Pregnancy & Active Birth Yoga Courses

Q: WHAT is the 6 week pregnancy yoga course like ?

Pregnancy yoga classes are gentle, safe and beneficial for you and your growing baby. Along with practising pre natal yoga and breathing exercises that prepare you for birth, these classes explore topics that will increase your potential of achieving a natural and empowering birth.

WHEN DO I START ?

You can start at any stage in your pregnancy.   As the classes cycle round every six weeks you can start anytime.

Q: what is the pregnancy birth skills workshop about?

As well as exploring Active Birth Skills such as Breathing in Labour, you will be moving in the class, releasing tension from your pelvis and strengthening your buttocks & legs.  You will be  practicing yoga postures that are relevant to birth like standing, squatting, lunging, all fours and resting postures.  Mindfulness and relaxation techniques are included in every class. There is clear evidence that using upright positions in the first stage of labour reduces the duration of labour, the risk of caesarean birth and the need for an epidural.

WHAT ACTIVE BIRTH SKILLS ARE COVERED in the workshop? 

• Relaxation skills

• Affirmations

• Optimal baby positioning

• Visualisation in pregnancy & labour

• Breathing for pregnancy, labour & birth

• Vocalisation in labour & birth

• Labour : first stage using active birth positions

• Birth: second stage using upright birth positions

WHAT ARE THE FEES ?

Pregnancy Yoga - 6 week course - $150

Pregnancy Birth Skills workshop - 5 hours - $150 

Going with gravity

This article by Janet Balaskas, founder of the global Active Birth movement, clearly describes our approach to birth.

In an active birth, a woman is not confined to a bed. She is free to move during labour, and to give birth spontaneously in a position of her choice, according to natural birth giving instincts. This instinct is strengthened during pregnancy as a woman learns to trust in her body’s natural ability to give birth. Active Birth preparation, often with your partner, helps you to become more confident.

In an Active Birth you will choose your own way to move, and to be still, depending on how you feel and how your labour is progressing. You will instinctively find your own way to make your labour more comfortable, and to help your body to align with gravity during your baby’s descent through the birth canal. This in turn will send a better blood and oxygen supply to the uterus and baby, making birth easier and helping to prevent complications.

Releasing your own Birth Hormones

When you are in labour and giving birth, your body produces an ‘internal cocktail’ of birthing hormones, including Oxytocin and Endorphins, ‘the love hormones’. These regulate the birth process, stimulating the involuntary muscular responses of your uterus. They also promote attachment and love—in other words, bonding between you and your baby. This dual capacity of the birthing hormones to influence muscular and emotional responses simultaneously is Mother Nature’s blueprint for survival.

When you have the freedom to move and can labour in a peaceful and private place where you feel safe, undisturbed and unobserved, you are able to release very high levels of Oxytocin and Endorphins. This makes the birth process faster and easier, as natural relaxants stimulate good reflexive uterine contractions and help you to transcend pain and experience pleasure. 

Learning how you can optimise this natural production of birth hormones will help you to ensure that birth is efficient and the bonds of love between you and your baby are established from the outset. This primal relationship at the time of birth when you and your baby are transfused with love hormones forms the foundation for your relationship with your child and also baby’s capacity to love. It is the prototype for all future relationships.

Active Birth recognises that the ability to birth is instinctive to all mammals including ourselves. Our ‘body centred’ approach invites you to awaken this awareness during your pregnancy and develop connection with your instincts through your body memory. As you begin to sense the innate ability to give birth that is common to all women, your confidence will grow. Any fears or anxieties will turn to relaxed and joyful anticipation.

Your Empowered, Educated Choice

Active Birth places you at the centre of your pregnancy and labour – rather than your birth attendants. By educating you about the physiology of birth, Active Birth gives power and control to you – the birthing mother. You will discover that pregnancy is not a medical condition, and that most woman are able to give birth without medical intervention. As a result, you will be confident in making the key decisions about your own birth.

This releases the potential for you to give birth physiologically and naturally, and for you and your baby to benefit from the release of hormones that are present in ‘every facet of love’ (Michel Odent).

This is one reason why many parents choose Active Birth and why, even in special circumstances, it’s always best to stay as close to nature as possible and to restore the physiological connection between mother and baby, so the production of love hormones can continue through holding, breastfeeding and close contact in the weeks and months after birth.

Wherever you choose to birth your baby and whatever your antenatal preparation, Active Birth is fundamental and what you can learn from us is invaluable and empowering.

Testimonials

CLASSES TESTIMONIALS

“Thank you for the wisdom and resources you provided in both your private class and the active birth yoga classes, we had a spontaneous labour with natural vaginal birth. The birthing team were very proud of me and stated they felt privileged being part of such a birth (a rare occasion they felt). I found the use of breathing, letting go, positioning and vocalisation extremely helpful throughout labour and birth. I found practising visualisation and breathing in class and at home built my confidence in myself and my body ‘to do what it does’ and things came to me naturally. I am recovering very well and my baby girl appears to be settling into life outside the womb .”       Rebecca

“I had in my body all that you had taught me and found an instinct and power inside of me that I think is so often lost in our busy, modern, over-thinking world.”     Cassie

“I particularly liked the focus on our partners for the full day workshop and the lead up with just the mums for the weekly active birth yoga classes. The lessons I learnt about natural birth through yogababy were invaluable for me during labour. The most inspiring thing I learnt was the technique of slow breaths and sound vibrations during each contraction to manage sensations and keep control. I went on to use this technique for my whole labour and went on to achieve the natural, drug-free birth I was hoping for.”      Susannah

“Thank you for the pre natal and active birth yoga courses! My husband and I used all the postures and the songs you taught us during the classes to control breathing and achieve a drug free vaginal birth. After 20 hours (8 of which were established labour) I delivered a healthy 8lb baby boy. Due to the empowerment you helped me feel during my first ever pregnancy and labour experience, I found myself approaching parenthood with confidence and strength. Suzanne, you truly have a gift for enabling women to trust their bodies. Thank you a thousand times over!”         Kelly

“The active birth yoga classes helped transform my first pregnancy and birthing journey. When I joined the class, I was terrified of giving birth and thought it would only be safe under highly supervised and medicative conditions. The classes allowed me to connect with myself and my growing baby and this gave me the confidence to work with my body to aim for a natural birth. My labor, though painful, was a positive and pleasurable experience. My son, now one year old, makes me laugh everyday. Thanks again for offering this wonderful class and for your mentorship throughout. ”        Michelle

“Active birth classes gave me the confidence and knowledge to deliver my baby boy without medications or intervention. After a whole day of pre-labor at 37 weeks I wasn’t sure whether this was the real thing. Thankfully mum drove me to yoga which was the week where we learnt how to cope in the first stages of labor and sure enough Suzanne’s techniques helped me to hold off going to hospital until 5pm the following day. A few hours later I was in a birthing pool, leaning against my crying husband with a little baby on my chest- bliss. Suzanne has a wealth of knowledge and helped me to understand what actions I need to take to prepare myself and to move my baby into an ideal birthing position. I will recommend Yogababy to all my friends!"       Prue