My move towards teaching baby yoga was triggered by my own bumpy journey through conception and pregnancy and the ensuing exhaustion and depletion that I experienced. I underwent such a profound change on becoming a mother that my old identity just didn’t fit anymore and I found myself being drawn towards all things ‘baby’. Discovering Birthlight pregnancy, baby and later toddler yoga classes helped me make sense of this transformation. Being used to a more solitary yoga practise, I had to get used to the idea of having a baby around for this – babies and yoga weren’t an obvious mix for me! It took some time to bring these two worlds together but eventually it became clear. So much of the yoga we do is about unblocking, realigning, restoring the balance. What if we could prevent some of these blockages, distortions and imbalances in the first place? This to me is the beauty of the Birthlight approach to working with babies. To simply provide the space and the opportunity for this natural unfolding of the baby’s physiology to take place – spontaneously and unforced.

My own yoga journey spans over 20 years, qualifying as a yoga teacher 12 years ago. Other areas of interest are ‘body-memory’ and physical manifestation of trauma. These were the focus of a Masters degree after years of working with the body through clothing design. I went on to lecture at Anglian Ruskin University where I enjoyed allowing students complete freedom of creative expression within my workshops and to ‘unlearn’ the more conventional methodical approaches they were used to, as well as introducing them to sustainability.

In my classes, I hope to provide a space in which mothers feel totally accepted no matter how they are feeling on the day. I also hope this in turn will help them to love and embrace where they are on their parenting journey. If it follows that babies absorb our feelings, then they too will benefit from this increased self-love, acceptance and ensuing confidence. Thus the ‘learning’ process happens through joy and love and there is little need for coercion or manipulation which can instead result in distortion and suppression of the natural self.

What a wonderful gift, to offer our children the lesson of sensitivity and respect for their own bodies while developing the same qualities ourselves!