Benefits of practicing yoga and mindfulness whilst pregnant and post-natally:

• Yoga can help to relieve tension around the cervix and birth canal, helps to open the pelvis and improves tolerance levels. All of these can help the mother during pregnancy and the birthing process.
• It can help to relieve some changes in the body during pregnancy, such as reducing nausea and oedema.
• It establishes a connection pre-birth between the mother and the baby, allowing them to bond.
• Help with back pain.
• Improves sleep.
• Decrease lower back pain, nausea, headaches and shortness of breath.
• Decreases the risk of depression and anxiety.
• Promotes bonding.
• Increases strength & mobility.
• Yoga is a great way to gently introduce the body to exercise again post pregnancy.
• Gently strengthens and tone the muscles, building abdominal strength, working the pelvic floor while reducing tightness and tension in all areas of the body.

Make sure you share these regularly with our Mamas and encourage them to be practicing at home in between sessions.

Yoga is composed mainly of pranayama, asana, meditations and relaxation to aid health and well being.  It does offer many other benefits emotionally and physically through asanas and pranayama.  The benefits go much deeper than just flexibility and strength. Emotionally yoga can help you build better relationships around you and help focus on inner peace.  In pregnancy mothers can feel much more of an imbalance emotionally and physically this is where regular yoga practice can help immensely. Not only can yoga help aid conception through the use of asana such as Sirshasana (headstands) and help prepare you mentally for a child but it well help post natal also.  Pregnancy is a unique and precious time where you have the opportunity to honor and nourish yourself on every level of your being.  During pregnancy there is an increased need for balance and harmony. All emotions and experiences will directly affect foetus so it is vital for becoming parents to live with positive emotional experiences. Even ailments and the general uncomfortable feeling of pregnancy can be physically and emotionally over bearing, yoga can help common pregnancy issues a student may have by safely and gently alleviating and improving the issue.  This in turn will help to have a happy mother, living a happy pregnancy and consequently having a happy baby!

Every week breathing, inspired stretching, mediation and relation are put in.  A focus of pelvic floor exercises during each yoga session is included.  Teaching such exercises are very beneficial for the mum.  It is good to advise mothers to keep up with the practice after pregnancy also.  Knowing where they are can help during labour so they can be relaxed.  To help prevent the uterus from prolapsing and protect the perineum from tearing during labour it is important to help strengthen it through the use of pelvic exercise.

Yoga can help through the use of breathing and the mind for the birthing process through the use of mental centering and focused breathing.  Breathing is a very important part of delivering a baby, it helps to relax the body and take your mind from the pain and strain.  The pelvic floor is a hammock of muscles that form a bowl attached to the pelvis. These muscles can weaken through childbirth and it’s especially important to exercise this muscle.  Pelvic floor exercise will be a focus on yoga sessions.  Hormones released during pregnancy soften and relax joints and cartilage between bones in our pelvis to prepare it for child birth.  Prenatal yoga can help bring back flexibility and comfort to the groups of muscles and bone structures in the front and back of the hips. By getting these muscles ready for childbirth can help the process become smoother enhancing pregnancy.