To ensure that teachers have sufficient experience and depth of yogic understanding, it is not possible to study any additional British Wheel of Yoga module until a year after completing the three-year diploma course. So including student teaching that means I taught three years of general Hatha classes before taking this course – experience I am so grateful I had. I was lucky enough to have not one, but two, leading pregnancy yoga practitioners tutor my course, one of whom is also a practising midwife. As part of my ongoing professional development since qualifying, I must take annual update courses.

So what can you expect from a pregnancy yoga class?

• They are friendly, informal and accessible to ladies who have never practised yoga before - you don't have to be super bendy and we don't do deep squats! Anyone with any shape, size or ability can benefit.
• The classes give you invaluable ‘time out’ each week to focus on yourself and bond with your growing baby.
• You will have a great chance to meet and make friends with other mums-to-be.
• You will link postures, sound and movement to tone the muscles that will support your changing posture in pregnancy and prepare you for an active labour.
• You will maintain energy levels, fitness and strength to prevent and remedy common ailments that you might experience during your pregnancy.
• You will practise positions for an active labour and birth.
• You will learn to unlock the power of your breath to help you listen to your body and relax deeply. Whatever other props may be available to you, your breath is always with you! Depending on the length of time you come to the classes, you will learn over a dozen breath techniques and visualisations that will help you in your labour and delivery. Many ladies report that these “tools” are the only pain relief they have used in their labours.
• Finally, although when pregnant you are quite rightly "present in the fullness of each moment", you will learn a range of techniques that will support you and your baby in your 4th Trimester.

The postures and techniques you will learn are not a "fixed blueprint" but are "tools" offered to you to adapt to your self and to connect you with your own knowing about giving birth.

The classes are arranged not as a course with a fixed number of sessions, but as an ongoing programme that you are safe to follow from 14 weeks onwards. You can come for as long as you wish – some ladies feel comfortable coming right up to their due dates – and obviously the longer you attend, the more “second nature” the practices become.

To complement the weekly classes, I hold a regular Yoga Birth Preparation Workshop for ladies and their birth partner. This workshop is designed to be equally suitable for those who have been attending the regular weekly class and those who are unable to commit to this.

The workshop draws together many of the breaths, postures and movements that you have been practising each week in a "logical" labour and birth order, with the opportunity, of course, for you and your birth partner to try out and comment on these techniques together, as well as exploring additional ways in which your partner can assist. There are also handouts and information on the anatomy of birth and the implications this has for your labour, as well as breath and pelvic floor exercises for your immediate post-natal period.

Yoga promotes mental and physical well-being and balance, which is especially valuable during times of transition or uncertainty. Yoga’s ultimate aim is an experience of ‘union’ or sense of harmony between the individual being and the vital lifeforce that animates the universe in which we live. From a yoga perspective, to be pregnant is to be in this state of ‘union’ every second of every day.

At a time of profound and possibly overwhelming physical, emotional and energetic transformations, yoga in pregnancy can connect you to your deep inner wisdom and calm strength that will guide you through the intimate journey of your baby’s birth and of your own birth as a parent.

PAID TIME OFF WORK FOR PREGNANCY YOGA CLASSES

Women in full time employment are entitled to paid time off work to attend Yoga Classes. This is covered by the category “antenatal appointments, relaxation and parent craft classes”

For further details of Employers legal obligation to pregnant workers please see:

http//www.dti.gov.uk/er/individual/03.htm

Pregnancy Yoga Classes Monday;

Pure Body Solutions at Cote Royd Therapy HD3 3AN
Monday 5.45 - 6.45pm
Monday 6.55 - 7.55pm

Pregnancy Yoga Class Thursday;

Pure Body Solutions at Cote Royd Therapy HD3 3AN
Thursday 8.05 - 9.05pm

contact Roz 07745 997987
roz@rozbrownyoga.co.uk
or Tanya Stagg 07814 866012
info@huddersfieldpilates.co.uk

Pregnancy Yoga classes at Edgerton will always be small (max 6 - 7), so you are guaranteed plenty of individual attention! All equipment is provided, and the rooms have underfloor heating. In order to secure your place, we ask that classes are pre-booked per calendar month. The monthly fee will be the number of sessions in that month @ £8 per session, until you are 35 weeks pregnant; then classes are booked and paid weekly. Please note: refunds will only be given if the class is cancelled.