The effectiveness of prenatal yoga on delivery outcomes: A meta-analysis

The efficacy of yoga on delivery outcomes remaining controversy. To evaluate the effects of prenatal yoga on delivery outcomes. The Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CINAHL and Elsevier databases were searched from inception to January 22, 2020, and randomized, quasi-randomized and non-randomized controlled trials evaluating the effect of yoga on the delivery outcomes in pregnant women were included. The methodological quality was assessed by the Cochrane Collaboration's tool. Meta-analysis was performed using Revman 5.3. This meta-analysis identified that yoga improved vaginal delivery, decreased premature delivery and birth weight of newborns, shorten the labor duration. Prenatal yoga is an effective complementary medicine to improve delivery outcomes and not to increase the risk of fetus, which is worth recommending to pregnant women. But studies involved in this meta-analysis were not all of high quality. The Registration Number in PROSPERO is CRD42019132490. •Yoga helps to increase vaginal delivery rate, decrease premature delivery rate and reduce birth weight of newborns.•Yoga takes a role in shortening the first stage of labor and the second stage of labor.•Yoga has no negative impact on the fetus.•Prenatal yoga demonstrated the consistent effectiveness among different parity of pregnant women.