How to Keep Pregnant Students Safe In Your General Yoga Classes Six Recommendations for Best Practice This week I had two pregnant students in my general yoga classes; one was 26 weeks; second pregnancy, dog-tired but keen to move, stretch and release; the other was 36 weeks also second pregnancy; also tired but [...]
15 Things to Avoid In Pregnancy & Labour For a Physiological Birth ( There Are Some Surprises on Here) By Nadia Raafat If you really really want to experience a physiological birth, you are going to have to be really diligent with your consent and avoid a lot of situations that are presented as a [...]
Pratyahara during the Childbirth Process. This article was published the Brtish Wheel of Yoga Journal Spectrum (Winter, 2017) Pratyahara is the fifth of the eight limbs of yoga which together constitute the ashtanga yoga path as set out by Patanjali in the ancient Yoga Sutras. It is known as the forgotten limb. Certainly there has [...]
If, for Childbirth If you can keep your faith when all about you Are losing theirs. Instilling fear in you; If you can trust your body’s ability to birth — when loved ones doubt you And know that this is what your body’s meant to do. If you can plan a due month not a due date, Remember babies [...]
Francoise Freedman director of Birthlight International and medical anthropologist based at Cambridge University, author of many books, doula, teacher, mother of four and now a grandmother has inspired and trained literally thousands of teachers worldwide - including me. Her wisdom, her passion, her dedication, and her originality floor me. She is truly an innovator and her contribution to pregnancy yoga, postnatal [...]
In West London, where I lived through my first unplanned pregnancy, Lolly’s reputation preceded her. It was the early nougties, and pregnancy yoga was new and exciting. I had just discovered Janet Balaskas and the Active Birth Movement, bought the book and tried to find a Lolly class but to no avail. It was not until [...]
Janet Balaskas is credited with starting the Active Birth Movement; a women's movement that led to fundamental change in British Obstetrics and childbirth preparation. The South African mother of four, who originally trained as an NCT teacher, founded Active Birth in response to the oppressive active management of obstetrics during the 80s and 90s. She is the author of many books on active birth and set up the Active [...]
How yoga and mindfulness for pregnancy and birth can help mums-to-be handle the unexpected twists and turns of their journey. There is a space between the stimulus and the response and in that space lies your power and freedom” — Victor Frankel I wanted to labour in that space; that timeless space where everything is [...]
The drive and vision of three female yoga pioneers, Janet Balaskas, Lolly Stirk and Francoise Freedman, initiated a movement that transformed childbirth and laid the foundations for pregnancy yoga in the UK today. Here, they talk to Nadia Raafat about their early yoga experiences, inspirations, pregnancies and births. Janet Balaskas Active Birth (activebirthcentre.com) How [...]
Maternity Chakras The Spiritual Anatomy of Pregnancy Discovering the Wisdom of the Chakras During the Maternity Year Our bodies have an energetic system; a structure of subtle energy pathways, which act as intersections between the different dimensions of our experience; spiritual, mental, emotional, physical and instinctual. This system, known as the chakra system, [...]