Help Me Understand What I Can Expect While I’m Expecting: What Women in a Prenatal Yoga Class Communicate About Body Image, Fitness, and Health

Abstract

Women experience myriad changes during pregnancy. When it comes to how women negotiate and communicate about their changing bodies, expectations, and health, the research is lacking. The current research reports the results of pilot study using an ethnography and in-depth interviews with women participating in a prenatal yoga class. The researcher observed the yoga sessions and conducted in-depth interviews with three of the participants in order to address further questions. The results indicated several themes regarding what characterizes the way women in the prenatal yoga class talk about body image, health, and fitness during pregnancy. These themes include: expressions of body image and fitness as communal, expressions of desire for relationship-building with women in similar situations, expressions of desire to maintain pre-pregnancy fitness, expressions that redefine “fitness” and “health,” expressions of concern about post-pregnancy fitness and weight loss, and expressions of self-consciousness.