Baby Yoga
"The experience of movement combined with touch is possibly the richest stimulation we can offer babies from birth."* In yoga this stimulation occurs through the mutual involvement of you and your baby. As yoga postures induce deep relaxation in adults, so in babies they bring a state of deep contentment.
Baby yoga is a mutually rewarding practice for parent and baby. It promotes an immediate response of wellbeing in the baby and promotes confidence and relaxation in parents. Yoga offers a rich experience for the baby's senses through touching, stroking, handling, movement and - most importantly - eye to eye contact, and time to communicate with mummy. This is balanced with time for mutual relaxation at the end of the session.
Baby yoga creates an ever expanding spiral of joy wherein parents can forget about external expectations and simply enjoy their babies' enjoyment of life. The more happiness and love a baby experiences, the more they feedback to their parent. When a parent receives happiness from their baby it lifts them and results in more positive reinforcement back to the baby, and so the cycle continues. This is the expanding spiral of joy.
Yoga with babies offers many benefits and helps their transition from reflex to conscious behaviour. During a session the parent and baby unit will play, sing and stretch together, then relax at the end. As both are fully focused on each other the baby soon learns that exercise and relaxation are complementary and can do both. This can lead to better sleeping patterns and a more contented happier baby.
As with all our classes, baby yoga is shared at the baby's pace, nothing is forced and we always work within their range of movement and ability or readiness for a pose/exercise. Each pose/movement has many variations which makes baby yoga suitable for all ages, including newborns.
Benefits for baby
Physical
- strengthens the spine and neck
- develops supple joints
- enlivens all the bodies systems, especially the digestive and nervous systems
- balances the nervous system which encourages brain development
- assists the vestibular system: the body system relating to balance and relation of the head to the ground
Emotional
- yoga is a mutual process therefore communication and interaction with the parent is enhanced
- baby feels that their needs have been listened to and responded to correctly
- behaviour is more 'settled'
Benefits for parent
- Effective for re-alignment and strengthening of the body following childbirth
- Combines postnatal yoga stretching to strengthen the pelvic floor and core abdominal muscles
- Helps balance hormonal changes that follow childbirth
- Grows confidence in handling the new baby
- Interaction and communication
- Offers a daily routine of activity which enables you to engage constructively with your baby
Above all the sessions are fun!
The sessions are taught in six-week blocks at a cost of £35.
Age ranges: 0-4 months and 4-8 months+
Each session includes: Baby massage to begin; yoga - stretching and poses; lots of singing and playing with the babies; a relaxation session to close; refreshments and time to talk and share experiences.
For the next course start dates, please go to class dates & booking.
* Francoise Freedman - Founder and Director of Birthlight. Thanks to Sally Lomas and Birthlight for expert training, photos and information. For more information on Birthlight please go to www.birthlight.com