Why I developed Accessible Prenatal Yoga
What you can do vs. what you should do with prenatal yoga
When I first found out I was pregnant eleven years ago, I was determined to dedicate to a prenatal yoga practice to stay healthy and prepare for labor and early parenthood. During the first pregnancy, I took my prenatal yoga teacher training. I hoped to be that pregnant woman who was able to practice advanced poses (like I saw on social media).
Reality was a different story. My mobility declined considerably, I experienced bleeding nose and gums frequently and extremely low blood pressure. Apparently these were normal. My yoga practice had to adjust to suit my needs and I simply omitted poses that would aggravate symptoms.
During my second pregnancy my mobility was better, so I practiced prenatal yoga diligently. However, the classes I took never discussed the importance of stabilizing the joints and I ended up with a misaligned pelvis and a terrible pain in my pubic symphysis. I was unable to walk for the final few weeks before baby number two arrived.
Towards the end of the second pregnancy, my doctor ordered me to stop doing any yoga for a year — even after the baby was born. Being unable to move the way I loved made me gain a considerable amount of weight. That plus being in pain and at home without emotional support caused me to experience a mild case of depression. When my best friend came to visit, I was able to recognise it. With the help of the teachings of yoga, I was encouraged to become my own yoga therapist and figure out a way to practice. I began to work with my body as if it was a client of mine (I didn’t recognize my body anyway, so that helped). Through this journey, I adapted and adjusted a practice to suit my broken body. The practice consisted of finding new ways to stabilize the my joints, strengthen parts of the body that were weak and stretch out the other parts that were misaligned. I researched the anatomical side of these conditions, I worked with physical therapists and pilates instructors. I found what was common in yoga and adapted my practice. What was paramount was giving myself the space and acceptance to grieve the loss of my old body in order to move forward in my new one.
Once I was in better shape, I started teaching prenatal yoga and postnatal yoga in Hong Kong. The range of abilities in women who walked in the studio were extreme! For example, one student was 44-year-old biker who never wanted to have a baby and never thought she could have a baby at her age. Before getting pregnant, she had been in a motorcycle accident and had a titanium plate in her left lower leg. She limped all the time and could not sit on the floor. She had never tried yoga before but the doctor said it would be good for her, so she decided to try her first class with me at seven months. I was truly grateful for my past experience teaching people with limited mobility because I was able to accommodate her in my class of younger regulars, without her feeling inferior. She kept returning to class even after her beautiful baby boy was born.
Over the years, I taught many women who had difficult pregnancies. Many, like me, experienced a serious decline in mobility. Some even had to stop classes to go on bed rest. For a few, delivering a healthy baby meant putting their lives at stake and a couple of women lost their babies, either through miscarriage or stillbirth. In all of these types of cases, a woman stops coming to class. So I felt the need to be able to prepare these women by given them some yoga tools that they could do at home no matter what. Tools of the classical teachings of yoga that didn’t require physical ability and integrated it into the class. For example:
Useful breathing techniques
Safe movements for bed rest
How to prepare the mind for labour
The importance of grief during the post natal period
Women experiencing serious health risks need compassion, attention, and, most importantly the general know-how to accommodate them in a class (because it’s not always apparent). For this reason, I created a unique program that covers prenatal yoga in all its glory: the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. Not surprisingly, it’s called Accessible Prenatal Yoga.
What makes these classes more accessible is the way in which you deliver the integrated teachings of yoga in each class. The class begins with an open discussion among students. This not only helps students learn from each other, but they have an outlet to express themselves in a non-judgemental environment. Discomforts, issues and health risks are openly discussed, together with the right guidance on how yoga, meditation and other internal practices can help. The class then follows a format where postures are adapted to suit individual abilities and the students can practice together. The class is designed to allow for decreasing mobility as students’ pregnancies progress.
Another important component is the availability of practices for students to do at home, when lounging or in bed. A woman may suddenly find herself on bedrest. It is useful for her to have access to other practices she can do when on bedrest. Students during pregnancy usually focus too much on opening up the hips, that other important and sometimes uncomfortable subjects like postnatal depression and the inability to bond with the baby are topics that are missing. Accessible Prenatal Yoga is designed for students to be able to openly discuss all the uncomfortable things about pregnancy and early parenthood that may occur. So if a woman finds herself going through a challenging pregnancy or is learning how to care for a new baby, she already has the awareness, the tools, and the community she needs to get through it.