The effect of one month yoga intervention on state anxiety and percieved stress in pregnant women

Abstract

This study deals with the effect of one month yoga intervention on perceived stress (PSS) and state anxiety (STAI) in pregnant women. The module includes a set of āsanas, relaxation technique, prāṇāyāma, and AUM meditation. Aims and objectives: Aim: TO the study the efficacy of one month yoga intervention on perceived stress and state anxiety in pregnant women Objectives: To study the efficacy of one month yoga intervention on state anxiety based on State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAIX-1) and perceived stress using Cohen Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) in pregnant women. Methods: The study was performed on forty normal pregnant women aged between 25 to 35 years, 20th week to28th week of pregnancy. It dived into group of twenty randomly for experimental and control group. Control group women were not aware of any yogic practices during the period of four week. Women from 20th week to 28th week of pregnancy were given yoga intervention. Both the groups were assessed for the pre and post physiological parameters blood pressure, weight, pulse rate tests and psychological PSS, STAI tests. They were not informed about the hypothesis of the study. Informed consent was obtained from them all. Yoga intervention includes of AUM meditation sessions30 minutes and yogic practices set of loosening of joints, breathing techniques, asanas, and pranayam alternately one hour for four week. While these simple postures provide gross stimulation to blood flow, heartbeat, pulse, sound vibrations, nerve impulses were perceived and used as subtle stimulations to release the stress at subtler levels. Results and Discussion: There is significant p value PSS 0.019 <0.05 in Wilcoxon’s signed Rank Test (experimental group), and 0.000 <0.05 in Mann-Whitney test (in between group).There was no significant p value of STAI was found. Conclusions: No previous investigation has directly evaluated the effect of AUM meditation in one month yoga intervention on perceived stress and state anxiety in pregnant women. This randomized control study was done to check the effect of AUM meditation in one month yoga intervention on perceived stress and state anxiety inventory in pregnant women. One month Yoga Intervention AUM meditation was found to be beneficial in reducing the State Anxiety and perceived stress in pregnant women on Indian population. It shows it is a safe meditation for pregnant woman.