During my first pregnancy with Ashley I attended pregnancy yoga classes every week and found it beneficial in so many ways. Not only did it help me through my pregnancy and birth but I also made some wonderful friends who I am still very close to now. Whilst it’s not been possible for me to attend any face to face yoga group classes during this pregnancy due to lockdown, I have been attending classes via Zoom with Charyn from MamaBabyBliss Wycombe and love it! Here’s why…
Pregnancy Yoga by Zoom
With face to face classes cancelled I wasn’t sure whether to bother with pregnancy yoga this time round. I spend a lot of time on video calls at work so I wasn’t keen to spend my evening on one as well. However when Charyn asked me if I’d like to try her classes I thought I’d give it a go and I am so glad I did!
Doing the class at home means I have time to put my daughter to bed, have dinner and still be ready for yoga in plenty of time (the class starts at 8pm). Had this been a face to face class I’d have been rushing around to make it to class!
I actually love doing it in the comfort of my own home with the lights turned down low and candles lit around the room.
The Benefits of Pregnancy Yoga
I asked Charyn to share with me the benefits of practicing Yoga in pregnancy and here’s what she had to say…
I often talk about how much I got out of yoga during both of my pregnancies. Only now that I’m teaching myself, do I fully understand the “why” behind the effectiveness of a regular practise…
1. Stretches The Hips. We dedicate a lot of our time in class to poses that are specifically designed to help open out the hips and pelvic region. This is the area of the body baby needs to manoeuvre it’s way through into the world, so practising moves, that create space and suppleness in the pelvis make for an easier birthing process
2. Teaches You To Breathe. Seems like common sense as it is something we’ve done every day since we were born ourselves. But utilising the breath correctly, can have amazingly powerful benefits, keeping us calm, helping to relieve pain and to relax and surrender to the process of birth, rather than trying to fight it. Every class, we focus on simple techniques that help us extend the out breath, triggering our parasympathetic responses, lowering our heart rates and taking us into a state of calm focus and relaxation
3. Encourages Baby into the Right Position. The poses we use focus on creating space in the right places and using gravity and motion to rock baby into the optimal position for birth
4. Relieves Stress. Being stressed during pregnancy can have negatIve effects, on both mum and baby. Yoga is a really great practice to train your body and your mind to relax and let go of mental and physical burdens weighing down on us. Mastering this skill in class means there is a good chance you can apply it during birth as well
5. Enhances Body Awareness. Birth requires you to be in tune with your body and your baby. Yoga focuses the mind-body connection by teaching us to take notice of how slight and subtle changes in our posture, movements and contact with the earth beneath us brings change to how we feel, physically and mentally
6. Strengthens the Muscles involved in birthing our babies. Yoga gets lots of attention for its ability to stretch the body, but not as much attention for its ability to strengthen. The moves we practise build physical strength and stamina in legs, core and back muscles… all of which very much have an active role to play when birthing our babies
7. Yoga Teaches You to Move. Using movement, rocking, rotation and enlisting the help of gravity are all things we build our yoga practise around. There’s a crucial link between the way we use movement in class and how we instinctively then use this same movement during labour and birth. A regular practise helps us to be confident in our ability to trust our intuition and use movement, when the time comes, to birth our babies
The Social Side
The social aspect of the class isn’t completely lost on Zoom. In the class everyone has their camera on and says a quick hello and update on how they are. Charyn has also set up a WhatsApp group which everyone is a part of. This is a very active group with everyone regularly chatting on it and sharing everything from their home baking to advice on birth plans.
Further Details of Classes with Mamababybliss Wycombe
You can join classes with Charyn from 14 weeks pregnant right up to giving birth.
Price: It costs £65 for each 6 session block
Where: Classes are currently being taught online zia Zoom due to Covid restrictions. Once restrictions are lifted they will be held at Hughenden Village Hall.
When: Classes are held on Monday evening at 8pm and Saturday morning at 10am. All the classes are recorded so you can catch up in your own time if you miss the live class. Whilst the classes are online you get access to both sessions for the same price too! The next block of classes starts w/c 29th March.
How to Book: Click here to book.