Soma Mama Yoga

Welcomes women in all stages of pregnancy, including those women in their planning years prior to becoming pregnant.

This gentle Yoga class offers an environment to center your soul and calm your mind. You will strengthen and stretch the key muscle groups to prepare for birthing your baby, and connect with your baby and the primal wisdom of your body and mind.

Childbirth is mysterious and it teaches patience. The practice of motherhood is to sit with your feelings and your child’s for long periods of time bearing witness to the experience – studying the present moment. An opportunity exists to rediscover yourself through pregnancy and honoring your body as women often do through the practice of Yoga. The practice of Prenatal Yoga each week allows you to work with yourself not only on a physical level, but also a subtle level with emotion and consciousness.

“Birth works if you stay close to nature. The experience of labor is a slow and erratic dance at first. Labor is when the dance acquires a rhythm, then crescendo, leading to climax.” by Ina May Gaskin

Why practice Prenatal Yoga?

• Prenatal Yoga supports positive belief systems that pregnancy is a natural physical experience and that women’s bodies are organically designed by nature to birth their babies.
• Prenatal Yoga prepares women for a birthing experience where they feel physically and mentally empowered and honored.
• Prenatal Yoga encourages a woman to become familiar with and trust her primal wisdom and intuition; her maternal instincts.

"This stripe down my belly I never want it to disappear. How it gets there, no one quite knows or will tell. Hormones, yes, but why? A line is drawn, dark arrow pointing from the pubis to navel. It says watch this! I never want to go back to that small woman that shrinking violet, that girl who ate with a little fork, that lamb, that mouse. I want my linea nigra, my tiger stripe, a woman needs only one." Poem - Homage to My Linea Nigra

Resources to support, inform and nourish – Body & Mind

• Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler, MPH
• Mothering Magazine www.mothering.com
• Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
• Ina May’s Guide to Breastfeeding by Ina May Gaskin
• The Birth Survey – CIMS (Coalition for Improving Maternity Services) www.thebirthsurvey.com
• Childbirth Educator, Carrie Parker-Gastelu www.yogawithcarrie.com
• Lamaze International www.lamaze.org
• The Business of Being Born (film)
• Orgasmic Birth (film)
• Pema Chodron (she writes about practical approaches to daily mindfulness and presence)
• Buddhism for Mothers by Sarah Napthali (simple, caring and pragmatic offerings for mamas and mamas-to-be)
• Marin Bach-Antonson, Doula www.earthmotherbirth.com
• The Childbirth Center Clifton, NJ - Lonnie Morris (Women’s Wellness care as well as pre and postnatal care) www.childbirthcenter.net
• Michelle Dawson, Henna Artist (for planning, expecting and already mamas) www.bodyartbymichelle.com
• Bobbie Ellis, Director Soma Center – Pre and Postnatal Massage