Pregnancy is hard. It wrecks your body, tortures your back, and stretches your skin. It makes you cry during bank commercials and yell at your dog for breathing too hard. Pregnancy makes you pee when you sneeze and your ankles swell to resemble something like melted marshmallows. But we can find relief right here in Urbana at our very own Amara Yoga.
Amara is currently offering a Prenatal Yoga and Preparation for Birth class taught by doula and yoga teacher, Tami Mor. I went to my first class on Sunday, which far exceeded my expectations. I had taken prenatal yoga before and found it very helpful with relaxation and muscle tone. Shortly after I gave birth to my daughter, my obstetrician asked, “Do you take yoga?” “Well, yeah,” I said, confused and wondering if I had somehow contorted myself into the one-legged king pigeon pose during labor. “Yoga students are always my best pushers!” he said.
I don’t know if my yoga training actually made me a better pusher, but hundreds and hundreds of Kegel exercises had to have done something!
The prenatal class is made up primarily of women in their second trimester seeking to educate and prepare themselves for natural childbirth, but the class is open to anyone who is expecting and seeking relief and comfort during pregnancy.
Traditional yoga poses are tailored to fit the expanding pregnant body and designed to bring comfort and relaxation to mom and baby. Not to mention, the class ends with a full ten minutes of guided relaxation. A new topic is covered every class, ranging from postures to nutrition and meditation. This certainly beats any hospital’s “hee-hee, hoo-hoo” breathing class any day. The class is offered 5:30–7:00 p.m. every Sunday at Amara Yoga.