Opening Circle Sharing

[Bettina Rae]

Welcome to Pregnancy and Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training. Use this thread to share your story.

[kaitlinspring16@gmail.com]

Hello ladies. Before I share my story I just want to thank you Bettina for sharing yours so beautifully.
My pregnancy journey started quite quickly. We decided to start trying around Feb 2018 and I was pregnant by May 2018. Luckily my pregnancy was a wonderful experience. I didn’t get very sick or crave wacky foods! By about 30 weeks in a scan it was clear that she was breech. So I tried some exercises at home but she had really set up camp in my belly and was not going to move. At around 37 weeks the doctors carried out an ECV on me (which is where they try to flip the baby manually). This was an extremely painful experience and I would not do it again if given the option. Oh, and it didn’t work. About a week later I started going into labour after a night of really mild contractions which I thought were just braxton hicks. Because she was still breech, I was booked in for an emergency c-section the following day. During the wait at the hospital, my waters broke and I ended up being about 4cm dilated by the time I went in for the birth. The c-section surgery itself was a good experience, I remember being overwhelmed with emotion and very scared but everything went smoothly. Once she was born, I spent the whole night awake with her just trying to figure out what to do, how to breastfeed and staring at her. I had to ask a nurse how to swaddle her and change her nappy because I just wasn’t prepared. A couple memorable shocks to the system after giving birth was the pain I felt when my milk came in, and the c-section recovery was far more intense than I expected. I had many tears, and sleepless nights but pure love for her outweighed it all.

[Christina Barrera]

Hey everyone!
I am Christina and I have been teaching yoga for 3 years now and I have been practicing it for much longer (started when I was 18). I will be 33 years old in one week. I came across Bettina’s videos after we had a miscarriage last Summer. On our 10 week ultrasound, there was no heartbeat. Had a d&c the day after. It was all very overwhelming and hard to understand because at the same time I had 5 close friends who were also pregnant. They all have their baby by now. So the past months have been a crazy wild rollercoaster.. and not the fun kind of rollercoaster.

Bettina’s story, book, yoga sessions and meditations have helped me a lot at times where I had no idea what to do. I cannot express in words my gratitude. Her videos and book have helped me to work through the grief. Still now, I turn to her videos whenever I have rough day. (The Mother’s day video was wonderful by the way.. Thank you again!)

We have been trying to conceive again since September last year but unfortunately, it is not going as smoothly like that first time. Last year we got pregnant within the first week of not using protection. Now I am on progesterone because my hormone levels are still a bit off. But I have trust and I know that it will happen. And in the meantime, I try to focus as much as possible to the things that I do have.

The reason why I signed up for the teacher training is because
1) I always kinda freak out when a pregnant woman joins my hatha or yin/yang class. I have only such little knowledge of what to do and what not. So hopefully this training will give me more confidence to welcome them in my regular classes! I would also love to start teaching pregnancy and post natal yoga classes.

2) For my own practice. I remember when I first found out I was pregnant, I was incredibly insecure to practice. I kept on teaching 4 classes a week (mainly hatha) and demonstrating asana and I actually did not feel good about that at all. I also felt extremely guilty after the miscarriage for that reason.

Soooo that’s my story! I am really looking forward to get to know the group better and to learn more about this one (still very unknown) side of yoga <3

[AnnaTorhagen]

Hi, my namn is Anna and i,m 32 years old. Thank you for your stories, they touched my heart. I live in sweden so I hope my english is ok.

I have two children, one four years old and one four months old. My first pregnancy happened whiteout even trying even though we wanted a baby, the pregnancy was wonderful with just a little nausea. I did a little yoga and some profylax breathing exercises but when I went into labour I wasn’t prepared for the pain at all, I lost control and wasn’t present in my mind. After I got a second degree tare and the pain while stitching was worse then the pain of labour and I feel that I missed out of the happy moment when my baby come up to my chest for the first time. After the love for my baby was amazing even though I had much to learn a about being a mother.

When It was time for my second child I found out that it was much harder to get pregnant this time. And because of that I found Bettinas fertility yoga And it gave me hope and I learned much about my body. While trying I got pregnant and miscarried but thanks to Bettina I think that I handled it well even though I was sad of course. A couple of months later I got pregnant again and this time all went well. I practiced Bettinas classes throughout the pregnancy (witch also where an ok pregnancy but which SI pain this time). When I went into labour for the second time I was prepared. It was a wonderful experience and I felt so present, this time I did not tare and enjoyed the first happy moment with my new baby. I have healed quickly and felt like myself short after giving birth. It is wonderful to be a mother of two.

I’m not a yoga teacher yet but want to be in the future, now I’m a preschool teacher and do a lot of yoga with the kids there. I have practised yoga for a about 8 years now. Because I love Bettinas teachings and want to share them her in Sweden I decided that this would be the first step to become a yoga teacher.

[Bettina Rae]

Oh ladies, I am having an emotional week and these posts have made my heart so so happy. It touches me to hear how my work has impacted all of you and I really can’t thank you enough for sharing your stories.

Kaitlin, I remember that first night in hospital with my first so well. Feeling so unsure about everything (and a little shell shocked by the experience of birth).

[Tegan McIntosh]

Hi everyone! My name is Tegan and I am based on the Sunshine Coast. I am a yoga teacher and am completing this course to really broaden my skills, and assist me to help women who may come to my class to practise yoga safely. On a more personal level I have quite a few friends who are pregnant at the moment, and I also want to be able to assist them to practise safely. I am sure I will learn a lot from all of you lovely women who already have children or are trying as we progress, so thank you for sharing your experiences above. 🙂

[Elaine Byrne]

Hello Ladies,

My name is Elaine, I am living in Ireland and working a swimming instructor but we also deliver Aqua Natal Yoga classes. As I myself have not gone through the experience of pregnancy and child birth I wanted to do some studies to get a better understanding of what is happening in the body and how we can use Yoga to help us prepare for child birth.

I have just watched the opening cirlce video, Bettina I would like to thank you for sharing your experience so openly with us all it really moved me to see how you showed such amazing strength and courage to take your experience with us. So thank you!

I am really looking forward to going through the course over the next few weeks.

[Bettina Rae]

So happy to have you here Elaine. I’m looking forward to seeing how this influences your work in the pool.

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