Prenatal yoga

Most prenatal classes will be focused toward level one students, including those who have never done yoga before. But this doesn’t mean that a prenatal sequence won’t give your body a workout. Part of the benefit of taking yoga while pregnant is that you get a chance to experience strong physical sensations in a safe place, where you can practice not mentally running from them. While holding a wall squat or a strong hip opener such as ankle-to-knee for the typical length of one contraction, you get the chance to practice being present and to relax through the intensity (rather than tensing). With sufficient time, this can become a different way of looking at sensation so that strong sensations later (like, say, those labor contractions) become less frightening. This will help you minimize tensing against them, allowing your body to relax and open more—and voila, baby! In this way, a prenatal class will work with you, regardless of the level of your practice.