YOGA FOR PREGNANCY

Gentle yoga postures, breathing techniques and relaxation to help you sail through your pregnancy.

I currently see expectant mothers and mothers and babies in the One to One setting of the Studio at my home. Please read more about my motivation for teaching in this way on the ‘one to one’ tab. (click here as a link).

Congratulations! Discovering you are pregnant can be a magical moment.
But it is also a time of emotional ups and downs; of readjustment as your body starts to change, and, the excitement may be tinged with fear.

Gentle yoga helps take care of your body while guided visualisations and breathing techniques help to bring a sense of calm and ease anxiety.

Yoga can help overcome minor ailments such as:

• Back ache
• Tired legs
• Indigestion/heart burn
• Oedema (swelling)
• Carpel tunnle syndrome
• Sciatica
• Insomnia
• Varicose veins

Gathering with others can build a useful support network now and for when the baby is born.

This class is not just for first time Mums! It can be invaluable for ‘old hands’ to have an hour bonding with your new baby and taking care of yourself.

A small part of the class each week is dedicated to preparation for labour and delivery.

Techniques are learnt to aid you through the early contractions and for some these may be enough to carry you through established labour to delivery. Learning breathing and postures for labour and delivery can take some of the mystery out of the event.

Mindfulness is also an excellent way of preparing for birth and parenthood . Please read the mindfulness page for fuller information and contact me to discuss whether this approach would be of benefit to you. This is a testimonial from one woman who attended the mindfulness course:

I always believed that pregnancy and childbirth would be one of life’s most life affirming and enriching experiences. Three children later I know this to be true, but also that it can be an exhausting and scary emotional roller coaster. When my second and then youngest child reached 3 years old and started nursery I put some time aside for myself each week and attended Susanna’s Mindfulness course. The course was wonderful and I left with a skill that is now invaluable to me – to be mindful of my thoughts and how they effect my body and in turn how that changes the way I feel and act. Daily meditation practice was something I aspired to, but in reality, with small children, was not something I achieved regularly. However armed with the knowledge of how to meditate and how to be mindful was something that enabled me to embark on a third baby in a completely different way to the other two. My journey through pregnancy and to the safe delivery of each of my children has not always been smooth and certainly not how I would have chosen it to be and I was therefore apprehensive about trying for a third baby, however with the help of mindfulness it was this third full term pregnancy and birth that I enjoyed most, not because it was especially smoother but because I was much more able to accept things for how they were, positive and negative. This was especially true whilst spending time in hospital where simple meditation practices, often taking less than 5 minutes, enabled me to tune into my thoughts and body at a time I most needed to. Of course this did not magically make any worries or pain disappear but it did make me feel much more able to cope with scary situations and labour, which in turn made me more relaxed, feel more present and more in control. I wish that every women could, together with pain relief knowledge and baby care, also be taught mindfulness, however until such a time arises then I would urge anyone given the opportunity, to have a go. If nothing else it is a skill that can calm and ground you, when life is demanding, at any stage.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Susanna Alyce: 01263 740392

email: susanna@yoga-meditation-relaxation.co.uk