Pre/Postnatal And Yin Yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hi Yenis and welcome back to a yin Yoga podcast before we get into to day’s episode and my special guest. I just wanted to mention a couple of things.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: First of all, if you are new around here, welcome. If you have been here before.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you’ve been benefiting from these episodes. If you’ve been having Aha moments. if they’re helping you with your teaching, etc. I would be super grateful if you would just take a moment right now

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to pause this episode. go into wherever you’re listening to it

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or watching it. So if you’re on Youtube, if you would like this video and make sure you’ve subscribed to my channel, I’d be super grateful. Feel free to leave me a comment to you after you watched letting me know what you thought.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you are listening to this on whatever podcast app you’re on. If you would give me a 5 star review for the pod, I’d be super grateful. These reviews really help to boost the visibility of the podcast when people are searching out Yin, Yoga podcasts or just Yoga podcasts in general.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you are an apple or spotify, if you could give it 5 stars that would be so grateful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And if you are listening to this on apple, you could also leave a written review.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let me know what you think. Give me some comments in a written review. and I would be grateful for that as well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And if right now you’re thinking, Duh Nick, I’ve already given a review, then I would be so grateful if you would take a moment to screenshot this episode and then share it on Instagram and your stories

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and make sure to tag me at Nick, Danu, Yoga, or Yin Yoga, podcast so that I can share the love. All right. Thank you so much for doing that really makes a big difference, and I appreciate you ever so much.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: One more thing to mention is that if you are a Yin Yoga teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: it’s already taken a training you’re realizing. There were some holes in your training, and you want to take another one.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you’ve been interested in mine. If you’ve been thinking about it. If you are intrigued I would highly recommend you. Get on the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or if you are not yet a yin-trained teacher, if you’ve not taken a yin training, and you really want a good solid foundation in Yin yoga, then you could also join the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You can do that by wherever you are listening to this there will be a link that says, Join the waitlist. and once you hit that link and you’re on my website, all you have to do is look way up in my photograph. There’s a button there. You just click it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And you enter your name and email. You’ll also get a free sequence when you do a little yin sequence just for you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You could also do it at the bottom of the page. So there’s 2 spots there, top and bottom, and if you’re there long enough there will even be a little polite pop up that will slide in that you can enter your name and email when you do that and join my waitlist. First of all, you’re going to get

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a free Pdf of a sequence

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then ongoing until registration opens, you will get these podcast episodes and other resources and bonuses like little sneak peak videos, of my training other things that I stumble across, practice videos, invitations to free classes and Mini workshops as well as invitations to join me for regular practice, so you’ll get all of that when you join the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’ve been intrigued about my training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if what I have been saying over these episodes has been resonating with you

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and take a moment to just go into the episode. Notes, click that link and go ahead and join the waiting list.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The other advantage to the wait list is that you actually get first notice when registration opens, and at this point at least, the first 5 people will get a access to a discount code, and that is only shared in my email list. So if you are not on the waitlist, you won’t have access to that code.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so that’s something for you to do for those of you who’ve been like. Hmm.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I want to deepen my yin studies, or I want to take another Yin training because it might fill some of the gaps from my first one. Or if you’re brand new, and you just want to start off on a solid foundation.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And finally, before we get into today’s guest intro. just a reminder, my friends.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that although I have the soul of a mermaid. I also have the mouth of a sailor. And so these are adult conversations and adult subject matter.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you have small people around. Please take a moment to grab your headphones. Now.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: okay, today’s guest. I’m stoked about, not only for the subject matter. but also just totally selfishly. She is a fellow Canadian and a fellow, Albertan, which I didn’t realize. Actually, when we first

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Nyk Danu Yoga: connected about doing this interview, it wasn’t until

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I dug a little deeper that I realized that we’re actually from the same province.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And we did the same exact first teacher training program just split by one year. I did it one year before her, and she was in the very next class. So so many little Kuwinky Dinks there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So my guest today is Claire Newman. and Claire is, if I must, I would say, a prenatal

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Nyk Danu Yoga: postnatal fertility. Expert. So all things around the children

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Nyk Danu Yoga: getting pregnant, being pregnant

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Nyk Danu Yoga: post pregnancy, and then also little babes teaching with little babes. So she’s really got a wealth of information.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So Claire Newman is the founder of Mamata Yoga, a mother of 3 with over 23 years of experience in Hafa, Bikram and Yusara Osthunga. Then Yasafo kids, Yoga, Prenatal and Postpartum Yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and Claire’s journey into Birthing began after the completion of her first certification program in 2,005,

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Nyk Danu Yoga: after assisting a prenatal Yoga class. she was overwhelmed with the raw beauty while witnessing the connection between mother and baby a new.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and during a set of inspirational breathing and guided meditation at the end of class she knew she wanted to be a part of this extraordinary and blessed gift with expectant mothers in preparation for her own journey into motherhood. One day

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Nyk Danu Yoga: she wanted students to be confident in her ability to teach Yoga Asana, but needed the knowledge to help to create a calming and nurturing environment for expectant mothers.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: As she didn’t have any children of her own at the time.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So she enrolled in a program with the Global Birthing Institute in 2,005 to prepare for another journey as a doula. and then she volunteered with the Terra Association and assisted in helping teens prepare for labor, delivery, and motherhood

