Yoga for birth workshop
My yoga for birth workshop takes things one step further than a regular prenatal class.
I have had two babies; my first at home and the second in hospital and I can say 100 per cent that yoga helped me. Apart from gas and air with my first child I only used yoga breathing and positions as pain relief. Even I was shocked at how much it helped me!
There are two reasons why yoga helps so much;
First of all yoga encourages the baby into the optimum position for birth, thus giving you a good chance of things going smoothly. A lot of the times when you hear horror stories about long and hard labours it’s because of the position of the little one.
Secondly the breath work we do in yoga is an amazing form of pain relief. Over the years I’ve collected feedback from the women I’ve taught and without doubt it’s the breath work they learnt that helped the most.
If you’re able to be active during labour it can really help. It gives you a sense of control over your experience and when you’re moving, you’re gently helping baby’s entry into the world.
When you move, you release endorphins, which are the body’s natural pain killers – and anything that can help to reduce those strong sensations is going to be a good thing!
With that in mind I am now running yoga for birth workshops.
These classes are designed for the individual woman and whoever she is planning to have with her in the labour room – whether that’s her husband or partner, her mum or doula – in fact the whole team are welcome.
The session will include information on how yoga may help, including the benefits of good posture during pregnancy and particularly the latter stages.
You’ll also learn the best postures to encourage labour as you approach your due date and the best positions to adopt during labour and how to breathe whilst birthing your baby.
The sessions are designed to provide reassurance as well as knowledge to everybody who is going to be at the birth and are very popular.
You will leave with some bedtime reading covering everything you learnt during the workshop.
Each workshop runs for 90 minutes and is £60. For more information do get in touch.
The following piece in the press is a must-read for all pregnant women.
Like most first time mum’s, the initial experience of giving birth was pretty terrifying. I am not somebody who finds it easy to relax at the best of times – but if you throw in painful contractions and an impending realisation that you actually have to get this baby out somehow – anxiety levels can (and did!) rocket! Unfortunately this did not make for a very ‘relaxed’ birthing experience with my first son. Drugs and some intervention were required to bring him into the world. I was determined to aim for a much more ‘relaxed’ labour and birthing experience whilst pregnant with my second son. And so it was that I turned to pregnancy yoga. The movements and positions were similar to regular yoga, but with less intensity (depending upon how pregnant you are) and more focus upon deep breathing and finding comfortable positions to help baby and you during labour. Although I am a born cynic (and sceptic!), I truly believe that it is only through having attended the pregnancy yoga classes that I was able to deliver my second son so quickly and efficiently. The breathing techniques learnt during pregnancy yoga, along with the positions that help to ‘open the cervix’, meant that I basically laboured at home. Upon reaching hospital I was found to be 9cms dilated and so was whisked straight through to the delivery room whereupon George arrived about 40mins later! Pregnancy yoga definitely taught me how to relax using controlled breathing, making me feel as though I was in control of the pain. In addition to this, I was actually able to give birth in one of the positions that we had used regularly in the classes. And so it was that my second experience of labour and birth was much easier and altogether less terrifying. LIZ SEAGE on Natasha’s pregnancy yoga class