Pregnancy is a strange and exponentially wonderful thing; try to imagine, for a moment, that there is something in your belly, moving and swimming around—and you can feel it all! My ever-patient husband’s response is always to gently rub my belly as if inviting our child to give him a taste of my experience.
As I write this, my tiny 31-week-old son is hanging out in my belly with his head down my pelvis and his back resting on my left side. Oh how I wish I had arrived at this positioning conclusion on my own, but, nope, all credit goes to our gynaecologist whom we just met with this morning. These days, every visit to the doctor’s is an adventure!
The body wants what it wants in the first trimester
I remember how it started—how there was definitely delight but mostly nerves when I found out I was pregnant. As if right on cue, the tiredness set in almost immediately. In fact, that was what prompted us to take the test. Besides being a couple of days late on my period, I remember missing yoga just so I could go home to rest; and on the way home, yawning excessively—around the range of 40 to 50 yawns per minute.
That’s when routine began to take a back seat.
For many years, I’ve enjoyed practicing and guiding yoga, with a natural inclination towards strong and sweaty flows. But all of a sudden, I could barely even muster the energy to step out of the house. I was tired 24/7 and saw every pocket of free time as nap time.
Morning sickness was the most pronounced when I was in a speeding taxi or crowded train, and hot yoga was just impossible. I remember stepping into my hot vinyasa class to teach for the first time since learning about the pregnancy and having to step out right away—straight to the toilet to purge my breakfast banana.
Besides hot yoga, some regular postures also started to feel funky. Backbends like cobra and wheel triggered a pulling sensation in my abdomen, while lying flat on my belly—and any sort of core engagement (think: crow, boat, touching knee to nose)—felt like I was squishing my baby. In more restorative postures where I had my legs propped up against the wall or blocks beneath my upper body, my head had to be elevated higher than my body to prevent nausea from setting in.
Thankfully, all of these changes started to make more sense after prenatal and postpartum yoga teacher training, which I took at the end of my first trimester. It was perfect timing.
Nine days of learning with Amber Sawyer, the wonderful woman who led our training, opened my heart to the amazing world of motherhood. Amber’s insights changed how I felt about pregnancy, birth and postpartum—not only in terms of yoga but as an experience of a lifetime. With a newfound sense of empowerment and fresh burst of energy, I entered my second trimester with confidence and purpose.
Bouncing back and embracing change in the second trimester
Before pregnancy, yoga blocks never had a place in my yang practice; but this was no time to be stubborn and we became fast friends as my focus expanded to creating space for my baby.
I listened even more carefully to my intuition and left things out of my practice that no longer felt right—hopping back and forth, chaturangas, deep stretches, closed twists, and on many occasions, I preferred a round of cat-cows over the standard vinyasa transitions.
Lingering became my favourite thing to do. I loved breathing into the sway of my hips on hands and knees, indulging in the spaciousness of my side body in bent-knees downward dog, finding expansion in goddess pose and feeling grounded in bridge pose. Pregnancy was breathing new life into my yoga practice, which was beginning to feel juicier and more delicious than ever!
By this time, my belly was getting bigger, and the small flutters had morphed into what felt like somersaults and Wing Chun punches à la Donnie Yen in the movie Ip Man. My belly was parkour city—and I absolutely loved every moment of it.
I relished every chance that I had to feel these movements with my hands, and made more space for this experience in my yoga practice. Yoga became a fun way for me to bond with my baby through touch, as my hands found their way to my belly in mountain pose, high lunge, warrior II, tree pose, reclining butterfly, goddess pose, warrior III… basically, every chance that my hands were free, they’d wander to baby.
The third trimester has a way of slowing things down
It’s been three weeks since moving into the home stretch of pregnancy, and my practice is seeing even more shifts! Energetically, I feel great. But my body has begun to ache and protest in ways that are so unfamiliar.
While I still enjoy a strong flow, albeit with lots of modifications, I prefer to practice in bite-sized portions these days, moving to the mat whenever my body calls for it. Picture two-minute downward dog walks, three minutes of hip circles and lots of puppy pose and simply breathing with hands to baby in virasana—all done in small doses, not unlike your little toilet or pantry breaks at the office.
I’m also making time for long walks, with side planks and dynamic bridges thrown in on good days. For now, this concoction seems like the perfect practice for my ever-changing body!
It’s been about eight months since the beginning, and so much has changed over the course of this pregnancy. Being pregnant and having the privilege to also guide other pregnant women through prenatal yoga has taught me that every mother and every baby is special.
There are some safety guidelines to follow when it comes to prenatal yoga, but the best thing that you can do is to listen to your own body, and err on the side of caution if you’re unsure.
During this period where there are so many physical and mental shifts, instead of setting new yoga goals, I urge you to think about how this practice can support you and your growing baby. And as you make new discoveries week after week, allow yourself to be present and honour your body without any expectations; finding joy in pregnancy really can be as simple as first learning to release judgment.
It’s taken me some time to fully embrace this journey for all of its gifts—both the good and the uncomfortable—but it’s been so rewarding and I don’t think I could feel more grateful for where I am today.