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for you. She can for years sorry. She continued to teach several weekly prenatal Yoga classes in Edmonton and surrounding cities. and served with much gratitude as a doula for many local couples.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Retirement as a Doula called early when she discovered she was pregnant with her son, and made the decision to dedicate her focus to her teachings of Yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: After the birth of her son. In 2,008 she returned to teaching Yoga, and became passionate about uniting

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Nyk Danu Yoga: mother, slash parent and baby through the use of traditional Yoga practices like Pranayama breath meditation, mantra healing sounds while incorporating mindfulness techniques

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that she learned as a Doula. So she created Mamata Yoga in 2011. After discovering that she was pregnant with her daughter.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: she decided to create a prenatal teacher training to help create a solid unification of current Yoga teachers and professionals who are interested in assisting women and birth through pregnancy, preparation for labor and birth, and so, and inspiring healthy postpartum recovery.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so she’s a Yoga practitioner with over 20 years experience. She studied my younger yoga intensely for over 4 years, and attended the teacher training at the Yoga College of Alberta

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in 2,005, which is the program that I also took and is an experienced Yoga teacher, a children’s Yoga teacher, a prenatal Yoga teacher. And she’s now been a full-time Yoga teacher for over 17 years, with over 24,000 teaching hours, and she’s assisted and led 200 h trainings

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Nyk Danu Yoga: since 2,007. And she’s also honored to be the program director of the 200 h online embodied soul Yoga Teacher training program.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Wow, so that’s just a little bit about my guest. Claire, and I think we’re gonna have a wonderful chat.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m going to see how off the mark I am with my own knowledge of prenatal and postpartum.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and when it comes to mama’s, see if I’ve got some misconceptions myself.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and when you hear from me next I will be with Claire.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hi, Claire, welcome to a yen. Yoga. Podcast

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Clare Newman: Hello!

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Clare Newman: Thanks for having me. I am stoked to have you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because this topic is something I’m very much not an expert in.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: not only because, I have. I have a little bit of pre postnatal Yoga training, but not a lot and also I’ve never had children so like, I really don’t know about this. So and that’s what I do on the pod whenever there’s a topic that I really wanna explore. But I’m definitely not an expert in, I find one so glad that you’re here. But before we get into all the prenatal postnatal thoughts, as it relates to Yen.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would love to hear a bit about your yoga story from like kind of like I found Yoga in, and then we’ll go into how you became a a teacher, and then also how you decided to specialize

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in this area.

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Clare Newman: Yeah, my journey began in as a student of Yoga, I like to say in 1999. So from a different perspective. Not pre postpartum base by any means, but I have a spinal injury. So I was in a pretty bad car accident. I have a scar tissue that’s just holding my L. 4 l. 5 together.

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and I wasn’t a yogi at that point, and it was my physiotherapist that recommended Yoga, and I was an athlete my whole life. So I’m not, you know, very flexible, generally speaking, so I had really contemplated yoga, but she assured me that

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attending Yoga classes is gonna help me find more extension like, keep kind of mobilizing my spine because I didn’t wanna have my discs fused together. So in 1999 there wasn’t a lot of choices, as we all know. So I found a an underground Bikram class. I like to say that was literally in this basement kettles were used to create the steam. There was only like enough for 10 people, but it was actually the heat that really helped me because I wasn’t

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a very flexible person, and that’s when I fell in love with with Yoga. I later saw a gentleman in sheers and headstand, and I was like, where do I do that? Because inversions weren’t in the Bikram sequence, and he

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Clare Newman: put me in touch with our local Ashtanga community, and I became a die hard Ashtangi for many years, and then eventually moved into the Iankar community which we were talking about earlier. So I’ve been through the many different styles of Yoga for the years.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m very curious, just from my own perspective, because I also have an I younger background. What made you decide to go from a stronger to a young guard, because those are so so different. Yeah.

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Clare Newman: actually, really, it was a teacher training. I was contemplating leaving my career. You know I really was. At that point I was like, every day I was practicing Yoga, and it became a huge part of my life, and I was looking for Yoga teacher training. And so I live in Edmonton, and there wasn’t any Yoga teacher trainings in 2,004 2,005. The only one that was being offered was in Calgary which we spoke about.

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So I traveled to Calgary every weekend to take this training for almost a year cause there just wasn’t anything offered, and at the time I didn’t really know much about I yank our yoga. I thought, you know, Yoga is gonna be Yoga, and it’ll be great and it was the complete opposite of what I was used to so huge shift

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah, so interesting, and for those of you that we’re not in our pre record conversation. So Claire and I actually have

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Nyk Danu Yoga: almost identical Yoga stories. So you started in 99. I started in 98, and then I did my teacher training at the exact same studio just one year before you did yours. So the parallels are just like crazy bizarre. Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah. So you finish that program. And then when you did. Because I know part of that program was mentorship apprenticeship, whatever you wanna call it. Were you already doing that kind of prenatal thing then, or were you like? No, no.

