Yoga during pregnancy can be an empowering way to help prepare yourself for birth and the arrival of your new baby. No yoga experience is required, you don't have to be flexible or co-ordinated, this kind of yoga is about practising your innate but often forgotten ability to connect your mind and body and harness your natural feminine energy.

Movement and breathing exercises are suitable and adapted for any time during your pregnancy, to help you gain strength in your body and learn how to relax, making it easier to adapt and adjust to circumstances as they arise in childbirth and in your first days with your new baby.

Pregnancy yoga includes breathing techniques, exercises for lower back support and alignment, shoulder and neck tension, pelvic floor awareness and deep relaxation.

Birth preparation with shiatsu, yoga and mindfulness for mothers-to-be and their birthing partners, gives you exercises to help you birth with awareness and joy, so that you are supported by your partner using shiatsu massage, in sitting, standing and laying positions that naturally express the amazing energy of birth.

The focus is to help mother and partner prepare for a birth that is as natural as possible. Even during medical interventions you can still utilise the energy flow of birth to make it a mindful, meaningful and wonderful experience.

I encourage students to dress comfortably in loose, natural fibre clothing that allow you to move easily. I recommend buying your own exercise ball for home practice.

Pregnancy yoga and birth preparation are available in workshops in the UK and on private retreats in Sicily.

You can also follow exercises for birth preparation on my blog.