womens health Archives - Pragya Bhatt

Yoga: A Gem for Women (Book Review)

November 19, 2025

Supta Baddhakonasana from Yoga: A Gem for Women

If you’re a yoga practitioner, chances are you’ve come across Yoga: A Gem for Women. It’s a book that most women yoga practitioners turn to, even if they are from other lineages.

There’s no single comprehensive resource that helps women understand how yoga can support fertility, pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and beyond. Reading this book when I was exploring my own health and trying to find solutions changed this book for me. It gave me a softer view of a woman’s health and taught me to gave me a holistic view of how yoga nurtures women through all of it.

If you’ve followed my fitness journey, you know the long story of my unexplained infertility. I’ve spoken extensively about how yoga and other alternative healing methodologies helped me during that time. That’s when I turned to Yoga: A Gem for Women again, hoping to find a solution and some solace.

When Agi Wittich started a book club to read Gem again, I decided this was the perfect time to read the book cover to cover, something I hadn’t done before. Agi, herself a yoga practitioner, has also been influenced deeply by Geeta Iyengar’s teachings. You can watch our conversation about her pregnancy and postpartum experience, and the influence of yoga on her life.

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Postpartum Pregnancy/Parenting Notes

Pelvic Floor Health After Childbirth: Why Every Woman Should See a Specialist

March 28, 2025

diagram of pelvic floor muscles postpartum

The pregnancy and postpartum journey have been eye-opening for me. My fitness and yoga journey have been about building strength and flexibility. Post pregnancy I found myself in the somewhat daunting position of having to re-build my body, muscle by muscle, sinew by sinew. And like most women, pelvic floor health was the last thing on my mind. Sure, I’d heard about it on Instagram, but at the rate Instagram is devolving into a quagmire of sensationalised, fear mongering false news, who pays attention? Post delivery the focus is largely on regaining strength, losing ‘baby weight’, or simply getting through the exhausting newborn phase, but what about our pelvis – the part of our body that has endured immense strain and stress during pregnancy?

Unfortunately pelvic floor health is often overlooked in postpartum care worldwide. Whether you’re weeks or months after childbirth, seeing a pelvic floor specialist can significantly improve recovery and long-term well-being. I was also not sure of when to see a pelvic floor specialist after childbirth, but when my friend Shruti told me about her experience and recommended Dr. Anuja, I decided to book an appointment. My consultation with her was eye-opening, and I walked away with insights I feel are valuable for all women – regardless of whether you’ve had a baby or not.

I decided to delve deeper into the mysteries of the pelvic floor as an integral component of a woman’s overall health. In this conversation I had with Dr. Anuja Chandrana, we delve into the significance of pelvic floor health for a woman’s overall wellbeing.

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Postpartum Wellness

My Journey to Aging Gracefully

March 8, 2025

I turned 43 this year. 43 looks different today than it did, say 10 years ago. At 43 women are now starting families, changing career paths, finding love….question and challenging their world views. I certainly found myself re-evaluating long held beliefs, thought and behavioral patterns. Including my approach to my yoga practice.

I’ve written extensively about my conception and pregnancy journey and the role yoga played in it. In retrospect I feel it’s important to point out that it was only the allopathic medical fraternity (“Western medicine” as many would say) that used the words “geriatric” or “old”. Alternative health practitioners, including my yoga teachers, never once saw the idea that I was too old to become pregnant as credible. To them, my body’s potential mattered more than my age. The irony is that many people think that this means according to yoga age doesn’t matter – but it’s quite the opposite.

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