By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 I couldn’t fit everything I wanted to say about props for prenatal yoga into one post. You’ll have to wait for part 2 next week! In the mean time, I gotta say, we love our props at MamaSpace Yoga. When my students come in the door, I tell them, “Grab one mat, three blankets, three bolsters, one strap and two blocks. If you
Prenatal Yoga Safety
March 30, 2021
By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 It’s amazing what turns up when you do a Google search for “Prenatal Yoga Safety”. Just for laughs (and some seriousness), here are 10 gems that fail the Truth-O-Meter test: 1. “Any challenging yoga poses could lead to nausea and dizziness” Any? Could lead to? Do they really expect us to believe that any “challenging” yoga pose could really cause nausea and dizziness?
Yoga Inversions for Pregnancy
March 23, 2021
By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 Once again, people ask if it’s safe. This time, it’s about inversions during pregnancy. Once again, the short answer is yes. The Lineage Yoga practices (including the physical practices) were originally developed by men for men. At first, the “rules” and precautions surrounding yoga practice for women were developed by men for women to follow. While pregnancy can be a time of great
Go Ahead. Do It!
March 16, 2021
By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 Is It Safe? It’s super common for people to ask me if it’s safe to practice twisting poses during prenatal yoga. The short answer is yes. Block-Bellies I remember my own 200-hour yoga teacher training years ago. We had a memorable lesson about pregnant people in our classes. Our teacher had us stuff blocks into our tank tops over our bellies and then
Nadi Shodhana
March 9, 2021
By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 A True Story We were about halfway through a typical Thursday 9:30 AM prenatal yoga class when it happened. The fire alarm went off in the building. It was LOUD! I told my students to get up, walk toward the door, leave their yoga mats behind, put on their shoes, grab their belongings and walk down the stairs where we would meet outside.
All About Squatting
March 2, 2021
By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 Is squatting OK to do during pregnancy? Yes! This is one of the most beneficial poses to do during pregnancy. Do some version of this every day! When you were a toddler, you could squat. Easily. When we use Western-style toilets to eliminate, we have fewer daily opportunities to squat. In many parts of the world, squatting is a position of rest. With
The MamaSpace Yoga Method
February 16, 2021
This week’s post is a video. We hope you enjoy it. It’s all about the MamaSpace Yoga Method. Yes, it’s a method. It promotes optimal fetal positioning. Carol has dedicated her professional life to supporting expectant and new families by promoting gentle aware birth. She has attended births for over 35 years – at first as a doula and from 2000 to 2012 as a midwife. She has since retired
Baby Yoga and Developmental Movement
February 2, 2021
By Guest Blogger, Ellynne Skove, LCAT, BC-DMT, NCC, E-RYT Baby Spines Babies are born with their spines in a “c” curve. They have been furled into fetal position, not unlike a fiddlehead fern in the spring. The fiddlehead unfurls with time and growth, turning into a lovely full, upright, and open fern leaf. The human baby, with time, and an innate blueprint of movement patterns that involve pushing, pulling, and
Pandemic Fatigue
November 17, 2020
By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 I’ve been reading about pandemic fatigue. I’m tired of the pandemic. It’s pretty easy to fall into complaining about the things I love, but can’t do until – when? I was talking with my doctor recently. She said that she asks her patients what new thing they have learned during the pandemic. For many of us, learning is a key to happiness. What
Why Fertility Yoga?
November 10, 2020
By Carol Gray, LMT, CST, RPYT, ERYT-200 I Was Hooked Several years ago when I was a student in a San Francisco prenatal yoga teacher training, my teacher mentioned a fertility yoga sequence that she had practiced when she wanted to start her family. Instantly intrigued, I asked her if she was going to teach it to us. She said she didn’t have time to add it to the current
