Postnatal (mother and infant) Yoga

The time after giving birth holds many challenges. Private or semi-private yoga instruction will help you return your body to a state of ease and comfort, and helps you to regain vitality, strength and equilibrium. Mother-baby partner exercises will bond and delight you both.

"Portia is a wonderful instructor. My son and I experienced her classes both pre- and post-natally and enjoyed both immensely. Portia is very in tune with the general dynamic of each individual class, and is flexible enough, in terms of her teaching style, to "go with the flow" and work with what the participants seem to need that week. This is especially the case with the post-natal class in how she knows that it is time to do more baby stretches, or that the babies are calm enough so that the moms can do more mom stretches.

My son seemed to know Portia from day one, because he heard her voice weekly even before he was born. She was one of the first non-family members to whom he smiled! He loves the baby stretches, and Portia's explanations of the poses are so complete that we perform them at home on a regular basis. Outside visitors are always impressed to see how happy and calm my son becomes while doing yoga.

In addition to Portia's intuitive instruction, we also enjoyed the other participants in the classes. Especially in the post-natal class lunches we had a chance to chat with other moms and have the infants interact with one another. This was always fun, informative and connecting. We (my son and I) really encourage new moms and moms-to-be to take yoga from Portia!"

"I started to attend Portia Brockway's Monday night prenatal class when I was just 15 weeks pregnant. I had taken some prenatal yoga classes with another teacher but realized immediately that Portia's soothing voice and emphasis on relaxation and flow were what I desired.My weekly yoga class with Portia soon became essential to me. It was the one thing I did for myself, without fail, every week during my pregnancy, until I was 40 weeks and a day along. As my belly grew over the months, so did my appreciation for Portia and for the class.

Yoga helped to slow me down. It gave me space and time to relax and to focus on myself and the baby that was growing inside of me. The stretching, and emphasis on breathing and imagery all helped to reduce pregnancy aches and tension, to keep me in shape and to prepare for labor and birth. I would always leave class feeling both wonderfully relaxed and energized at the same time. Portia would end each class by leading us through a relaxation exercise. Her voice, thick and soothing like honey, the candlelight, the soft music and the imagery would always calm me, often to the point of falling asleep.

My husband and I both felt strongly about preparing ourselves to have a natural childbirth. We attended Bradley classes for a few months but, in the end, it was the breathing and the relaxation techniques that I had learned through Portia that most helped me to deliver a nine and a half pound baby boy without any medications or interventions. In fact, during my labor, as I lied curled up on my side breathing deeply through my abdomen, I could hear Portia's lulling voice, "rock your baby forward". If you take the class, you will know what I mean!

The class also became an informal support group, made up of mothers-to-be who, for the most part, were fit, healthy women tuned into their own bodies and very much connected with their babies. It was such a joy to watch each others' bellies grow and to anticipate our births together. Being in a room full of other pregnant women is indeed a powerful thing.

Two and a half weeks after Aidan was born, the two of us returned to yoga, this time for the Wednesday morning postnatal class.It was so nice to have a place to go to so soon after giving birth, someplace where I could take Aidan and feel totally comfortable.I was again able to see the women from my prenatal yoga class who had delivered before me, and also meet new people. It was like coming home. Portia and her classes became an integral part of my childbirth experience. They are so intertwined, that there is no way for me to separate them. Now, whenever I meet a pregnant woman around here, I always recommend Portia's classes because I want others to experience the same emotional, physical and spiritual benefits that I did."