Unity Yoga

Yoga is a safe, simple and a natural way of preparing the pregnant woman for motherhood and the baby for childbirth. The practice of yoga during pregnancy greatly enhances the vitality, mobility, general health and emotional well-being of the expectant mother; it also provides a valuable quiet space in which to form a bond with the unborn child and to prepare for birth.
On a physical level, yoga movements (asanas) improve circulation, strengthen postural muscles and help to alleviate or prevent some of the minor discomforts of pregnancy such as heartburn, backache, hip joint and ribcage aches.
Pranayama (breathing exercises) ensures a proper supply of oxygen, blood and energy to both foetus and mom, and reduces fatigue.

Emotionally, yoga and meditation reduce and control stress, anxiety and fear. Yoga also improves general mood and the ability to manage pain. Meditation can also create a deeper awareness and connection with the baby.
A yoga practice of asanas, pranayama and meditation creates mental focus, concentration, discipline and stillness, enabling a smooth pregnancy and a relatively easy childbirth.
Class description
The Unity Yoga program of weekly classes offers a comprehensive system for learning and using yoga throughout pregnancy, labour, and birth. Students learn simple but effective yoga postures to manage common physical ailments that can occur during pregnancy. Students also learn breathing, relaxation and visualisation techniques to build confidence and assist in easeful birth.
The classes offer a complete program of breath-work, relaxation, postures, movement, voice-work and meditations suited to all stages of pregnancy, from 12 - 42 weeks. We recommend beginning the classes in the third month of pregnancy and continuing throughout (once or twice a week, as time permits) in order to gain maximum benefit, but it is possible to begin at any point in your pregnancy. A minimum of eight classes enables you to acquire a basic ‘embodied memory’ of the key techniques. The practical usefulness of the yoga increases in proportion to the woman’s familiarity with the techniques taught, and familiarity comes through repetition and variation on a core range of practices. This is particularly important in relation to the breath-work and visualization that is the foundation of the yogic approach to gentle birth.

Unity Yoga also runs periodic Yoga for pregnancy workshops open to pregnant women and their partners and to yoga teacher who wish to learn how to make pregnant students safe in their classes.

Those who have difficulty in affording a class should discuss this with their teacher, as we have a scheme for limited numbers of non-paying students to support them in attending certain classes.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 4th, 2006 at 11:18 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.