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Clare Newman: it it had always been something that I was interested in taking, and I wasn’t a parent at that time, so I really I wasn’t sure but I was always called to teach pre postpartum, and I looked again for a Yoga teacher training that was specific to pregnancy. There was a a teacher at that time in Vancouver, so I took a a 25 h

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Clare Newman: pre needle training with her, and you know Albert and BC. Are a little bit different in terms of of the the energy in the vibe of of Pre need. Albertans can be, I think, a little bit more. You know. They like the Asna like they really want to feel postures and movement. Not that you know some of their students don’t, but I felt that there was definitely like it, didn’t really II was

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finding a hard

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Clare Newman: little challenge to be like is what I’m learning, gonna actually relate to the students that I’m teaching and what I was missing out on in that training was. I didn’t know a lot about the pregnant body. I didn’t. There, we didn’t really go over a lot of modifications. I didn’t feel comfortable after that 25 h training prenatal. So then I became. I started. I was looking for information on how I can become a little bit more confident because I hadn’t experienced pregnancy at that time. So that’s when I took a do the training

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Nyk Danu Yoga: brilliant. Yeah. And it just all changed from there. Yeah. Cause I have, you know, a 2020 h and a 25 h prenatal under my belt, and I absolutely would not feel qualified to specialize in that.

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Clare Newman: you know, qualified to modify for people that come into my room. And yeah, I didn’t know even what you know. If someone said to me at that point, like. I always joke now in my own prenual trainings, like I didn’t know what it meant when someone said, I’m 25 weeks I was like, is that good? Are you halfway there? No concept? And so I wanted to really learn about

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Clare Newman: each trimester. I wanted to learn about some of the concerns, you know through pregnancies so that I could help best modify. And and so the Doula training was just wonderful. It actually, I didn’t even want to become a Doula necessarily. But after taking my Doula training that I did, and it was. It was a beautiful amalgamation of what now is. You know, part of my my teachings.

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Clare Newman: What Doula training did you take? Where did you do that? So the the dual training actually doesn’t exist anymore. So the this it was a gentleman. She was a gentleman gentlewoman. She was a lovely woman. She had 9 children, and it was the Global Institute of birth at the time. So this is again 2,005, 2,006. And yeah, it was just she was. She was a an interesting woman. She had a lot of children. All of her children were

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by Caesarean birth, which gets a little bit more complicated the more you have. And she was like.

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Clare Newman: I am going to have a Vb. V. Back as a vaginal birth after Caesarean and I. Her story just really spoke to me cause she was just so wonderful. And it was through her lived experiences that I really connected with her the most. And then her program was was lovely. But the Global Birthing Institute. I don’t think even exists anymore. The more common one is the dona, which is Doulas of North America. So it’s what most Doula yeah, trainings happen

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is that, and that one that you took was that in Alberta again, were you back? It was back in Alberta. Okay, the college that I studied Chinese medicine, and when I moved here has a Doula program. College has one. But of course I’ve never taken it. But

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Clare Newman: yeah, there’s quite a few now, which is nice. II love, you know the the birth thing community is we’ll we’ll discuss is is really this lovely, this lovely amalgamation of so many different, you know, modalities, which is what’s so great about it. So I love that more. Dula programs are creating more, you know. Really. Again piecing together the Yoga, the the Tcm like, it’s just really all coming together in a really nice way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Umhm, yeah. And I think anytime you specialize in something, or you niche like you have, or I have a niche in back pain. It’s really important to know who are the other sort of healthcare providers in your area that also specialize in that. So that you have this beautiful cross referral network that you can create. Right?

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Clare Newman: Yeah, II do really encourage teachers in both pre postpartum to if you’re if that’s what your niche is, and you want to continue that to create a list of like the massage therapists, the pelvic floor therapist, the physios, the chiros, the psychologist, that all deal with pre post part of health, so that because people often times come to us and they want our recommendation for different practitioners or different, you know, professionals. So we have to give. So it’s nice to create that list, for sure.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, I mean a nutritionist, I’m thinking, of course, Doula, a midwife like there’s just so much that you could, you know. Yeah. Natural path, you know. All of them. Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah, I think it’s so helpful. And I think that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because I think a lot of times teachers feel the pressure to know everything. So when a student comes up to them after class and asks them something that they’re actually not really qualified to answer, Yeah, it’s so great if you can. Instead of just saying

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Clare Newman: which is what I do, I actually don’t know, like, I don’t have training expertise in that area. But instead of just saying that letting them kind of leave. If you’ve got like business cards that you can hand them even better. Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s important, I think, especially because the Pre post. Part of my call at the perinatal community really is

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Clare Newman: is one that’s that can be very specific in tender. And so we have to be a little bit careful within our scope of practice. And you know the the interesting thing about pregnancy and postpartum is you? You just never like. I’ve never really met. No, mother is the same right, no pregnant expected mother is the same as another. No postpartum. Mother is recovering the same, so they’re so individualized. And so you know what works for one is not necessarily going to work for them

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others. So when they come to me for advice, it’s sometimes really hard to narrow down specifics, because everyone is so unique.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I would imagine even just one pregnancy to the next could be like night and day. Different, too. Yeah, I am a now a mother of 3, and my pregnancies I always say my birthing experiences, my postpartum experiences were all drastically different, and the reason being is because I have 3 very different children, and you’re a different person, each one, you know the first one. You’re a first time, Mom, and then you’re a second time, and then by the third one, you’re like, Oh, I have at least a frame of reference here. Yeah. Yeah.

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Clare Newman: So when did you move from

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Nyk Danu Yoga: taking all their training, doing the doula thing into actually becoming a mom, which I would imagine

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Nyk Danu Yoga: would take all of this information that you’ve had in your head, and actually like brought it into your body in a totally different way.

