How to Teach Prenatal Yoga
Teach Prenatal Yoga
Pregnancy yoga is a beautiful way for mothers to connect with their bodies. The benefits of prenatal yoga extend well beyond just exercise; it can help women feel empowered during a particularly vulnerable time in their lives and teach them skills to cope with any difficulties that may arise during pregnancy or postpartum.
There are many ways to learn how to teach prenatal yoga; most of which involve completing a teacher training course and observing experienced teachers. Our comprehensive Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training at Sweet Pea Studio will prepare you to work safely and effectively with pregnant students, whatever stage of their pregnancy they are at.
Our training is led by our Lead Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training, Amy Connor, who will guide you in developing your teaching style and skills so that you can offer a safe, caring and nurturing experience to all of your future students. Our training focuses on learning through direct experience and includes planning, practising and delivering 3 one-hour long Prenatal Yoga classes (plus 2 Postnatal Yoga classes) at Sweet Pea’s studio which will be peer reviewed and assisted by the Lead Teacher.
How to Teach Prenatal Yoga
During our training, you will be provided with a free unlimited studio membership to use throughout the training and 30 days following. This is to enable you to meet your class observation requirements for the course and continue building your teaching experience after graduation.
You will also complete reading and viewing/listening assignments as part of the training. This includes reading material that covers topics such as yoga, pregnancy, the birth process (including cesarean birth), and female pelvic and reproductive anatomy. It may be in the form of books, articles or online content. The training also requires you to spend at least five hours observing other teachers and attending their classes in order to gain practical teaching experience.
In class, encourage your students to practice only what feels comfortable and listen to their bodies. They may feel dizzy in some poses, so avoid forward folds, going from head down to head up quickly and sun salutations. Encourage them to breathe deeply and use props when needed.
One of the most rewarding aspects of being a Prenatal Yoga teacher is building community. Encourage your students to get to know each other by inviting them to introduce themselves at the beginning of class. It’s a great idea to set up an online community for your students too so they can keep in touch and support each other outside of class. A Slack community or Facebook group works well for this. Also, organise Mums and Bubs meet ups with past pregnancy yoga students if you can. Creating community is so important to new mothers and it’s an excellent way for them to share stories and get advice. It can also be a fantastic way for them to make friends with other Mums who are experiencing similar things as they are. It can be very lonely to be a new Mum and having a network of supportive people can really help!