Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training
With Kirsteen Ruffell
Stop, move, recover and pay attention to your body and inner world, to look at your baby with eyes full of quietness and confidence.
On this course you will learn to instruct a range of holistic progressive postnatal yoga practices from the early postpartum (the first days after birth) through the postnatal year. These practices have been developed over several decades of teaching and observation and are equally accessible and appropriate to women new to yoga and those with an established personal yoga practice.
Teachers may use this course to go on to teach postnatal yoga classes in a range of settings including home visits, dedicated postnatal classes with or without babies present through the postnatal year, or integrated with baby massage or baby yoga classes. This course provides an ideal development for teachers who already give prenatal classes to follow on with specialised yoga after birth.
Practices are taught within the context of postnatal anatomy and physiology and with respect for each woman’s individual experience of pregnancy, birth and her recovery journey. Birthlight practices acknowledge the fact that a good postnatal recovery, whatever the birth experience, contributes significantly to each mother’s long term health and well-being and to her ability to bond deeply with her baby over time.
“ I found this course to be very healing, confronting, informative, joyful and connective. It has given me a lot of knowledge and support to my own postpartum time and in future I can see it will enable me to help woman in this vulnerable stage of their life. Kirsteen is a lovely teacher who was very open to all our questions. She brought us together as a group and made us feel confident in our process.
”
ONLINE LEARNING WITH BIRTHLIGHT AT YOUR OWN SPEED
As part of this course, and if you want to graduate with a teaching certificate, you are requested to join Birthlights’ training resource area. This is a rich resource for your on-demand learning where you will be able to access a lot of recordings of the practices taught on the training to help you remember and review the the teaching points, benefits and variations. There are also quizzes, sample lesson plans, articles and links to further your education, access to the recordings from the zoom online part of your course and downloadable forms to complete your coursework.
You will be invited to join once enrolled, the fee is approx €50.
-
A holistic approach to creating deep pelvic floor tone, core strength, pelvic stability, and spinal alignment through Birthlight’s original micromovement practices.
A progressive way to deal each woman’s needs: allowing women after caesarean births and those with pelvic floor damage.
Physical, emotional, hormonal and spiritual aspects of yoga to ensure a solid foundation for wellbeing as a new mother.
How asanas can be adapted progressively so each each woman can recover at her pace through the postnatal year, from supine, raised sitting, all fours and prone positions, to classic sitting, kneeling and standing postures.
‘Off the mat’ yoga practices that new mothers can use in their daily lives while caring for their babies.
Fun interactive practices with babies but the main focus is on the mothers’ wellbeing.
Simple therapeutic practices to alleviate common ailments that do not warrant medical treatment yet compromise day-to-day quality of life for many mothers.
Both gentle and restorative practices to dynamic flow sequences; they all can benefit women new to yoga as well as advanced yoga practitioners.
The course is open to:
For yoga teachers, maternity and baby health professionals:
Qualified yoga teachers. A teaching qualification in yoga is recommended but not mandatory.
Maternity and baby health or baby massage professionals.
This short video is about postnatal yoga classes and what you can expect during the postnatal training. The prenatal and postnatal classes are offered by Studio Vandaan. Studio Vandaan specializes in relaxation and movement before, during and after pregnancy, with fertility, prenatal and postnatal yoga. They offer you small scale and personal yoga classes, workshops, courses and retreats at Yoga Moves locations.
Free Postnatal Yoga Session
If you're a new mum, come along to 1 or more of these free sessions with Kirsteen, Birthlight tutor, as part of the Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training. Students on the course will be present and on hand to help you too.
All sessions will include stretches to undo tension, tightness and realign your spine, strengthening practices to start regaining tone in your abdominals and pelvic floor and to stabilise your pelvis. And not forgetting relaxation to nourish and restore your energy.
Babies are very welcome at all sessions and will be included not ignored as we'll also look at ways to hold, carry & pick them up in ergonomic ways and interactive practices that you can take home with you along other short practices that you can fit into your day. We don't expect babies to be quiet and you can feed, change and comfort your baby at any time without needing to leave the room! Everyone's postnatal recovery after birth will be different and we aim to give you the most appropriate practices for you individually so you can go at your own pace. Please bring a baby blanket to put your baby on.
Session 1
Mums & babies 3 to 8 weeks after birth
Saturday 11 November | 11.50 - 13.00 | Studio FLY
SIGN UP
Session 2
Mums & babies 8 weeks to 16 weeks after birth
Sunday 12 November | 11.50 - 13.00 | Studio FLY
SIGN UP
Session 3
Mums & babies from 3 weeks to 4 months. Partners are welcome, co-parents need some stretches and relaxation too and we'll do some partner practices that you can do at home to aid mum's recovery.
Sunday 12 November | 15.30 - 16.45 | Studio FLY
SIGN UP
Dates: Saturday - Monday | 11 - 13 November 2023
Times: 11.30 - 19.00 with an hour lunch break
Location: Studio Fly | Croeselaan 209 | Utrecht
Price: €469 (includes VAT)
(Not included: the fee to access the online learning member area with Birthlight: approx €50)
About the teacher:
-
Pre-reading
Students will be sent some pre-course reading and thinking when they enroll.Studying materials
A very comprehensive manual given at the start of the course
Resources available via the Birthlight training resources website.
On-going Birthlight support
After the first part of the course, students will get support from their tutor and fellow students via online groups and will have access to a dedicated members training website (learning resources, business and marketing resources, film clips, latest research).Assessment
There is a practical teaching assessment on day 3 and home study.
During the home study that follows the course, coursework consists of a worksheet including 20 questions, one case study with either 1 group or one-to-one over a minimum of 3 sessions, a minimum of one observation of another postnatal class when possible and a book/DVD review. It should be submitted within six months following the course in order to receive the full certificate.
-
Qualification
The Postnatal certification is awarded after assessment of coursework. Course work will include reviewing some online content in Birthlight online learning space.Accreditation
Successful completion of Part 1 and 2 Perinatal Yoga plus Postnatal Yoga together create a comprehensive training of 8 days intensive, in 4+2+2 (or 3) days plus coursework that satisfy the requirements to register as a Yoga Alliance Professionals (UK) Prenatal teacher.On successful completion of the training, teachers will be able to list their classes on the Birthlight website.