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Clare Newman: I was teaching Pre. So as soon as I finished and completed my doula training. I was a full spectrum, Doula so wasn’t helping people and couples through pregnancy, and then birthing, and then, as as well as postpartum while teaching Yoga. So I, you know, quit my career job and decided that I was going to become like a full time, Doula, and then a teacher as well. Yoga, teacher, I was teaching all different classes, but I was definitely focused on the pre postpartum.

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Clare Newman: There wasn’t a lot. So this was, you know, roughly, around 2,006 wasn’t a lot of pre postpartum teachers in Edmonton at the time, and I knew I had always wanted to be a mother like that had always spoke to me. I knew that was going to happen. I wanted to also have a career that allowed me that sort of flexibility to become a mother, and I wanted to be at home with my children and raise my children. Those were always goals and aspirations

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Clare Newman: that I had for myself. So yeah, II went on a beautiful trip to India. I did struggle with fertility issues for quite some time, and I took a trip to India in 2,008 and did a lot of, you know, self healing and and work on myself and focus really, on having a deeper connection to my body and my womb. And I came back and

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Clare Newman: found out that I was pregnant. So it was a pretty, pretty, beautiful experience. And then 2 other children arrived after that. So it’s been really lovely.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So did you. Were you pregnant like before you went to India, or did it happen? But it was I always joke that I had this. I had this massive visceral massage from this little Indian like. If you’re in my trainings. It’s always based on humor, but I was like it felt like he picked up my ovaries and just like massage them. And then he took a dip in the Ganges. No, I had a partner before I left to India, so when I

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Clare Newman: I came home I got pregnant. Well, it definitely made me fertile. That’s for sure.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay? And so then, now, you were able to experience all these teaching while being pregnant, which I would imagine was a game changer

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Clare Newman: was so different. Like once, you know, once we can embody that experience, it’s it’s drastically different. So I even kinda question what I was teaching before that cause I was teaching pre post part of classes. I had my doula certification. I’d witness a lot of births. So my students were definitely felt more confident with me, having that experience, even though I wasn’t a mother yet.

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Clare Newman: But the yeah. The amalgamation of then actually becoming a mother was, was very profound. And might it just changed and shifted everything for me, including my teaching?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, that’s one of the reasons why, when students have come to me and said, You know, sometimes students don’t understand niching.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know. They’ll say, Oh, why don’t you teach, you know, pre and postnatal? And I was like well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because II don’t have children, and I don’t plan to. So II would say to them, you know I would feel kind of like an asshole

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Nyk Danu Yoga: saying, and I imagine you’re experiencing this when, like I’ve never experienced it. And I’m never going to, you know, it’s just for me. I’ve always felt like, if I can’t teach from my own embodied experience, then it’s just gonna come off as like book knowledge, not embodied knowledge, you know. Yeah.

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Clare Newman: I always say, you know, to to teachers and trainees too, like, really, you have to teach what you’re passionate about. Even the embodied experience is very helpful. But as long as you’re really, if you’re passionate about what you teach, then it’s all you’re always gonna come from a very centered creative space.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Totally. I mean. For example, I know I know a gal who teaches Yoga for Parkinson’s, and she doesn’t have Parkinson’s. But she had a loved one who did so obviously, she’s gonna be super passionate about that particular niche. Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So then.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you’re you know you’re doing your thing. You’re teaching the yoga. You’ve got your Doula. Still, now you’re pregnant. And so when did you move from?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m doing all of this professionally to? I’m now going to train teachers in this because I think that is always such an interesting journey as well.

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Clare Newman: Yeah, it really was III had a beautiful pregnancy with my first. My, he’s almost 16. His name is Everett. And it was it was. It was just lovely. And then II became pregnant with my daughter. A few years later, in 2,011, and

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Clare Newman: I wanted to be really, can. I had a pregnancy loss prior to my first son? So there was a lot of challenges that I had to work through in that pregnancy. II came. I came from a very deep level of fear throughout his pregnancy. Obviously fear of, you know losing him. And so I wanted to change my narrative in my perspective with my daughter, like my second pregnancy at that time. So I was really

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Clare Newman: into. I was reading all of these, you know, wonderful sort of spiritual books about like spiritual midwifery, and just understanding a little bit more about the psycho psychology, I guess, of of how we imprint. You know things to our babies and doing all of this amazing research. And I was like, Oh, my God! I need to spread the word on all this fascinating stuff, because I do believe that pregnancy can be a time of really deep healing.

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Clare Newman: And so it it was just in my own self discovery, like wanting to really change and have a different E experience with my with my daughter that I was doing all this research that I started to write like I just started to write. And then it became a manual, became a teacher training manual. At that same time, it just kind of, you know, the divine intervention. Really, Yoga lines didn’t have a specific designation with pre need certification.

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Clare Newman: So at that time, when I was writing the manual, they had launched this 85 h prenatal Yoga teacher training, and I was one of the first to apply for it in Canada. And I was like, that’s it like, this is clearly a message I’m pregnant with. You know, my daughter, I’m doing all this research. I want everyone to understand this knowledge from a much deeper perspective, and especially from like a spiritual perspective.

