Pregnancy- / Mums & Babies yoga
Pregnancy Yoga 
The primary focus of our Pregnancy Yoga classes are to support and enhance your pre-natal experience.
Our aim is to encourage a sense of relaxation and confidence all the way through your pregnancy up to, and including, labour.
Our Pregnancy Yoga classes are suitable for anyone over 12 weeks pregnant.
No previous experience of yoga is necessary.
It is advisable to begin your pregnancy yoga as early as possible in your second trimester and to attend the classes regularly as this will help you to really embody the breathing, relaxation techniques, postures and movements, so that you can readily utilize them during your labour and birth.
You will also find that as you progress you will feel more prepared for labour and will have learnt useful practices you can take with you. Our students are encouraged to work at their own level and with awareness of their body and baby.
Benefits of Pregnancy Yoga include:
- strengthening and toning the muscles
- encouraging deep relaxation
- encouraging effective breathing techniques for labour
- strengthening the bond between mother and baby
- helping to alleviate ailments commonly experienced during pregnancy
Postnatal Yoga for Mums & Babies
Postnatal Mother and Baby Yoga classes are open to all new mums with babies aged 6 weeks (or 8 weeks post-Caesarean) to 7/8 months old (pre-crawling).
No previous experience of yoga is necessary.
Based on the Birthlight approach, these yoga classes are specially designed to aid new mother’s postnatal recovery whilst also allowing time for engaging, bonding and relaxing with baby.
These classes will help new mothers to regain strength in their body, to open and release areas of tightness and tension in the back, neck and shoulders, and to find space for relaxation.
We aim to gently tone the abdominal muscles from deep within, allowing them to knit back together, and look to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles in conjunction with the breath: a ‘closing of the body’ after pregnancy and labour.
The classes also focus on the re-alignment of the spine and pelvis, and encourage an awareness of posture in all movements, including the care and handling of baby.
An emphasis on the breath throughout the class helps to develop a sense of wellbeing, and we build in time for relaxation so both mothers and babies feel nurtured.
We explore postures and practices mums can do with and without their babies so they can easily continue their yoga at home.
Classes are informal, fun and relaxed, and mums are free to feed, change, comfort or soothe babies to sleep whenever necessary. It’s a wonderful and friendly environment to meet new mums or reconnect with familiar faces from your Pregnancy Yoga classes.
The benefits of Postnatal Mother and Baby Yoga include:
- strengthening & re-aligning the physical body after pregnancy & birth
- helping to re-energise the body as well as enjoy relaxation
- helping to settle babies and improve sleep patterns
- enhancing bonding and communication between mother and baby
- improving confidence in handling baby
- encouraging physical & emotional postnatal healing from deep within
Your teachers
Sarah Burgess
is a fully qualified Peri-Natal yoga teacher, having attained her qualification from Birthlight (www.birthlight.com)Sarah has been practising yoga since 2001 and teaching since 2006. She became interested in teaching pregnancy yoga as so many of her students were becoming pregnant and she wanted to help them continue with their yoga journey in a way that helped them stay safe and well throughout their pregnancy. The Birthlight approach to pregnancy yoga really helps women to enjoy their pregnancies, to bond with their babies and to prepare actively for birth.
Birthlight yoga for pregnancy is accessible to all women, whether they are yoga practitioners or new to yoga. Birthlight has pioneered adaptations of classic yoga from pre-conception to the postnatal year and continues to innovate with both micro-movements and flow sequences. Classes are small and supportive and Sarah creates a very caring, relaxed and nurturing atmosphere.
Birthlight is the 1st Pre and Postnatal training provider recognised by the Federation of Antenatal Educators and is the only Pre- and Postnatal training provider accredited by The Royal College of Midwives.
Susanne Haegele
is a fully qualified Peri-Natal yoga teacher, having attained her qualification from Birthlight (www.birthlight.com)I discovered yoga as a way to heal my back pain and it became my passion. I began teaching in 2008 in a traditional hatha yoga lineage after taking teacher training in India in 2007.
Over the years, I branched out into other styles, training and teaching extensively in yoga nidra, hormone yoga, kids’ yoga, and lately pre- and postnatal yoga (with Birthlight).
I also teach Vinyasa and Yin, which complement each other perfectly.
I have lived and taught in France, Spain and Italy before recently moving to London.
The aim of my classes is to show students how to use the simple, yet profoundly effective yogic tools of safe movement, breath, relaxation and meditation in their everyday lives so they can heal and thrive.
Testimonial
I enjoyed the pregnancy yoga classes which I took with Sarah very much, especially the balance of relaxation, stretching and pelvic floor exercises.
All exercises were easy but effective during pregnancy.
In addition, she often brought the baby into the exercises which was nice and helped with bonding even though he was still in my tummy.
It was also really nice to meet up each week with other pregnant mums-to-be and hear how they were experiencing their pregnancy.
Sarah is a great teacher who teaches the class in a relaxed and caring way. She would always ask at the beginning of her class how we were feeling and if we had any pains.
Depending on our answers she would teach the class focusing on the painful areas in order to make them less painful. Also she gives you tips as to what exercises you can do at home. She always makes sure that you listen to your body and finds an alternative for you if a certain exercise is hard or uncomfortable for you.
The main benefits of the pregnancy yoga class I felt during my pregnancy was the relief and avoidance of pregnancy pains, especially back pains.
Especially after a class I would feel great, so relaxed and had more energy. As for the benefits during labour and birth they were that I could control my breathing and with that the pain and that I stayed relaxed during the whole labour and birth. I would highly recommend these classes to all pregnant women wanting to find more ease in their bodies during pregnancy and birth.
Maureen T, now mother to baby Noah
Attended regular weekly pregnancy yoga classes with Sarah from 14 weeks to the end of her pregnancy
"Susanne’s teaching voice was confident and gentle at the same time, we chanted OM in the beginning and end, and also she chanted another mantra during our relaxation.
The instructions were very very clear and she took the time with most of the poses to give the students a quick explication on the benefits and mechanics.
I especially likes the kicking foot back with all fours and releasing "tension and whatever we don’t need". Also the spiraling movement of the hips from small micro-movement to larger movements was very nice.
The demonstrations were also very clear.
The students were made to feel very comfortable and the explanations on how to ‘work’ the perineum was very simple and accessible.
She was able to cover many poses and include plenty of focus on the breath, We did the Brahmari breath at the beginning of our relaxation, perfect ending!".