understanding the needs of a pregnant woman

Many yoga teachers feel wary of teaching pregnancy yoga classes. However apart from offering a valuable service to your local community the addition of pregnancy yoga classes to your repertoire can give you an edge in the marketplace.

If you are a yoga teacher and you have not been through a pregnancy yourself or if you have had a bad experience during pregnancy it may be difficult for you to empower women in your class. Most women are not taught some very basic information during their ‘routine antenatal care’. Perhaps having this information for yourself can really enable you to feel that you are helping those whom you teach.

To begin with it is important to understand that throughout pregnancy a woman must keep her adrenaline levels low. Yoga is the perfect answer. Throughout a woman’s pregnancy a woman releases oxytocin which is a love hormone and gives a woman a sense of well-being. During pregnancy this hormone is released slowly and with fluctuations reaching a significant peak at about a thirty-nine weeks of gestation.

Interestingly oxytocin is released during lactation, sexual activity, sharing a meal and trusting someone. If a woman is part of a society that represses sexual satisfaction then this will affect her birth. If you routinely disturb one aspect of sexual physiological process then the birth will be difficult. In her book Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom Dr Christiane Northrup cites from Gayle Peterson's book Birthing Normally that women labour in the same way that they live: 'Labour is a crisis situation for most women. They approach it the way they approach any crisis: some believe they are powerless, whilst others try to assume control.' Birth is definitely a balance between control and surrender, but the controlling aspect applies to how a woman strengthens her mind and body in anticipation of labour and birth whilst allowing herself to acquiesce in the event.

Adrenaline suppresses oxytocin, having said that it would be nigh on impossible for a woman to keep her adrenaline levels low throughout her gestation, conflicts in day to day life will always arise. You play a vital role in keeping a woman’s oxytocin levels at an optimum level by offering your trust and facilitating a woman’s ability to surrender to her body. The practice of relaxation and breathing techniques will help to combat the negative effects of life’s stresses and strains. Some of the conflicts that arise for a pregnant woman actually occur during ‘routine’ antenatal care resulting in a nocebo effect. This is when medical professional activity causes harm rather than good. Antenatal visits are about detecting disease therefore it has a nocebo effect. Technology is at a huge stage of advancement and more and more tests are introduced into routine antenatal care. Most women are given information that may worry them but which they can do nothing about, the information is rarely 100% accurate. Often medical professionals don’t realise that it is their duty to make the woman feel calm. As a prenatal yoga teacher you need to anticipate the negative effects of an antenatal visit. Encourage a woman to ask the antenatal team that has been appointed of their philosophy on pregnancy, labour and childbirth. If it conflicts with the woman’s own philosophy then an independent midwife may be the route to take. A supportive care provider will do much to keep a woman on an emotional even keel. Their support during labour and birth is beyond monetary value.

Another point of awareness for a pregnancy yoga teacher is to understand that most women who have not given birth before make decisions about where they want to birth, how they would like to adorn the birthing room and who they would like present at the birth using their new brain or ‘neo-cortex’. However, for a woman to release the flow of hormones to instigate labour and carry it through to birth she needs to allow the deepest part of her brain, her primal brain or ‘hypothalamus’ to take over. The decisions made during pregnancy with the neo-cortex are made logically and in line with the cultural milieu, the reality is that the woman may have very different needs transmitted to her by the instinctive brain or hypothalmus when it takes its signal from the baby in utero to kick-start labour. As a pregnancy yoga teacher it is your job to help a woman connect with her instincts by practicing moments of inner reflection in the class using calming poses, partial pratyahara, chanting, meditation and breath awareness; anything that draws the mother away from external stimulus and loosens up her inhibitions.

Reducing adrenaline so oxytocin can reign, understanding nocebo and reflecting inward may require a shift in conception of pregnancy and childbirth. A woman may come up against oppostion from people close to her and she will need the strength to introduce her ideology in a way that makes others think beyond all they have come to believe childbirth to be and gain their support. As a pregnancy yoga teacher you can imbue your classes with poses that promote inner strength such as Virasana (Hero Pose), Virabadrasana I and II (Warrior Poses), Supta Baddha Konasana (Supine Cobbler) and the Ujjayi Breath (Victorious Breath).

Finally, the process of birth is transformative and the best thing you can do as a teacher is encourage a woman to trust in and listen to her own body and in particular her heart. Encourage a woman to make judgements based on whether a feeling of comfort or discomfort arises when she is faced with decisions such as ultrasounds, hospital birth, home birth, pain relief, bottle or breast. Inform yourself and offer guidance based on dilligent study and volunteer your yoga class as an antidote to life’s pressures. A renowned natural childbirth pioneer called Michel Odent once told me that for society nothing should be more important than the emotional and physical health of a pregnant woman to achieve a better evolution of civilisation. He told me: 'think of your work as being beyond the individuals you know. Beyond your own story. Think longer term for the better evolution of civilisation'. Hopefully your experience of teaching yoga to pregnant women can bring its own sense of fulfilment, altruism and humility to you.

Vicky Oliver RYT500 conducts pregnancy yoga teacher training programmes throughout the year. Her course is informed by her own experiences of pregnancy, labour, water birth and lotus birth at home. She has taught pregnancy yoga for ten years. The course explores the nature of a forgotten birth physiology that is simple and empowering and covers all three trimesters of pregnancy. Yoga Alliance 'Continuing Education Units' can be earned with this course. See www.whYoga.com for pregnancy yoga teacher training and www.yogabananas.com for children’s yoga teacher training.