Meditating and Practicing Kriya Yoga While Pregnant

Dear Meghan,

First, I want to offer my congratulations on your pregnancy. You are obviously a dedicated meditator and a spiritual person, and as such you would have been deeply sought after by spiritual souls seeking to reincarnate at this time, due to the relative scarcity of wombs available in the Kriya community!

So, the first order of business is to keep your dedication to God, Christ, Guru, and to the Kriya path strong, even if you have to modify your Kriya and meditation practice during pregnancy and infancy. For now you are providing a rarified devotional atmosphere for the lucky soul who had the good karma to join your family now. If you are able to perform some light kriyas, that is wonderful, but the physical difficulties created by pregnancy would make it difficult to carry on with your regular Kriya practice for now. Try to do a lighter version, if possible, but listen to your body. I go into all of this more deeply in my recent answer called, Kriya While Pregnant. Please read it and see if you have any further questions about Kriya Yoga during pregnancy.

Your question was primarily about the aches and pains you are experiencing now. It is normal to feel nauseous in the first trimester, but most women don’t have that all day long. Hopefully, it will fade soon. However, sometimes it lasts much of the pregnancy. I only mention that so that you don’t feel there is something wrong with you. The good news is that the high level of nausea often correlates to a high level of pregnancy hormones, and that protects the baby from miscarriage, etc. I wouldn’t call that an exact science, but it might cheer you up while you go through this phase.

Some things that can help with nausea include ginger (try all forms of ginger to see if any of them work for you) and getting enough protein. Of course, it is hard to get protein if you feel nauseous, but do try anyway. I just did a quick search and found an interesting article called Morning Sickness: A Case for Protein. It is worth looking into, especially if you were on a lower protein diet before getting pregnant, such as if you were vegan or only on raw food, etc. I have nothing against those diets, per se, but they need to be reevaluated in pregnancy. I used to work with a midwife, and I had three children of my own, so I know that some of the ideas help, but in the end it is a process of trial and error.

The sciatica is more surprising at this early phase of pregnancy, and I would say you need to “baby it” in whatever ways make you feel better. Don’t aggravate it by trying to push through, and then risk making it worse. If it doesn’t improve soon, you may need professional advice on it. I had sciatica with my first pregnancy and it started during the fifth month after I had walked around San Francisco in wooden clogs! They were popular in those days… 1979. I stopped wearing those shoes, and I babied the sciatica situation as much as I could, and it did get better, maybe sometime in the seventh month. It’s hard to recall now, but it did fade before the end of the pregnancy, which amazed my midwife. She assumed it would just keep getting worse, due to the increasing weight of the baby. All that to say, please take care of yourself, and please feel free to request healing prayers here, both for your pregnancy in general and for your sciatica specifically.

And in the name of babying your sciatica, yes, please do feel free to lie down while meditating, if that feels better. Again, do everything possible to get better and not aggravate the situation. I wish you all the best. Please be in touch as needed.

God Bless you,

Mary Kretzmann, Director,

Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry

Author of Finding God In Your Family