Pregnancy Classes
PLEASE NOTE
You can join our Pregnancy Yoga Courses at ANY time!
If the pregnancy yoga course you would like to join has already begun, please get in contact and so long as there is space in the class we will adjust the course fee accordingly.How can yoga improve my pregnancy and birth?
Yoga should be the first choice of exercise for any pregnant woman. Widely recommended and promoted by midwives and doctors, it is considered the safest all round exercise for women during pregnancy and an ideal birth preparation programme.
Our ongoing 12 week pregnancy courses cover everything the pregnant mother needs to keep her fit and well during her pregnancy, remedy many of the common pregnancy complications like back pain and oedema and prepare and empower her physically, emotionally and spiritually for birth. After one hour of yoga, we end with fifteen minutes of healing deep relaxation allowing the body to release tensions, the mind to become still and the mother to create a deeper connection with her growing baby.
What the classes cover:
- Spinal alignment
- Yogic breathing and birth breathing
- Pelvic awareness
- Loosening the hips and pelvis
- Toning the birthing muscles
- All over body strengthening
- Active birth positions
- Optimal fetal positioning
- Deep relaxation and Visualization techniques for pregnancy and labour
- Fear management techniques
- Nutritional Advice
- Space and time to connect with your unborn child
Classes suit all stages of pregnancy from 14 - 42 weeks.
For class information, please refer the Class Timetable page.
Partners classes and midwife talks
We are also running a number of optional supplementary classes that include a FREE session with independent midwife Annie Francis, and a special one day in-depth birth prep workshop for you and your partner which prepares you both for the labour and birth process. For further details on these classes please contact nadia@batterseayoga.com.
About Nadia
Trained initially in the Sivananda yoga tradition, ex-journalist Nadia has gone on to explore other schools and styles of yoga including Ashtanga Yoga and, at the other extreme, Scaravelli yoga. More recently she has studied yoga with Donna Farhi and continues to study with the British Wheel of Yoga.
Becoming a mother, three times over and experiencing three very different birth experiences (including one breech presentation and emergency caesarean and one vaginal birth post caesarean at home) transformed Nadia's understanding and experience of yoga as a birth preparation practice. Since then she has specialsed in teaching yoga for pregnancy and birth. Nadia completed her antenatal yoga diploma and foundation training with Birthlight under the tutorship of Dr Francoise Freedman. She is also a fully trained and accredited Birthlight Baby Yoga teacher and has completed a special training with Ingrid Lewis in supporting VBAC women through birth.
Nadia is also a qualified and recognised birth doula having trained with Dr Michel Odent and Liliana Lamis and has attended home births and hospital births at Chelsea and Westminster, St Georges and Thomases hospitals. She has also gained certification in hypnotherapy at the London College of Clinical Hypnosis and is already incorporating this into her work both as a Birth Preparation teacher and a doula. Nadia passionately believes that with adequate preparation a gentle birth is possible for everyone and that yoga, more than any other practice, helps to prepare the way.
When not teaching Yoga and mothering her brood, Nadia occasionally writes for the press on pregnancy and birth related issues.
Nadia's New Blog is now
available at www.BecomingMother.co.uk it is filled with interesting articles and links related to birth and parenthood, as well as many illuminating birth stories!
Nadia's recommended reading list for pregnancy & motherhood (with amazon links) click here.