For months in yoga class you have been practicing deep abdominal breathing - rocking the baby forward on each inhale and hugging your child close with each exhale. Now, in the labor room, your mind wants to run away from the pain of contractions in your belly, yet over the months you have disciplined yourself to stay with the sensations. You may draw a circle of golden light around your baby on the inhale, then send light through your baby like nectar through a sieve on the exhale.
Many women continue with formal yoga instruction after the birth of a child.
In some cases mom and infant classes are offered. Classes can focus on helping the mother to restore her own fitness level using the child primarily as a prop. Other classes consist of yoga exercises for the new mother accompanied by some movement for the infant. Yoga instructor Helen Garabedian offers classes which focus on babies and toddlers where mothers who may or may not have previous yoga experience teach their babies. We spoke with Helen about her work with baby yoga.