"Yoga, when combined with a cardiovascular exercise such as walking, can be an ideal way to maintain fitness when you're pregnant. When you stretch or do yoga, you're toning your muscles and limbering up with little, if any, impact on your joints - good news for pregnant women.

Yoga is also beneficial because it helps you breathe and relax, which in turn can help you adjust to the physical demands of labour, birth, and motherhood. One of the first things you learn in a yoga class is how to breathe fully. The breathing technique -- known as ujayi -- requires you to take in air slowly through your nose, filling your lungs entirely, and exhaling completely until your abdomen compresses. Learning how to do ujayi breathing primes you for labour and childbirth, because it trains you to stay calm when you need it most. When you're afraid -- during labour, for example -- the body produces adrenaline and shuts down the production of oxytocin, a hormone that makes labour progress. Yoga training will help you fight the urge to tighten up when you feel the pain, and show you how to breathe, instead." Source: http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/fitness/yoga/

Yoga Instructors in the Midlands/Warwickshire area:

Janet Dobbie
Tel: 01788 860987
Email: janet.dobbie@tiscali.co.uk
Address: CV23 0DD

Richard Gordon
Business URL: www.bwywestmidlands.org.uk/richardgordon.htm
Tel: 01926 330208
Email: richardpgordon@ntlworld.com
Address: CV32 7HN

Mrs Janet Cooper
Tel: 01384 861733
Email: janetcooper@blueyonder.co.uk
Address: DY9 0YQ

Mrs Susan Prosser
Tel: 0121 743 5839
Email: Susan.g.Prosser@xoserve.com
Address: B92 8SD
Additional Info: I teach Hatha Yoga and Pregnancy yoga

Miss Maureen Howell
Tel: 07901 828 826
Email: maureen.howell@birmingham.gov.uk
Address: B20 1DP

Monica Douglas-Clark
Business Name: Monica Douglas-Clark
Tel: 07876 591190
Email: yogaoftheheart@hotmail.co.uk
Address: Sutton Coldfield, B76 1LH
Additional Info: Yoga for pregnancy classes will be starting again in Sutton from Wednesday 6 February 2008. 8 - 9.30pm. Sebastian Coe Leisure Centre, Ramada Jarvis Hotel, Penns Lane, Walmley, Sutton Coldfield, B76 1LH. Come and enjoy a relaxed, friendly space during pregnancy from 16 weeks on, share your experience with other mums to be and prepare yourself mentally and physically for birth with yoga postures, breathing practices, relaxation and meditation. I will be running the classes in four week blocks payable in advance. Each 4 week block will be £28 payable by cash or cheque at the beginning of the first class. Just bring a pillow/cushion and a blanket. Mats and blocks are available at the Centre.