By Elizabeth Marglin

All too often, women trying to conceive get caught up in the frenzy of time running out, as if their bodies were bombs ticking away, about to detonate into an explosion of birth or an implosion of infertility. The focus relentlessly aims toward the future-starting with the hope for two blue lines on the next pregnancy test and reaching forward to thoughts of nurseries and strollers to come.

It seems the ideas of motherhood and expectation are inextricably linked. Interestingly, the word uterus comes from metra, the Greek word for measurement, which is also the root of the words time and mother. A healthy relationship to time-without a sense of graspiness or expectation-forms the essence of a fruitful approach to life and motherhood.

Yoga, with its spotlight on dropping into the present moment, helps people avoid becoming fixated on future. It helps would-be parents in other ways, too. One of its main benefits-reducing stress levels-takes the body out of its fertility-hindering fight-or-flight mode. If the body has to concentrate its resources on controlling stress, energy gets diverted away from reproduction. Since stress can constrict blood vessels, including those in the uterus, a yoga practice designed with the intention of lowering stress can only help with overall health and fertility.

"Stress plays a part in every single illness," Judith Lasater, PhD, a yoga teacher, practicing physical therapist, and author of Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life (Rodmell Press, 2000) says. "If you are in a stressed state, you don't have the hormonal profile of someone who is likely to get pregnant." She says she would emphasize a yoga practice that pays special attention to the qualities of "opening, softening, and yielding."

Regenerate with restorative posesWithin the yoga lexicon, inverted poses shine as excellent asanas for balancing the endocrine system, soothing rattled nerves, clearing the mind, resting the heart, and increasing circulation. Normally performed at the end of a practice, they can also stand alone as a quick time-out. One of the simplest and most effective poses, Legs Up the Wall Pose (Viparita Karani), restores beginners and advanced yogis alike.

Lasater also believes that quality rest, like the one found in Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose or in Corpse Pose, in which you lie on your back, palms facing up and feet spread apart, are the most important poses for fertility. "We live in a state of low-lying anxiety all the time," Lasater says. "It's so important in our fast-paced society to rest consciously everyday-it reestablishes hormonal balance." The quintessential restorative pose for everywoman is Reclining Butterfly Pose, in which you lie over a bolster with the soles of your feet together.

Nourish fertility with forward bendsForward bends like Baddha Konasana tone and stretch the pelvic floor, improve circulation to the lower body, and stimulate blood flow to the kidneys. Yin yoga, a style that concentrates on the body's deep connective tissues through long-held, passive poses, uses a lot of forward bends. International Yin yoga and mindfulness teacher Sarah Powers says that this style of practice draws out the passive, calming qualities that pregnancy requires.

Powers notes that a body's prime state for pregnancy comes when all organs are in equilibrium. "Yin yoga targets the kidney chi, which is directly related to the vitality of the reproductive system and the major organs," she says.

Powers recommends holding forward bends for three minutes and working up to five. Holding the poses that long, she says, creates a pulling action on the body's connective tissues, increasing overall circulation and nourishing the organs. While opening the pelvis and hips, forward bends also draw the senses inward, inspiring a more internal focus. Many yoga teachers, including Powers, suggest that women use visualizations for the areas that feel constricted. For a basic visualization, imagine the breath flowing down to the pelvis and infusing it with energy.

Twist into tranquilityYogis believe that prana (life force, vital energy) moves through the body in two ways: upward as prana, which centers in the chest, and downward as apana, which centers in the pelvis. "Apanic energy is responsible for elimination, ejaculation, menses, and the power of childbirth," Colette Crawford, a yoga teacher, registered nurse, and co-founder of the Seattle Holistic Center says. Connecting this downward flow of energy to the heart, she adds, opens the doorway to conception.

Twists can increase apana by massaging the organs, stimulating the ovaries, and toning the abdomen. The gentle wringing action of twists soaks the organs with fresh blood, allowing them to function at optimum levels in preparation for conception.

Surrender to the processAlthough yoga can be a helpful companion on the road to pregnancy, if you go into a yoga practice thinking that certain poses will magically produce a baby, you are bound for disappointment. Yoga teaches surrender to the process, not obsession on results. It's a framework that provides women with a space to cultivate their own intelligence and appreciate themselves without judgment.

"Yoga is about the deep listening we often ignore because so many people are telling us what to do," says yoga teacher De West, who specializes in yoga therapy. "It allows you to tap into and stay with your own intuition."Sometimes, the missing piece in the fertility puzzle boils down to the quality of a woman's relationship with herself. If you are in a vortex of self-loathing or condemnation because of difficulties with conception, yoga can help bring those thoughts out of the shadows and into awareness in a safe way. "Acceptance is what's necessary for transformation," says Crawford. "It's not about blaming the body, but letting the soul open to something deeper than oneself."

In the stillness of a yoga pose, women can appreciate their own fullness, the substratum of their being. Written over 2000 years ago, the Isa Upanishad nailed the fertility enigma on the head: "That is whole, this is whole. From the whole comes the whole."

Pose descriptions

Viparita Karani

Lie on your back with bent legs, feet towards the wall, with a bolster underneath your feet.

Swivel your hips to one side, inching them closer to the wall, and then take your legs up the wall one at a time.

Position the bolster underneath your buttocks, so it lifts and tones the pelvis. Your head and shoulders are on the floor.

Stay as long as you like in this pose, letting the sense of deep relaxation steep through your cells.

Baddha konasana

Sit with a straight back, knees bent to each side like wings, and the soles of the feet together.

Hold the tops of your feet, which will spread open like a book, and slowly bend forward, trying to keep your back from rounding.

Stay there as long as you feel comfortable, remembering to use your breath to breathe into the pose, not to fight against it.

Seated twist

Sit with your legs crossed in front of you.

Put your right hand against your left knee and your left hand on the floor behind you.

Extending your spine upwards, inhale.

On the exhale turn your abdomen, ribs, chest and shoulder to the left.

Take several breaths and then change sides.

This article reprinted with the permission of Alternative Medicine Magazine [12]