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Clare Newman: and so that I set forth like a training about 4 months later, continue to write this manual, do all this research, and there wasn’t any prenatal trainings, at least in Alberta at that point. So I wanted to really set forth. And I wanted to create, you know, a bigger community with other teachers. And there wasn’t a lot of education with pre postpartums or lots of assumptions. There’s lots of misleading, you know, context around pre postpartum health. So

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Clare Newman: I wanted to share and amulgate the Doula training. You know some of the doula experiences that I had had, as well as sort of my my spiritual pursuits, so that birthed mama to Yoga, which was 2,011.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Beautiful, I remember, and now I’m having trouble for the life of me, thinking of her name.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I wonder if she was teaching in the year that you took your training to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: There was a woman. Oh, I wanna say, Deborah, but I don’t like know if that’s her name? Who taught at our at the studio. We took our training at

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Nyk Danu Yoga: She taught

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the brief like kind of pre post natal, and she was a midwife, but she still there when you did your training, I think she was. I mean, like, most 200 h trainings, right? There’s just a touch upon yeah, yeah, and it and it was the I anchor method is really different because you had to be a certain level before you could teach pre postpartim

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and so that was always a challenge for me. One of the reasons I left because I knew I wanted to teach pre postpartum, but from the anger perspective. I wasn’t at the level that I could do that yet. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah, I

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I also left the Iang Gar camp. But for me it was. It was when I discovered the work of Paul Grilli and skeletal variations that I started going.

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Clare Newman: Yeah, wait a minute. If all of our bones are different. Then how can this

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Nyk Danu Yoga: one size fits all queue fit for all these? So that was kind of the letting go of it of it for me. I’m always incredibly grateful, though.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for that. that prop, that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: program. Yeah. Because at the time that I took it there were there were 3 options in Calgary there was that training. There wasn’t a stronger training which I already knew for me was not going to be a good fit, because that not. I’m as an anxious person.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Ashtranga was never my my thing. And then there was another studio, which is where I actually took most of my classes in Calgary at the time was just called.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I think they were just called

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the Yoga Studio, or some. I can’t remember what they’re called Yoga Center. Maybe Yoga center, and they were starting one. And I didn’t go with that one, because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when I went and met with with Rob, who was the director of our program. I was so impressed alone with the binder. I was just like this mass, very

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Nyk Danu Yoga: detailed like, you know, whereas I felt like some of the other ones were. They were a little too kind of wooy, flexible. And you know I actually would appreciate that now. But as a first training. I really thought like this, this is really well laid out and thought out. But yes, I also left the

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the Iangar camp.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I’m grateful to them for that foundation, and also for the just, for the prop knowledge alone. You learn to be a prop ninja in the

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Clare Newman: and and I think, and the modifications right that it was. They were so good at taking all of these standard poses and really modifying them. And II thought I mean, I always appreciate and have such deep gratitude definitely for the for the basics of that, for sure. I think it gave me a confidence when I went out teaching the real world and regular folks to be like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: oh, I could just put a block there. I can just do this, or you know, whereas I find, because I mentor teachers, I find that if if they were trained in more of the kind of a stronger or vinyasa systems that the how to prop isn’t as present, and so they struggle, especially if they come from a flexible body they struggle with like. How do I make these accessible for the average human. So yeah, it was definitely a really good foundation that way. So that was, did you say that was 2,008

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Nyk Danu Yoga: 8 that you started

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Clare Newman: 2,005 was when I graduated the training and sorry when you started offering your Tt 2,01111. Okay, gotcha

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Clare Newman: Yup, I created yeah, mama to yoga. And it was the 85 h training obviously more influenced on the pregnancy side. But I am a strong believer that you can’t teach pregnancy without having some knowledge and understanding about birth as well as postpartum. So my training kind of has an amalgamation of the entire experience.

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Clare Newman: Like, why would you want? Yeah, like, why would you want to? That doesn’t seem.

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Clare Newman: I mean, traditionally, it’s an it’s a pre needal training. But you know for me it’s like you can’t. You can’t separate them. I oftentimes like to educate my pre needle students on really the reality of postpartum healing, because the challenge really isn’t sometimes labor and birth. It’s the first 6 weeks of postpartum that’s really what challenges mothers and parents the most.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah. I mean to me it would be like having a one sided coin to only like what? Yeah, plus if you’ve spent, you know, who knows? Anywhere from 6 to 9 months, or whatever with these mama to be. And now they’ve had their baby. And you just you got no more yoga offerings for them like that just seems silly. It seems like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if I was gonna specialize in that I would want to do postpartum. I would want to, maybe even go up to like Mom and Todd. And then I might be like, Okay, now we’re we’re done here, you know. But yeah, it seems to make sense, because I know one thing I know for sure, just from mentoring with pre

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Nyk Danu Yoga: prenatal classes, is the sense of community. Yeah, huge built in those classes. Why wouldn’t you want to continue to nurture that? As as people have their babies, they just filter into these classes, and then they get to see their friends again, and like that just makes so much more sense.

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Clare Newman: and especially in postpartum, like postpartum. There’s such a huge need for connection and community during those times because it can. It can be such a time of, you know, isolation. And so those classes are are much more profound from the postpartum perspective, and much needed.

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Clare Newman: Totally makes sense. Yeah, yeah.

