Written by Guest: Fern Ross, E-RYT 500
What is pregnancy yoga?
Pregnancy yoga is a yoga class formatted specifically for pregnant women. The classes will be led by a teacher who has done additional training in pregnancy yoga, and incorporate poses and breathing techniques that are safe for mum and baby and accommodate your changing body. Classes usually incorporate positions that help prepare your body and mind for birth, as well as ease pregnancy aches and pains and reduce stress and anxiety.
Why is yoga good for pregnancy?
Pregnancy is a time of huge transformation, physically and mentally. This can be challenging, but yoga can help you learn to connect to your changing body, bond with your baby and meet other women in the same season of life. Yoga promotes physical and mental wellbeing, and can help with everything from lower back and pelvic pain (so common in pregnancy as our posture adapts to accommodate baby), as well as lower blood pressure, improve sleep, help optimise baby’s position for birth, reduce anxiety and boost strength and confidence, empowering you to tune into and trust in your intuition as to what is best for you and your baby.
If I’m usually a gym bunny, will I enjoy pregnancy yoga?
Hopefully! It’s all about finding a teacher that resonates with you. Try a few classes. If a pregnancy-specific class feels too slow at first, you could try a gentler style (such as hatha yoga) with a teacher trained in pregnancy yoga who can help give you specific modifications. Often the most challenging thing about pregnancy – especially those of us that tend to be more Type A – is the necessary slowing down and softening to prepare for birth and motherhood.
Do I need to do a specialist pregnancy class and why?
No, but it is important to practice with a teacher who is trained in pregnancy yoga that can help you adapt the poses to accommodate your baby and keep you safe.
What could I expect in a class?
Pregnancy yoga classes usually incorporate a chat at the beginning: students will share how many weeks pregnant they are and if there are any aches and pains or concerns coming up for them this week (we’ve had some very funny chats in class about the less glamorous side of pregnancy – hello haemorrhoids!) and we’ll sometimes discuss an aspect of pregnancy and birth, such as the hormones of labour and how to create a birth environment that helps labour unfold, or how to prepare for the fourth trimester. We then go on to explore breathing techniques, and move through poses to help prepare for labour and birth as well as those that ease typical pregnancy aches and pains, before ending with a long savasana (relaxation). I also like to weave in meditations, mantras, affirmations and breathing techniques so that when the time comes to birth your baby, you have various tools to draw from.
What if I fall asleep on the mat?
Good! As a teacher, I’m very honoured when a student falls asleep in savasana.
What the best thing about a pregnancy yoga class?
They say it takes a village to raise a child and, aside from the many physical and mental benefits of pregnancy yoga, meeting other women and forming that vital support network is one of the best things you can do in preparation for birth and beyond. One of my highlights as a teacher is seeing the incredible friendships – that village – formed in my classes.
Fern Ross is a pregnancy and postnatal yoga teacher based in Edinburgh. She offers weekly pre and postnatal yoga classes at the Lifecare Centre in Stockbridge. To find out more and book your class, see below.
www.fernrossyoga.co.uk | Instagram and Facebook @fernrossyoga
Pregnancy Yoga
Tuesdays, 6-7pm, Lifecare Centre
Postnatal Yoga
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1-2pm, Lifecare Centre
