Why practice prenatal yoga?

There’s nothing quite like pregnancy - always transformative but often challenging! I’ve trod the prenatal path twice over as both a student and a teacher, and my yoga practice was a solid seam of consistency throughout those times of huge change.

So why make time to continue or start your own practice? Here are my top 3:

Build community. Forming your support network is so essential for early parenthood and beyond, and I’ve made some of my dearest parent friends through yoga. In class I like to include time for introductions and chats – offering a place to find your tribe. Whether it’s about weird symptoms, sleepless nights or hormonal rollercoasters, sharing keeps it real!

Build strength and find ease in the body. Yoga can help relieve common common pregnancy discomforts, from shortness of breath to back and pelvic pain. A regular practice also helps to build strength, flexibility and endurance for your birth experience. Whatever's going on in your body as it changes, the endless adaptability of postures means there will be a variation that feels good.

Build resilience and nurture calm in the mind. The breathing and mindfulness techniques you will learn through yoga provide a toolkit to support you through birth and beyond. Yoga can help to improve sleep which is so often disrupted in this life stage, and to reduce the anxiety and depression that pregnant people are especially vulnerable to. Plus a regular practice can create precious time and space for self care.

I’ve also thought a lot about what I want to pass on as a teacher. My classes aim to help you feel:

Empowered. Pregnancy is an amazing time to connect with your values. Not only can the responsibility of creating a tiny human feel overwhelming, it can feel like everyone else has an opinion on how you should do it. Yoga helps me tune into my inner compass and tune out of the noise (no thank you, stranger on the bus with parenting advice!) Trusting your body to grow & birth your baby (however and wherever you'd prefer) are part of this too.

Nurtured. You are doing the absolute most right now in growing the aforementioned tiny human, but the pressure to keep up the pace across all other areas of life can be intense. My practice helped to create a safe space where I could rest and feel held, beyond just the length of a class.

Peaceful. The many unknowns surrounding pregnancy, birth and parenthood opened up a whole new set of anxieties for me. Obviously the only way out is through, but along the way yoga has helped me find more acceptance of change and uncertainty. Some days I'm even able to lean into the magic & mystery of it all a little more.