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Clare Newman: okay. So you’ve been doing that for quite a while, then, yes, yeah. And pre, natal fertility postpartum something that I call conscious couples, which is sort of my birth, you know, birth preparation, like teaching couples about the experience together. Because, you know, although we like to

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Clare Newman: obviously assume that this is happening to just the the pregnant body. You know, there’s there’s so much more this I really want couples to be connected on that experience as well. So I have like a conscious couples training. But yeah, been running those trainings in person, and and certainly more virtually since

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Clare Newman: since our 2020 2019,

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Nyk Danu Yoga: since the before times since the before time actually launched my first one in 2,017, there wasn’t a lot of like online training, not a a lot of technology that was really helpful at that time. So by the time the pandemic hit and people were looking for trainings. I was already set up online. So it was. It was great for me, brilliant, awesome. And so you’re doing those consistently. Yeah. Still.

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Clare Newman: there are quite a few, I believe, like I said that to me it’s a continuum like it’s a it’s an entire. That’s why I call it the perinatal journey, you know. There’s no there’s no separation. The conception all the way to postpartum is everything in between is basically what I teach

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Nyk Danu Yoga: makes so much sense, because I would imagine that the teachers, I would imagine, and you could correct me if I’m wrong, that a lot of Yoga teachers take their prenatal training when they become pregnant. Oh, yeah. And so for them to be able to go through like all of the different courses that you offer. Yeah.

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Clare Newman: just makes so much sense. Yeah, there’s there’s, it’s very profound to take the pre needal training just on that topic while you’re experiencing pregnancy like, it’s, it’s just it’s so much different not just to apply it to the changes that’s happening with your physical body, but to the whole experience.

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Clare Newman: Umhm, yeah, I would imagine. So, Umhm.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: okay, so let’s dive into the topic at hand. And I’m just gonna say some of the things that I’ve learned about. And you can tell me which ones are incorrect and which ones are kind of, and which ones are are bang on. So like I said

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Nyk Danu Yoga: before we hit record. But just for anyone else, listening very little prenatal experience a little bit in my first training I took another module in my Yoga therapy training, but certainly not an expert. And so yeah, this is why, when I don’t have the expertise, I bring someone who does so what I learned in my teacher trainings

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Nyk Danu Yoga: little teeny snippet ones about prenatal is that it’s less than ideal for a woman to take on a brand new physical activity. Whether that’s you know, running or swimming, or

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yoga, or whatever when they’re in their first trimester. But then, after that, it’s fine. I’ve since heard that one of the reasons that that is said so much is that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: it’s because pregnancies in general are the most vulnerable in that first trimester. And so I had somebody tell me that that’s actually not a safety thing as much as it is a liability thing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Which I thought was interesting cause that hadn’t occurred to me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then I had heard that after that, you know, it’s fine for them to come and do yoga now? Obviously I would if it was me

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I think other teachers should as well. If you have someone in your classes who keeps coming and they’re pregnant. try to find them a prenatal class rather than you, just trying to modify everything, and may not happen, depending on how small

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Nyk Danu Yoga: of a place you live in, but that just I mean, it just seems like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: they need so much and certain specific things in a prenatal body that you wouldn’t get from a regular class like you just would be missing out on so much. and then what I what we’ll do that first, and then we’ll talk about what I what I think I know about postnatal. So let me know where I’m off. Course.

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Clare Newman: Okay, where I where I was. I was on course, if any. Yeah. So the the first trimester the first 12 weeks. I mean definitely, it’s more sensitive time. That’s that’s where people are going to experience, you know, a miscarriage. If, for whatever reason, it happens. So from a liability perspective, there’s not a lot that’s done in the first trimester, even in even in prenatal classes they generally start after the 12 weeks like. There’s some that. Yes, we can permit 6 weeks, but for the most part they start after the 12 weeks, for that reason.

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Clare Newman: you know, and also the first trimester. It’s it’s exhausting, like. I always remind you know, students, that your body is is birthing and creating a baby. So it’s exa like you’re depleted. You’re tired, you know. You’re sore. You’re cramping like this is a time to rest, anyway. It’s not a time to do. You know, copious amounts of activity. It is really a time to rest, because you want your body to replenish and help to sustain

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the life and the development of the baby. It’s a very auspicious time. So it it from that perspective. Yes, it can be a liability one. The the newness of activity during pregnancy is isn’t just the first trimester that’s like it. That’s really in everything, you know. I remind teachers that we don’t wanna practice. Ha! You know, headstands or inversions or hands and pregnancy if they if there was never that

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Clare Newman: practice in the first place. So we don’t, it’s not necessary to pick up different activities necessarily in in pregnancy, like high impact exercises like, don’t we? Don’t start running when we’re pregnant because our body also hasn’t. You know.

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Clare Newman: from the musculoskeletal system like it hasn’t had time to. Really, you know, amalgamate the strength to be able to support that. A big question I always get asked is, you know, when we see cross fitters who are pregnant, and they’re 38 weeks, and they’re weightlifting. It’s like, if they were have. If they’ve been practicing that for the last 4 or 5 years. Their body is systematically preparing, and has the strength to

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create and and enhance that. So it that’s a safe practice for them. If you had never ever picked up a weight. And you started at 36 weeks. That could be, you know, challenging for the composition of your body. But if you’ve already created that practice, then it’s okay. But if you’re starting something new, it’s not generally something that we do necessarily in pregnancy. Pre need to. Yoga is often times recommended because it is gentle, you know it.

