Now and again people ask if I teach or would teach a prenatal yoga class.
The short answer is no. The long answer is yes; always, of course.
I do not host a specifically prenatal class; such classes are hard to maintain fiscally, hard to hold class numbers high enough, and it is impossible to randomly pick one time during the week when all the interested pregnant women could make class. It doesn’t help much if I do offer a class Wednesday mornings, if four out of five people can’t make that time slot. In my experience, holding a prenatal class is too small for too big a need.
I do, however, teach pre, post, and fertility yoga. I also know that fertility and health often times include loss of a child, aging, and sexuality issues that a ‘prenatal class’ doesn’t touch. While pregnancy certainly does have specific practices in the yoga tradition, I also believe that fertility touches men’s health as well as women’s, that bio, psycho, and social aspects of gender, identity, self esteem, health and wellness span relationships and life cycles, and yoga has specific tools and suggestions for ALL of these things. The question is not what prenatal yoga is, but what your process is and where you are.
My recommendation is this: take a private session to discuss your own needs, goals, and circumstances. You will learn in a private or two the poses that will help and the way to avoid or modify poses that are contraindicated for pregnancy. Once you have done this, you can attend ANY yoga class, anywhere, safely and effectively. Of course, you can continue taking a private sessions as you need and want the individual feedback and support. I believe that individual feedback and support is crucial; pregnancy, sexuality, and fertility issues are profound embodied and psychological experiences, felt individually and existentially. You deserve such support.
Once you have that foundation, I strongly recommend attending the healing classes. Unlike a once a week, hard to get to prenatal class, healing classes are held five nights a week. Classes are small and tailored specifically to who shows up for class. Each class explores specific healing postures and meditative traditions for our own unique needs.
Those who have a long yoga practice behind them can absolutely attend strong classes the full term of pregnancy, provided they are willing to make appropriate modifications.