I’ve been a prenatal yoga teacher since 2001, when I fell in love with the opportunities this time offers us to transform our lives, connect to our inner power and wisdom, and become the person we want to be.
As a lifestyle educator, transformational group facilitator and prenatal yoga teacher trainer, I help moms and moms-to-be change the challenges of this time into ways to discover their own possibilities.
When I became pregnant, I loved being part of a community of other pregnant women in our classes. But when I became a mom, I realized that the moms were scattered everywhere, and it was too hard to drive so far with baby to get together – and I needed support more than I ever had in my life.
I had worked in a hospital setting for six years as part of my Masters in Exercise Science, developing and running a group visit and prenatal yoga program. Our clinical study looked at the three most loved parts of prenatal yoga: relieves aches and pains, helps us let go of stress and feel optimistic and happy, and gives us a support system of experts as well as other moms and moms-to-be.
In 2009, I founded Ma Yoga® for Pregnancy, Motherhood & Beyond to provide these benefits to as many mamas as possible. Ma Yoga is an internationally registered teacher training program and global community that trains teachers to inspire, guide and support moms and moms-to-be, as well as help them start their own “Mama Circles”- yoga classes for moms and moms-to-be – in their own neighborhoods.
Once we had more than 10 locations in Southern California, the word spread and moms-to-be wrote to us from all over the country – and even the world. While we know that in-person yoga is more effective than online, we also know that many women don’t have these classes in their area; they can’t afford them; or they can’t afford childcare to leave home and go.