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It is about the movement, the range of motion, learning also tools and techniques to prepare for labor and birth. That’s also what we teach a lot of. So they are very important classes at some point during pregnancy.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And also, I would imagine.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just from what I’ve witnessed again, when I did do a little bit of mentorship in prenatal is that there was a huge focus also on just getting in touch with your body and the baby

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that kind of inward experience of practicing interception which, for those anyone who hasn’t listened to that episode that I did where to find that just very briefly, and awareness of what’s happening inside of you. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you are, you know, not pregnant, and you’ve you’ve been practicing interception, and then you become pregnant like you’ve got a whole other level of interception there that you can like tap into

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because you have this little being being created and and getting ready to come out into the world. So I would imagine that that having that extra time in a prenatal class to really connect with yourself, but also with the baby, would be so different than just going to a regular class and modifying it

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Clare Newman: definitely, you know, and and it’s I’m sure we’ll talk soon about the topic of yin. But I always it’s not. It’s not the flexibility you know we have. I one of the biggest misconceptions of pre need. Yoga, is that, you know, flexibility is going to enhance the birthing experience, and I’m always like, that’s not necessarily true. It’s the awareness it is.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The would be the connection with your boss. 100. Yes, because, you know, we we might be able to like you might have really great external rotation. But I’m always like, if you don’t know how to actually move your hips, then what? What’s what’s the benefit going to be? So the awareness piece is far more advantageous than the flexibility piece

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah.

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Clare Newman: yeah, interception not just the connection to the baby, but also the connection to how to move when the baby is, you know, moving through the pelvis. Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I mean, I think for me. And this is maybe just the way I teach Yan, although Yin can make you more flexible right? That’s never really why I teach it for me. It’s all about interception, and being able to have that still in quiet time, to be present with your mind, with your emotions, with your body like that’s the whole and the nervous system recently, that’s the whole point for me. And yeah, you know whatever, if they get a little more flexible. Yay, but you know it’s never the goal. Now I know that. Of course that’s not a common

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Nyk Danu Yoga: way to look at it. I’m sure that most students come to Yen, because well, I know from teaching it. Most students come to Yen because they want to do something to get more flexible, but they think it’s a air quotes gentle or easy class, and so they come, you know, when they’re feeling tired, or you know, if they’re on their cycle, or if they’re getting over a cold or something sometimes. And these are students that normally have a really vigorous practice will come to a yen practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: thinking that it’s like a gentle, easy practice. And yeah, of course, we could debate that, because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: depends how you been gentle depends how you define easy. But yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So yeah, then, is there more concerns in a prenatal? Let’s just say we’ve let’s just say the mama has not done the first 12 weeks. She’s just kind of. I would also imagine nausea like, I know. Some moms are nauseous the whole time. Yeah. But from my understanding, it’s it’s going to be worse in the beginning, right? So there’s another reason to just like rest. Yeah, they oftentimes have, you know, blood pressure issues. So even

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Clare Newman: those semi inverted poses are challenging for a lot of a lot of parents. But I also like to remind you know, teachers, that most of the prenatal students that are coming to prenatal Yoga have no experience in Yoga, like the majority of them have little to know. Experience. They’re they’re landing on the mat for the first time as pregnant students. So we have to cultivate that awareness piece with them. They don’t have it yet.

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Clare Newman: So even in a in practice. Sometimes the challenge for me is because they haven’t cultivated that experience with their body in the interception and the ability to know, like when their edges, it can be challenging for them, because they just keep going. And they there does have to be that piece where we have to like, you know. Observe what’s happening. And then, if we feel like we’re moving out of range, then we really have to pull back. They haven’t ex. They don’t know that

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Clare Newman: that’s something else that we teach in the prenatal class. Right? So we talked about the 70, you know, coming to them. Maybe that 70 range of motion is very important because of the hormone relax. And but also it’s progesterone. So not a lot of people are aware that relax and is making the connective tissue very lax. And so that’s sometimes the problematic with people who are very hyper mobile and then add pregnancy to that, and then add a in practice to that. It can be a bit challenging for them.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: One of the reasons that I coach my students to only do 50 to 60%, not even close to 70 isn’t so much for just for prenatal. It’s because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: anyone who’s an a type personality. Yeah, if you say 70, they’re going to 1 10 for sure. Whereas if you say 50 to 60, you can hope they stop around 70 75 very smart, and I think, as a teacher. Well, I just watch so many students white knuckling it through their practice and veins bulging, and I was like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’re a teacher and you’re listening to this, and you do see that a lot in your students, this sort of efforting, pushing, striving

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s always good to just have some talking points to that, so I’ll often make jokes about how you know we don’t want to do our yin Yoga with our young attitude. So this pushing effort and competing striving there’s no goal here, right like the goal isn’t to reach your toes in a forward bend.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The goal is, can you feel sensation to a moderate amount in your hamstring?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, we’re good. Then, like, that’s all you need. You know. so yeah. And I think, as teachers, it’s our job to scan the room and just notice when somebody’s like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: clearly overdoing and encourage them to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to back off a little bit, and to give them something else they could focus on other than the extreme stretch, you know, like maybe their breath, or noticing their mind, or even the air on their skin, like. There’s so many other little things that you can give them to bring their mind to other than like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I have to go full bore into this pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, I mean, the the 50 to 70% is is crucial, I think, in any practice, because the the brain is not gonna allow the body to rest if we’re in our stress response. So it’s like, what good are we actually doing if we’re pushing ourselves to that 110. But now your body is in a sympathetic response. Everything’s tightening up, cause your body is trying to protect itself. I often will say that I’m like, I know you have think that you’re doing more, but you’re actually doing less, absolutely

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Clare Newman: less, is more, the more relaxed you are through the experience, the more you’re gonna

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Nyk Danu Yoga: reap the benefits.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: not what it looks like. You know, we don’t care what it looks like anymore. How does it feel in your body. Yeah, exactly.

