Reimagining and refining yoga during pregnancy

I’ve reworked and reimagined my pregnancy yoga classes post lockdown. While I was unable to teach in-person I was afforded the opportunity to gain perspective and clarity on what I want to offer. Ultimately, what is most beneficial when you’re pregnant. Having been pregnant twice I realise the need to walk the line between offering the benefit of my own experience and realising that each pregnancy and birth is unique. I’ve heard a lot of birth stories in my time but none of them is quite like mine. Heck, my two are nothing like each other.

I like to teach in six-week blocks, there’s method behind this madness and not just because it generally fits neatly into the school term.

With that in mind, as I reimagined my pregnancy yoga classes a few overarching themes came through as:

• Respect the mother – whether you’re quite ready for it or not, you’re already a mum. That means establishing foundations and roots physically and everywhere else. Kids really love stability and consistency

• Connection – let’s face it, we’ve lost our traditional communities, on top of that, personal contact has been eroded during the pandemic. It’s time to reconnect with yourself, your baby and (re)build your tribe

• Adaptability – becoming pregnant and having babies are massive changes. Physical and emotional changes for sure and changing the dynamic of your relationships and family. It’s time to make some space for this

• Uncertainty – the thing is, we just don’t know. We don’t know how these changes are going to affect us and we can’t know until we’re in the thick of it, we can plan our birth and prepare for it but we don’t really know how it’s going to pan out. Time to build your toolbox of skills and support network

• Breathing & meditation – this is a huge thing in yoga and probably what saw me through my pregnancy, birth and early motherhood more than anything else. When you’re dealing with sleep deprivation and a shiny new being who doesn’t yet use words you need to draw deep from your breathing and meditation practices

• Instinct – trusting our instinct it what it all boils down to. Everyone will offer advice and that’s great. However, we must also know we know that nobody knows our baby like we do. They’ve changed and grown inside us, we know every flutter, hiccup and kick. Find your inner wisdom to trust yourself

I find that this anchors me each we and make sure that I cover everything which I feel is really important. It’s also important to adapt each week to who’s there, where they are in their pregnancy and what’s on their mind in that moment. That’s why it’s a framework and not a concrete script.