Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training Course Contents

 

 

 

Thank you for your interest in pregnancy yoga teacher training. In recent years pregnancy yoga has become very popular, and there now are quite a few courses offering training for teachers in this field. I view this as a positive development, enabling you as a prospective trainee to choose a course that most precisely meets your needs, and enables you to teach your students appropriately.

​

When you are weighing up the relative benefits of the courses on offer, it is helpful to know the key differences between them. In brief, the training I offer equips you to:

​

•  design and teach appropriate yoga classes and private sessions to all pregnant women, including those with previous yoga experience and practice and those who are new to yoga, and those in the early postnatal stage;

•  teach a full range of holistic yoga techniques that enhance a woman's experience of pregnancy as a preparation for motherhood, and in the immediate postnatal period, including asana, paired asana, pranayama, nada yoga, mudra, bandha, mantra, prana vidya, dharana, meditation, and pratyahara through yoga nidra (deep relaxation);

•  to understand the philosophical and spiritual basis of yoga in the context of the emotional journey towards birth and motherhood, and to use that understanding as the basis of all pregnancy yoga teaching, and for the immediate period of postnatal recovery.

​

​

The course involves obligatory detailed observations of pregnancy yoga classes and/or DVDs (as broad a range of approaches as you are able to find), and three short assignments that help you to focus your learning in a practical manner by creating handouts, publicity material and health questionnaires for your future students. Towards the end of course there will be an appraisal session at which your teaching is observed by experienced pregnancy yoga teachers. The appraisal is conducted in a supportive and mutually respectful manner, so that most trainees find this experience to be hugely enjoyable, and often comment that the appraisal session was one of their favourite parts of the course.

​

If you want to know more, then please read on:

​

One of the distinctive features of the training I offer is that it encourages you to think for yourself and to develop your own style and method of teaching pregnancy yoga within a clear framework of safety guidelines.

One of the other distinctive features of this training is that it gives equal emphasis to each of the pancha kosha (physical, energetic, emotional, wisdom and bliss bodies). This means that the training provides balanced instruction across all of these topics: asana, pranayama, nada yoga, mudra, bandha, mantra, prana vidya, meditation and yoga nidra (deep relaxation). 

​

My aim is to give you the information and practical training you need to enable you to respond with joyous creativity to the needs of your pregnant students. If you have any questions, please do email me at janine@yoyogis.com.

 

Pre-course Information and Preparatory Work.

​

The course is spread over 4 full days. The aims of the course are:

​

1. To provide an holistic approach to the safe, appropriate and practical application of yoga in pregnancy;

2. to equip participants with the tools to plan and teach yoga classes and courses for all stages of pregnancy, including asana, pranayama, mudra, mantra, relaxation, nada yoga and meditations for pregnant women;

3. to provide a clear understanding both of the key principles of anatomy and physiology relevant to pregnancy, and of the social and psychological changes characteristic of the transition to motherhood;

4. to enable students to re-consider pertinent aspects of yoga philosophy in relation to this major period of change in women's lives, and offer a practical framework for the integration of these philosophical and spiritual approaches into the teaching of pregnancy yoga in a way which incorporates both an awareness of the pregnant woman and of her baby; and

5. to encourage a critical awareness of a range of different attitudes to pregnancy (both within different traditions of yoga practice, and in a wider cultural sense) in order to empower students to evaluate others' perspectives and develop a clear rationale for their own approach to the uses of yoga for pregnancy;

​

Pre Course Assignments

​

When you enrol on the course you will be emailed detailed joining instructions, but so that you are aware of what these will be;

​

a.) About 2 weeks prior to the course start date you will be asked to submit the following short pre-course work:

​

Please write a brief written reflection (2 sides of A4 maximum) addressing the following:

1. What experience do I have of yoga for pregnancy?

2. Why do I want to do this course?

3. WhatdoIhopetogetoutofit?

4. What do I hope to put into it?

​

b.) In preparation for the course, please endeavour to sit in and/or participate in as many pregnancy yoga classes as you get the chance to do before the course starts. You are very welcome to attend any one of the pregnancy yoga classes listed on the website at www.wombyoga.org/teaches/profile that is searchable by area – this is a list of teachers who have trained with Uma.

After each class you need to complete a class observation form – this form will be emailed to you in your joining instructions. The more time you take considering your responses to the classes, the more you will learn from what you observe. It really is worth thinking thoroughly about what you observe; this is why I have given you the questions on the record sheet. You can do these handwritten or use an electronic version. Please either send the records of the classes to me before the course starts, at or just bring them with you on the first day of the course.

At the very least please try to attend 3 pregnancy yoga classes before the course starts; more is better though if you have time and provide a  written up observation sheets for all of them. 

There will be other short assignments and homework (in the form of preparing handouts and short paragraphs of reflection) during the course. Details of these will be in the course manual and are there to ensure you assimilate the course teachings. These will need to be completed in order to receive a certificate of completion.

​

Reading

​

There is a long bibliography in the manual, but the single best book to get started with is

Mother’s Breath: a definitive guide to yoga breath, sound and awareness practices during pregnancy, birth, postnatal recovery and mothering by Uma Dinsmore-Tuli. Please read the first and last sections if you haven’t got time to read the whole bookbefore the course start. Also Uma will be using her book, ‘Teach Yourself Yoga for Pregnancy and Birth’ (Hodder and Staughton 2008), during the course to refer to diagrams and practice descriptions.

You are also strongly recommended to look at Uma’s most recent book Yoni Shakti These books are available from www.wombyoga.org and www.yogamatters.com.

​

If you have any queries at all about the course, please do not hesitate to contact me at

janine@yoyogis.com

​

All the best, Om shanti, Janine