A Weekend Immersion in Pregnancy Yoga and Holistic Birth Practices for Yoga Teachers with Lolly Stirk

Embark on an innovative Journey of Pregnancy Yoga and Empowered Holistic Birth Practices

A Weekend Immersion for Yoga Teachers, Midwives, Hypnobirthers, and Childbirth Educators

Dates: October 5 & 6
Time: 10:00 – 17:00 hrs
Investment: CHF 290.-

Course Content

In this immersive weekend, you will learn how to teach specialized yoga perfectly designed for pregnant bodies on every level. The focus will be on posture and alignment with gravity, rather than traditional postures.

Breathing Techniques: We will take a dynamic approach to breathwork and introduce ‘hypnobreathing,’ an innovative method to help pregnant women achieve a deeper level of consciousness by lowering adrenaline and increasing oxytocin and endorphin release. This reduces fear and builds trust, creating a relaxed state conducive to a healthy pregnancy and labor.

Childbirth Education: Learn how to integrate childbirth education physically and intellectually into your classes. This includes using gravity-assisted positions and positive, subliminal suggestions, helping women tune into their instinctive movements and the deeper aspects of yoga.

Pelvic Anatomy and Physiology: Understand the clever design of the pelvis and how it adapts during pregnancy, labor, and birth. Learn about the dynamic anatomy and physiology of the pelvis and pelvic floor, how to manage pelvic girdle pain, and improve strength and balance in this area.

–Addressing Common Pregnancy Complaints: Gain skills to identify and address many common physical complaints during pregnancy from the ground up.

Key Topics Covered:
– Active Birth: History and philosophy
– Hormones: Mind/body effects
– Principles of Working with the Body: Not against it
– Creating a Forum: For information and communication
– Use of Props: To enhance posture, relaxation, and sleep
– Environment, Water, and Complementary Therapies: For labor and birth
– Positions for Labor and Birth
– Optimal Fetal Positioning
– Hypnobreathing

Schedule:
– Saturday: 10:00 – 17:00 hrs (with a lunch break; bring your own)
– Sunday: 10:00 – 17:00 hrs (with a lunch break; bring your own)

As part of the course, you will be invited to join one of Lolly Stirk’s online pregnancy yoga classes on the www.mother-time.co.uk platform, where she and her colleague Claire Whitman offer regular sessions.

This immersion includes a recommended book and website list, the latest guidelines for teaching pregnancy yoga, and other up-to-date information.

Lolly Stirk

She began studying yoga in 1970 with B.K.S. Iyengar. Over the years Lolly has worked with various esteemed yoga teachers, culminating in her time with Vanda Scaravelli, author of ‘Awakening the Spine’. She continues to be inspired by her husband John Stirk, Author of several books on yoga. The most recent being ‘The Original Body’ and ‘Deeper Still’.

With the birth of her daughter in the 70’s she was drawn into the world of birth. Her career has spanned over four decades and has been dedicated to creating the ideal practise for pregnancy, labour, birth and beyond. She trained as an NCT teacher, is a qualified hypnobirther of many years and has attended hundreds of births.

As a founding member of the Active Birth Movement in 1980, she trained scores of Active Birth Teachers and campaigned for the rights of women to move freely during the births of their babies. This contributed to a global movement towards natural births which resulted in changes in policy, establishing birth centres in many major hospitals. Lolly will recount some stories of this exciting time and the positive effect it has had on our understanding of birthing today.
Lolly has lectured to obstetricians, midwives, and midwifery students in hospitals on physiological birth and breath work. Lolly remains and has always been grateful for the safety net of modern medicine and technology when necessary. She also believes wholeheartedly in the capacity of women to give birth ‘on their own steam’ given the right environment and education, both physical and intellectual.