|
|
| I am a yoga teacher, YA certified, and I'm about to start teaching my first full vinyassa, ashtanga-style class at the beginning of the year. I've been a steady practitioner myself for over a year now, and am quite excited about beginning to share this great school of yoga with others.... however....
I just discovered this week that I am expecting my 2nd child. I have two questions regarding this....
1.) How should I modify my personal practice? I have heard many views on this and don't know what to think.
2.) Should I still agree to teach this class that has already been put on the schedule for the studio? My teaching style is about 30-40% demenstration and 60-70% adjusting/observing, but b/c this is a new class and there will be many people brand new to ashtanga attending, I may need to do more demonstration, at least initially. Please let me know what I should do! I need to let the studio owner know by the end of the week! Thanks for your help! |
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Ummmm...shouldn't you be able to ask your mentor teacher about how to modify your practice? I don't want to sound rude but I would think a good teacher training would include knowing basic mods for pregnancy, wouldn't it? I know philosophies differ on this, but I would recommend looking at Patricia Walden and Linda Sparrowe's book on yoga for women. It offers the Iyengar perspective which I believe is very safe.
There are so many other questions to consider - how many weeks pregnant are you? How healthy are you now and how healthy were you in your last pregnancy? How long is the course? Will you be able to find a sub if you are suddenly not able to teach? A lot of stuff to consider before you make that final decision. |
|
| |
|
| Glenda
I don't think my teacher training really dealt too much with pregnancy because it is a huge topic. Other than a few mentions of this or that should be avoided if you are pregnant. They have entire teacher trainings and yoga practices devoted to pre and post natal yoga. Furthermore, I have never heard ashtanga people really mention it so I am not surprised that April is a little confused.
April
You need to get some pre natal training and figure out what you can and cannot do. As for teaching. All the yoga moms I know taught class up until their 9th month so you shouldn't worry about that. However, you should consider modifying your teaching style to suit your condition. I would only do demos that you are extremely comfortable in and only those that are OK'ed by your teachers for pregnancy. You have to adopt your teaching style. You should be able to verbally lead your entire class without the need for any demos. Furthermore, you should get used to using other students to demo poses.
Don't cheat and use the most flexible girl all the time for all your demos! Mix it up. Grab different people of varying abilities and use them for demonstration purposes. Talk them through the pose in the front of the class and adjust as needed and use them as a model and point out the various key details of the pose. You can contrast people of different body types and skill levels to show different variations of poses for people of varying levels.
This will make you a better teacher. Best of luck.
Keith |
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Keith, you are right, of course, that pregnancy is a whole other subject and needs deeper study to be teaching it regularly. But it is really important to know at least the basics because so many women come to yoga in the early months of a pregnancy for a "gentler form of exercise". I am in no way qualified to teach a full pre natal class but I know enough to be safe with a typical, healthy pregnant mom.
As far as I can recall from conversations with yogadancer, there are as many opinions on this in the Ashtanga community as there are teachers. April, if you do a little searching on this site you will find some informative threads on the topic. My Iyengar training makes me a little on the conservative side but we do allow women who have a strong practice to do headstand and other inversions. But I would want a senior teacher (someone who has practiced and taught for over 10 years perhaps) to make that call, not me.
I guess what shocked me about the original post was the idea of coming online to ask advice about this. I know I am extremely lucky to have a strong community of teachers to call upon when I need help with something, but I do expect anyone who is teaching or taking any sort of training to be hooked up somehow with someone with more experience and practice to ask questions of. Every teacher (IMHO) needs a mentor or advisor to check in with, to discuss and debate with and to keep them moving on the yogic path. Even if it is a peer rather than someone more senior, although this is not ideal, there should be someone you can turn to. I have a mental picture of someone who didn't take the time to come here and ask and just went ahead and taught, possibly injuring herself, her baby or a student because there was noone to guide her. Not a pretty thought. |
|
| |
|
| tourist
I agree with you 100%. I wasn't trying to be dismissive before. I was just saying that I don't think 200hour certifications have enough time to adequately cover prenatal stuff. Sad reality. That's why you have to keep learning as a teacher and as a practitioner.
