These yoga asanas will help you prepare your body for birth

Delhi based Yogalogist Ruchi Jha guies you how Yoga can take care of your pregnancy blues:

Tadasana

• While inhaling, raise both arms slowly upwards and place the arms behind your head. Both the arms parallel to each other, palms facing upwards.
• Retain breath. Stretch your hands and feet in opposite disrections as far as possible. Keep your legs and arms straight.
• While exhaling, slowly bring your hands to the starting position. 

Trikonasana

• Go to mountain pose.
• Move your right foot to the right at a distance of 3 to 5 feet.
• Turn the left foot to the left making an angle of 45 degrees. Align your right heel with the middle of the left foot.
• Inhale and raise your arms up till the shoulder height and palms facing down. Keep your arms and shoulders relaxed.
• Shift the hips to the left and extend your upper body to the right.
• Exhale while keeping the palm of your right hand on the floor outside the right foot. If you cannot reach the floor, you can place your palm on your lower leg.
• Stretch your left arm up to the ceiling such that your palm faces forward. Your shoulder should be straight.
• Turn your face to look up at your left hand, spine straight and neck relaxed. 

Halasana

• Take supine position hands straight by the side of thighs, palm resting on the ground.
• Slowly raise your legs together without bending at knees by pressing your hands and stop at 30° angle.
• After few seconds rise your legs further up to 60° angle and maintain.
• Now slowly bring the legs at 90° angle.
• Pressing both the hands bring the legs little towards the head.
• Continue the bending of legs till toes touch the ground and then stretch your legs. backward as far as possible.
• Now place both the palms on the head making finger lock. Bring the elbows on the ground.
• While returning back to the original position first release the finger-lock. Stretch the hands straight and place them on the ground by the side of the body.
• Lower the waist and raise the legs from the ground. Slowly let the waist rest on the ground and stop bringing the legs at 90° angle.
• Slowly come back to the original position.

Consider therapy or counselling: It is of utmost importance that you don’t try to neglect or brush aside feelings of loneliness and distress, especially if they do not go away. If you've tried everything to get out of such a state for over a fortnight in vain, it would be wise to consult a therapist or a counselor. You need to find someone you can feel safe with, and whom you trust.

Tackling prenatal depression thus is an important step to actually enjoying your pregnancy. And enjoy you will – constant attention from friends and family, and just the feeling of power of creating a new life – your baby! Once you learn to deal with your pregnancy blues, you’ll realize the joy of motherhood is really not overrated after all.

Image: Getty