note: (*significant)

Volume 5 • Issue 4 • 1000233 • Page 2 of 3 •

Citation: Bapat RA, Kumari S, Nagendra HR (2016) The Effect of One Month Yoga Intervention on Perceived Stress and Anxiety in Pregnant Women. J
Womens Health, Issues Care 5:4.

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2325-9795.1000233

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Author Affiliations Top

Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana University, Bangalore,
India

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