Yes, going to a senior teacher especially someone that has has experience carrying a baby while continuing to practice would be the ideal place to turn. Definitely do not look to me for such advice. 
|
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| When I started my Iyengar training and was told it would take 3 years, I thought it was a long time and that I would know SOOOO much by the time I finished. Now that I am nearly finished (and it has taken a bit more than 3 years for various reasons) I can't believe how much I still don't know. I simply can't imagine 200 hours of class time being even close to enough training. It is a start, though One good thing is that if the teacher has an issue to deal with (in this case pregnancy) and studies well and gets lots of good advice and guidance from other, more experienced teachers, she will become very well informed on the topic and will eventually be able to help others in a similar situation. We tend to teach really well the things we have had to learn the hard way through our own practices |
|
| |
|
| Thank you all for your your great advice/comments!
After careful cosideration of what you've said here and speaking to other yoginis (ashtangis and not) in my community, I think I've made a tenetive decission here.
1.) I think I will proceed w/ the class on a tenitive basis. I like the idea of having students of verious levels act as 'models' at the front of the class, thereby eliminating the need for me to physcially demonstrate most poses.
2.) My teacher training only covered how to conduct a prenatal yoga class, and even that was basic. I live in a small mid-west community, and the teacher training I chose was quite vast in scope and not at all style-specific for issues such as pregnacy. My ashtanga practice is pretty much self-taught, though I do occasionally attend classes and workshops with a friend in Minneapolis.
3.) I'm only about 5-7 weeks along, and think I am going to keep with a modified primary series for my personal practice. I went through slow surya namaskars A/B for the first time since I found out I was pregnant and it really helped me feel not so tired through the day. It also helped some with the nausea.
Glenda... yes, I can understand your shock about me asking a question like this online, but I do live in a relitively small yoga community (me and 2 other YA certified teachers), and as was mentioned, not too much is said on ashtanga and pregnacy, so I just thought I'd thow it out there and see. Also, I was already nervous teaching a vinyassa class, and this just adds a whole new element.
Thank you all, and anymore advice about how to teach/conduct the upcoming class in a safe and effective way is appreciated!
April |
|
| |
|
| Sounds like a good plan you have there April--wish you and your yogi/ini to be good health as you progress--maybe you'll have twins...or puppies! Hey, if it's a bulldog, can I have dibs? My wife has two cats and they need something to keep them on their toes. |
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| April - I am so fortunate to be in a very strong Iyengar community and since I am on the west coast, it is very yoga-friendly in general. I think my Higher Self put me in the middle of all this yoga either because I have a great yoga destiny or because I would have had to be brain dead not to bump into it somewhere along the line    So in a way, I am spoiled... I don't know if I suggested this before but you might want to pick up The Woman's Book of Yoga and Health : A Lifelong Guide to Wellness -- by Patricia Walden and Linda Sparrowe for really good pre and post natal practices. Very important non-yoga advice: remember that each pregnancy is different and you may feel totally different this time around so try to think of this as the first time. Judge how you are feeling day by day on how you really are feeling and not so much measured against the last time. And enjoy!! |
|
| |
|
| Good luck with your new class.
I'd also suggest Patricia Walden's book. There are lots of modifications I'd show to you, but frankly, most of them are Iyengar and Sivananda-based.
The first thing to go will be your center of gravity, I'm finding with my students. Then the ability to forward bend (1st trimester: straight spine vs. bending over. LONG spine: think "inhale up" as the forward bend, both standing and sitting). Legs apart when the belly is in the way. Twisting? Nope. Long spine. Parivrtta Parsva Konasana, for example: block on the inside of the foot, LONG spine instead. No chakrasana after awhile. Why tempt fate? Avoid hugely raised or quickly changed temperatures. Cover someone in Svanasana, slap them onto their sides and put a bolster between their knees.
