A step-by-step guide to ease pregnancy and child-birth. The fantastic general benefits of yoga are already very well documented, but for a pregnant woman it is the ideal exercise, keeping the body supple without straining and used to relieve pain in labour and ease childbirth. "Yoga for Pregnancy" offers a unique programme of classical yoga technique - breathing, movement and relaxation - which have been specially adapted to suit the needs of each stage of pregnancy - helping to prepare for the birth and for getting back into shape afterwards. Simple step-by-step text and clear photographs show you how to plan yoga sessions and perform the various techniques. Safety has always been given top priority, enabling the reader to work confidently on their own without a teacher. There is also a helpful chapter devoted to labour and birthing positions. No previous experience of yoga is needed, nor any regular exercise, before starting.
Table of Contents
YOU ARE PREGNANT; How Yoga Can Help You; Getting Started; Planning your Yoga Sessions; Anatomy of a Yoga Session; THE YOGA EXCERCISES; Stage One: Centring and breathing; Stage Two: Breathing with gentle movement; Stage Two: Breathing with vigorous stretching; Stage Three: Centre of gravity; Stage Three: Standing exercises; Stage Three: Floor exercises; Stage Three: Exercises with breath, energy and sound; Stage Three: Useful labour and birthing positions; Stage Four to Six: Completing a yoga session; Beanbag sequence.
Author Biography
Francoise Barbira Freedman is a mother, yoga teacher and anthropologist. She specialises in medical anthropology and lectures to midwives. In 1988 she founded Birthlight - an organisation dedicated to improving the experience of childbirth through yoga. Doriel Hall took up yoga during her first pregnancy. She later trained as a yoga teacher then studied further in India. She is a trustee of the Yoga Bio-medical Trust, and has been training teachers for the government body of yoga in the UK since 1986. The author of Starting Yoga, she writes and gives workshops on various aspects of yoga.
