pregnancy
Vicky Oliver RYT500 is an experienced prenatal yoga therapist. Vicky believes that the strength, stamina and mental focus fostered by a yoga practice are unquestionably the most powerful tools that an expectant mother can use to facilitate a joyful birth. During pregnancy you share your body with your developing child and its lifeline, the placenta. Through yoga you can deeply connect with your body to understand the profound significance of these changes. Vicky has devised an appropriate practice for pregnant women based on her own experience of yoga through three pregnancies and her understanding of the important role that instinct plays in childbirth gleaned from two home water births and one home lotus birth. Vicky’s prenatal classes aim to teach pregnant women to listen to this deeper instinct and attune themselves to its call.
Estabished classes at Balham and Earlsfield Library on Monday and Wednesday evenings respectively at 7pm - 8pm and at 10am - 11am on Friday morning near Leatherhead.
posture and breath
The ‘asanas’ or postures are effective at easing tiredness, swollen ankles and shortness of breath. The emphasis on breathing makes space for the internal organs, instills mindfulness, draws a higher level of oxygen into the womb and more overtly fosters the mother and baby bond; for you share one breath. A mother who connects with her breath in pregnancy will be able to draw upon its support during the mystery and wonder of labour and childbirth.
meditation and chanting
The classes aspire to connect you with your primal brain through gentle meditation and chanting. This is the part of the brain that is guided by instinct and should dominate through labour. Yoga during pregnancy counteracts the daily stress experienced by so many working womb-mothers and offers a time to ‘be’; be in the body, be with the breath. Finding time to live in this way can prove very difficult although a weekly yoga class will do much to help. As a womb-mother you carry infinite potential within your body, an honour that carries a huge responsibility. In order for you to nurture and protect your foetus you must first nurture and protect yourself. Yoga is the key. Vicky Oliver attended doula training with Dr Michel Odent (obstetrician) during her third pregnancy in 2004 and honed her understanding of birth physiology and 'primal health' (the time in utero and in the first year). She holds yoga teacher training in pre and post-partum yoga for yoga teachers which is recognised by the Yoga Alliance.
See yoga training for more information.
an individual approach
If you are looking for an individual approach to preparing for birth and if you would like to learn more about the physiology of birth then Vicky recommends that you enrol on the one day whYoga for Pregnancy course (Physiology Module). Here Vicky will guide you through an understanding of birth physiology and teach you how to prepare for the birth experience. This course is incredibly powerful and empowering.
Click here for more information and to book.
Popular private yoga sessions are also available at Vicky's garden studio in Great Bookham.