Effectiveness of Prenatal Yoga on Reducing Back Pain in Pregnant Women: A Meta-Analysis Study

Abstract

Background: Back pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal complaints experienced by pregnant women due to physiological and biomechanical changes during pregnancy. Prenatal yoga is one of the non-pharmacological interventions widely used to reduce this discomfort. Objective: This study aims to analyse the effectiveness of prenatal yoga in reducing back pain in pregnant women through a meta-analysis approach. Methods: This study used a meta-analysis method on published primary studies that met the inclusion criteria. A total of five experimental studies comparing prenatal yoga groups with control groups were analysed using Review Manager (RevMan) 5.4 software. Effect sizes were calculated using Standardised Mean Difference (SMD) with a 95% confidence interval. Results: The analysis showed that prenatal yoga was effective in reducing back pain in pregnant women with an SMD value of -1.35 (95% CI: -2.23 to -0.47; p = 0.003). This finding indicates that the group participating in prenatal yoga experienced a greater reduction in back pain than the control group. The level of heterogeneity between studies was high (I² = 89%), so the analysis used a Random Effect Model. Conclusion: Prenatal yoga has been shown to be effective as a non-pharmacological intervention to reduce back pain in pregnant women and can be recommended as part of holistic antenatal care.