Preggy yoga is extremely non-Ashtanga, as Ashtanga really doesn't support modifications. Remember: in time, all things come. Including babies, IMHO. So do your research for both yourself and someone else who shows up preggy. Ironically, once someone produces progeny, people tend to decide they must know about preggy yoga. Well..... it does make for a more well-rounded teacher, but since we're in charge of our students, we have to learn. I don't have kids, don't want 'em, and am being forced to learn myself because of a very strong, very in touch student I have. She's fabulous and I'm learning a lot thanks to her.
Please note that YA does not offer certification, so that is a misrepresentation of your qualifications. You can register with the Yoga Alliance after fulfilling certification requirements through yoga schools or studios, but YA does not offer certification. Your own teacher training should be pretty clear on this.
Congrats!
Christine |
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Christine - you're back! How are things, how's the big guy? Hope all is well and he is on the mend from whatever it was.  |
|
| |
|
| Happy New Year and thanks for asking, Glenda.
Christmas Eve they changed is IV antibiotics and narcotics to pill form and shipped him home. As a nurse had previously said, "Anyone who can walk is getting sent home because the doctors and nurses aren't coming in over the weekend."
Sure 'nuff, he's in the same shape he was when he went in, since they can't figure out what's wrong. Unfortunately, the pills don't have the same pain-killing ability that the liquid joy (his words ) does, so he's having trouble standing up straight, eating, etc.
He say his Primary Care Wednesday, who has scheduled some tests for when he's done with the antibiotic pills and hopefully the antibiotic-induced infection is cleared up. I thought it was a rule they had to mention possible side effects...!?
Anyway, thanks for asking.
I hope things are going well for you and your little family!
Christine |
|
| |
|
| "... antibiotic pills and hopefully the antibiotic-induced infection is cleared up. I thought it was a rule they had to mention possible side effects...!?"
As a matter of fact, they only have to mention side effects if you Ask, and even then many try to remain evasive. Actually many drs will not mention side effects, and I even know one GI specialist office that removes all the pamphlets from meds prior to giving them out, mainly because for many it's not uncommon to develop such side effects just from hearing about them. When they left the pamphlets in the boxes they would receive a lot calls claiming to have some odd side effects that in all the studies may have only showed up in less then 1% and here they were getting upwards of 70% of their patients with those symptoms. There has been many studies done on the power of suggestion, this is basically the same thing as the placebo effect in reverse.
Not that I really have any idea what ya'll are discussing, just figured I'd mention that since it's a common misconception. So in the future, if you really want to know, ask. Or better yet ask a pharmacist since they are the ones that are actually trained on the meds. The drs, on the other hand, get most of their information from the sales people.
Be Well |
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| The pharmacist has been my best friend many a time And no, the pills are nowhere near as good as the liquid joy but better than nothing, I suppose. He hasn't eaten any worms lately has he? I recently heard of a teenage girl with impossible to diagnose symptoms who had eaten a worm on a dare and didn't want to tell her parents even when she got really sick
As for side effects, people really are very suggestable. My DH will get any and every side effect listed if I tell him what they are. I keep telling his doc to just give him placebos because I'm sure they would work just as well as the real stuff, at least for a while.
Well, give him lots of hugs for us, Christine. We'll send lots of light your way and hope he is feeling better soon! |
|
| |
|
| You've made some good points that all should know!
I guess I should have been more clear. We do ask. This family has more weird medical stuff going on that 10 families combined, so we learned a long time ago to be specific.
However, when greeted with this antibiotic-reaction infection, we were told that we weren't told because it wasn't a common side effect. I think we've learned we have to pry information about our own healthcare out of these people with a chisel.
I mean, really. They're dealing with a man whose nerves run down the opposite side of his body than "normal," who is allergic to -cane drugs (novicane, cocaine, etc.), might react to something, particulary if it's "not normally" seen? But perhaps I expect too much of people who are fascinated by my husband's ability to shut off bleeding (he cut off his thumb) mentally...?
No, Glenda, no worms. Although he's not a picky eater, I don't think he's done that. At least on purpose that is! :LOL
Ahh well. We'll keep working on it. At least when he finally does go to the doctor he'll do what they ask. Sure, it's in a state of desparation, but he does go nonetheless!
Christine |
|
| |
teacher in a potential bind...
