Pregnancy is a gift from God, a chance that only women could experience. That is why in Islam, women are well-respected due to this holy role. The holy role of women is not limited to pregnancy, but also how they put their lives during the labor process, rising and taking care the children and from women or mothers the children are getting their very first education.
Namaz is the Urdu word for ‘prayer’, while in Arabic, the meaning of ‘namaz’ is closer to Salah or Salat; a form of Worship of Allah SWT exclusively performed by Muslims. Namaz is a basic obligation each Muslim should do for five times a day, including the pregnant women. The fact is there are a lot of benefits of Namaz during pregnancy, so there is no excuse even for pregnant women to not doing Namaz or Salat.
In modern world, there are a lot of women are doing yoga in order to balance their physical and mental health. Aside from the health benefits of yoga, this practice is inspired by religious beliefs and practices of Hinduism and Buddhism, Namaz is like the yoga version in Islam. However, when there are a lot of version and varieties of yoga, there is only one version of Namaz, which is the original one and conducted by all the Muslims around the world. The list of benefits of Namaz during pregnancy below is not only giving the mothers benefits physically but also mentally.
There are specific rules of doing wudu which is started from washing the hands, gargling, nose cleansing, face cleansing, ears cleansing and the last but not least is washing the feet. Why you should wash your hands first? Because by making sure your hands are clean will prevent the spread of germs. Maintaining cleanliness and pureness during pregnancy is important. It will help you providing one more layer of protection to your immunity system. During pregnancy, bacteria and viruses that cause infection are not only infecting the mothers but also the growing fetus inside the mothers’ belly and the effect could be fatal. By maintaining pureness, you could prevent such things to happen.
If you are so familiar with yoga, the takbir posture is similar to ‘mountain pose’ in yoga; a kind of pose well known for its amazing benefits to maintain posture and balance. During pregnancy, maintaining your posture is not easy due to some limitation of movements especially during third trimester. However, the simple takbir posture could be done easily by anyone, including mothers during pregnancy. The position is also able to help normalizing the sign of symptoms of high blood pressure to prevent preeclampsia. Furthermore about the posture, takbir is also great exercise to reduce the symptoms of asthma and patients who have problems with their heart health.
Some scientific studies have been done to prove that ruku, a bending position that put your head in line with your back while both hands used to support your body by positioning them on the knees. This posture is similar to yoga posture well known as Forward Bend Position. What’s so amazing about this position? Ruku is great for lower vertebral column which is good for pregnant mothers who are commonly suffering from back pain. Not only that, during pregnancy, constipation is another problem most mothers should face and doing ruku could help easing up and improving the bowel movement by exerting the abdominal pressure.
Among the health benefits of performing salah or namaz, Sujud is probably the most important position during Namaz because it is a representation of where the position of human is in the presence of God. Sujud is the best time to pray for forgiveness, a feeling that will put human as the humble creature in front of their creator. Aside from that, sujud is also one of the important positions during pregnancy especially when doctors have informed the mother that the baby is not in the position yet. There are a lot of factors why baby cannot change its position but the sujud position will give the baby more room to move. Moroever, the position will help optimizing the blood distribution to your head and your brain. Oxygen brought by blood is essential for brain and nerve system.
During pregnancy, especially when already reaching the third semester, when legs and feet are swelling doing julus is not such an easy thing but its health benefits make it worth doing. There are a lot factors that could disturb your normal metabolism during pregnancy but just by doing the julus position during Namaz could help easing up the problem. Do you know that this position could help speeding up your digestion to help you improving the bowel movement to reduce the risk of constipation? Yes, this position could help stimulating the peristaltic action inside the large intestine. Moreover, julus is also great for natural body detoxification because it will optimize the work of liver.
When you feel under pressure, what you will do normally? Most people will automatically massage their shoulder or their neck. It is because there is nerve path which is linking from throat, neck and shoulders. Sala’m is a simple exercise to relax your nerve system, shoulder and upper back muscles. During pregnancy, headache and migraine are probably the most common problems most pregnant mothers should face but they cannot have pain killer to release the pain. Sala’m could solve this problem because the movements, turning the head to the right and then to the left, could refresh the nerve path through the neck to help reducing headache and migraine.
As mentioned above that Namaz is not only great physically but also mentally. Stress during pregnancy is forbidden. Just like yoga, performing Namaz could train you about being patience, calmness and gratefulness. Even, all the movements you do during Namaz are also great for your emotion and mental health. In some scientific studies, those who are suffering from the symptoms of depression are suggested to devote themselves to their creator, so they could learn about gratefulness instead of focusing on their miserable lives.
All the aspects of Namaz from the wudu or ablution up to the sala’m has its own benefits physically for human especially for women during pregnancy. If you are among those women who experience some difficulties during pregnancy, doing Namaz may help in dealing with those problems because the benefits of Namaz during pregnancy is not limited to physical benefits but also mental benefits.