Adapting Yoga For Pregnancy

This week, we're highlighting our conversation with Lily Dwyer Begg centering on how expecting parents and their yoga instructors can safely practice the yoga arts.

Lily is the director of Home Yoga Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training. She has led prenatal teacher trainings for the past 9 years at Charm City Yoga, Yoga Works, and at Zen Space in Japan. Lily has practiced for over two decades and taught yoga full time since 2006. She has taught in yoga studios internationally, worked with an NBA basketball team, an NCAA diving team, professional dance companies, and therapeutically with private clients across the globe.

Lily runs a thriving virtual practice platform with Vinyasa, Prenatal, and Postnatal offerings, international yoga retreats, and a once yearly 100% online (via Livestream Calls and Pre-recorded Lectures) Yoga Alliance Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training that next runs live, via Zoom in Winter 2022/23 starting the weekend of December 10th.

She currently makes her home in Baltimore with her husband and two young sons.

You can visit her website here and find her on Instagram @lilydwyerbegg. As a gift for watching this webinar Lily has offered our audience $100 off on her upcoming Prenatal Teacher Training with code BEYOGI. Save now while spots are still available!

Yoga Modifications for a Healthy Pregnancy Journey

With so many different ways to practice yoga, the lifestyle is easily adapted for all bodies, no matter what stage of pregnancy they're in. Lily says pregnancy requires plenty of strength and stamina on its own, and her classes take that into consideration.

When teaching prenatal students, she says there are three main tenants to follow:

• Keep students as comfortable as possible
• Help prepare the nervous system to remain calm during delivery day
• Support an optimal return to post-partum wellness and quality of life

Tips for teaching yoga to pregnant students

Through lecture and slides, learn the benefits and contraindications of a prenatal yoga practice, learn anatomy and physiology trimester-by-trimester, and understand common pregnancy related discomforts that might come up both on and off the yoga mat. Learn to support your pregnant students in order to feel strong, safe, and empowered in your yoga class.

>>DOWNLOAD SLIDES HERE<<

Enjoy a short posture lab to learn to adapt a few common poses and breathing exercises from your traditional yoga class for pregnant students so that you can cultivate a more inclusive, empowering, and professional classroom environment.

Accommodating each pregnancy stage

Just as prenatal medical care changes each trimester, so should your approach to yoga. More active poses may become more difficult over time, and common pregnancy symptoms may affect overall ability.

Avoid risky poses

Exercise that creates abdominal pressure, like situps and crunches, should be avoided during pregnancy. Instead, try more core-conscious poses and exercises that don't create stress on your stomach.