What is Yoga and how can it help in pregnancy

1. Physical and emotional benefits
2. Nervous system benefits

• Anatomy & Physiology of pregnancy – the three trimesters. Understanding the changes a woman experiences from a physical, hormonal and psychological view point
• Accepting and adapting- your practice and in your life

1. Posture the changing weight distribution in the body and its affects
2. Integrating into a ‘normal’ class/regime
3. First trimester dilemma- go or no go to class? Practice or no practice?
4. Inversion question
5. Inclusivity?

Practices for pregnancy, devising a programme

• Breath work, pranayama and ‘normal’ activities- stand well, sit well and lie well and transition between ‘level’ well
• Mindful movement, Yoga postures and stretches. Putting together sequences.
• Creating practices/classes for specific stages of pregnancy and issues encountered related to being pregnant
• Meditations and creative visualisations for pregnancy and birth

• Ways in which Yoga practices can help at birth
• The anatomy and physiology of birth stages
• Practices to help at different stages of labour
• Working with a birth partner
• Elective C- Section considerations and practices to support

• How can Yoga help postnatal women
• Anatomy & Physiology of postnatal body, hormones and emotions.
• The effects of sleep deprivation
• Accepting and adapting- your practice and in your life

• Holding Space – key to how you approaching teaching women at all stages of their motherhood ‘journey’

Holding space means giving support that is free of judgement. It involves a conscious and deliberate choice to put aside our agenda, the need for our own specific outcome and the desire to give advice or “fix” a person or their situation. This is a key component of teaching women at these important stages of their live

• Recap on how people learn

The aim of these sessions is to help and participants understand how adults take in information- their ‘style’ of learning. Some students will best learn through auditory i.e. what is said, others visually, i.e. what is shown and others still need the experience, to use their kinesthetic sense. As pre and postnatal teachers you need to design your classes and teach in a way that appeals to all learning styles. Another way of approaching this is in terms of where the learning takes place. In Yoga we need to consider all three areas. Cognitive learning i.e. head, mind; Affective learning i.e. heart and spirit; Psychomotor i.e. hands, body. We will work on developing classes around all three approaches.

• Observing and listening skills revisited for pre and post-natal students

Key to becoming a competent pre and postnatal Yoga teacher is the ability to observe and to listen well. Observation takes on many different forms. Good teachers observe their students from when they walk into the room- this give a teacher an excellent starting point.  How a student enters the room tells a teacher a lot about how that student will approach, enter and transition through their Yoga practice in class. This enables teachers to be more aware of potential obstacles to practices from both physical, emotional and even attitudinal perspectives. Listening to the way students talk, breathe and ‘land’ in their poses also gives teachers much useful information!

The aim of these sessions is to fully equip teachers with the ability to observe and listen so that they can skilfully guide their class, respond to emotional/physical challenges that may arrive with sensitivity and appropriately.

• Language of teaching

The aim of these sessions is to provide teachers with language that encourages and inspires students in class and that clearly indicates to them what they are meant to be doing and provide an environment where ladies feel safe and taken care of

• Teaching aids/additional skills

The aim of these sessions is to create sensitive pre and postnatal teachers

1. Touch or not to touch? Adjusting and modifying students whether that be verbally or physically. Skilful adjustments can really help students learn; rough, inappropriate touch could put them off your class for a long time. We will examine the appropriateness of touch in class and in 1:1 teaching
2. How to effectively demonstrate as a teacher and using other students to demonstrate can be a helpful learning experience for your class too if done correctly and the aim is to equip teachers with this skill as it can be so much more important to ‘show’ the practice in pr and postnatal than in regular classes .
3. Also the use of props is vital to adapt

• Course and class planning

The aim of these sessions is to provide teachers with the ability to:

• Manage and time their classes effectively while still allowing for any quick thinking or changes that may be necessary -and usually are
• Motivate and empower students
• Create themes whether that be a physical theme, or a creative idea
• Use of inspirations in class [poems, quotes, music etc.]