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Clare Newman: How does it feel in your body? And then here’s some tools to work with, whatever comes up while you’re feeling stuff in your body. You know the mind, the emotions, all that. Yeah, which is which is helpful. That’s what we’re teaching them, you know, ideally to prepare for for labor and birth, because that is like it.

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Clare Newman: I remember a pelvic floor therapist said to me like, Why do Yoga teachers focus on flexibility and pre need? Don’t you understand that there’s an endurance piece to this as well. So for me, as a Pre. T. Prenatal teacher, it’s always the. I always say it’s the balance between flexibility, stability, and mobility. You know, we have to have this balance, especially like it’s not all flexibility, because labor and birth is an an endurance thing like you need a tremendous amount of endurance.

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tremendous amount of energy to give birth. That can be an experience that can take 6 h, or it can take 24 h, and you are emotionally, mentally, not just physically, preparing for this experience. So that aspect of feeling into the body is a huge part of labor and birth. It’s not about how flexible you are.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah. And I would think I’m just thinking about this from a yin perspective, that just because you have time in the poses. that building, that skill and that ability to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: kind of drop in and notice when things are uncomfortable.

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Clare Newman: Yeah. And when you want them to stop.

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Clare Newman: But staying, anyway? Yeah, that would be, you know, pretty impactful. I would think, yeah, yeah, because the the experience of labor and birth is uncontrollable, like. There is nothing you can try to control it as much as you possibly can. Good luck, like absolutely good luck with it. So you will. There’s it’s like, you know, running a marathon where you hit the wall. We all see this like birthing wall as well, where all of a sudden. We’re like, I can’t do this like, just keep the baby inside like, let’s

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Clare Newman: let me just move on with my life, and it’s like you have to go to those edges that are so unknown and so uncomfortable, and challenge every aspect of it’s why I say that labor and birth is really like that is a transcendental experience. There’s no doubt about it. I always say I’ve had, you know, 4 spiritual awakenings in my life. 3 have been the births of my children, and one was the death of my mother, you know, all surrounded around those experiences.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So sounds like I wasn’t too far off with prenatal with what I knew. That’s good to know. And then my understanding of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: postnatal is that because those hormones are

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Nyk Danu Yoga: very present in prenatal. At least, there’s a big belly

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to kind at some point to kind of stop you from, like, you know, going too far into things. But when that’s no longer the case.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s kind of where I was always taught that there’s other than the first trimester that more of our concern actually should be with

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Nyk Danu Yoga: now that they’ve had the baby, because that’s when I mean to use a completely, you know, anatomical professional term, everything’s loosey goosey still and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: also there’s some, you know, and so that’s always where I was taught that ideally.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we actually don’t want to do yin with post Natal mamas. Now, I can tell you right now I’m going to hear a whole bunch of upward. But that statement I just made because there are there are avid rabid fans. You could say yin yoga! Who did do yin yoga get it for themselves, which is smart to listen to your own body, dear? Listen. But that doesn’t mean that it’s a blanket statement that we can say now, every

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Nyk Danu Yoga: every new mom should be fine just because you did it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s where I was always taught that this is where we want to be mindful. Because their ability to be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: flexible is just way more than they’ve ever experienced in their lives.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so what I tend to do is if somebody comes and they tell me that they’re postnatal. First of all, I educate them. Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m glad you’re here.

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Clare Newman: Yeah, yay, to some time without the baby, so you can rest 3 cheers for that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: However, this isn’t the most ideal practice for you because of all of these relaxing hormones that you have going on that have made everything quite loose thankfully, so that you could have a baby.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Would be kind of a cruel joke if that didn’t happen. Or maybe impossible actually but I tell them you know I don’t. I’m glad you’re here. But I’m gonna give you a help bunch of extra props.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m gonna treat your practice today more like it’s a restorative practice. So I’m just gonna nurture you a little bit and come around and give you extra things extra blankies under your knees, extra blocks all the things which they need also as well, because they’re exhausted. So having somebody dote on them for a while is a good thing. And I just tell them that so that they know

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then they can choose. And that’s why I recommend, I said. You know, you might want to try actually, like a restorative.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If there’s a true restorative class which is also challenging to find actual restorative class, not just laying on one bolster. But if they can find a truly restorative practice. I’ll recommend they do that, or Yoga Nidra, or something that’s very

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Nyk Danu Yoga: restful for them. But that isn’t gonna put them at risk of of over stretching so that’s kind of what I was taught. Now, the question and the hard part about that is, first of all, you can let me know if I’m right or not in a moment. But the other hard part about that can be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that there’s no clear line as to like, when is it safe. Some people say when they’re done breast feeding

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Clare Newman: some, but some momma’s breastfeed at night until the kids 4. So like, does that mean 4 years? You know, some people say 6 months. And so it there is this kind of vague

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Nyk Danu Yoga: line in the sand as to like, when is it okay? And I tend to default to the mom. I usually do say.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sometimes people recommend when you’re done breastfeeding. Some people recommend when you feel like you’ve got your strength again when you don’t feel so kind of splayed out, and you’ve kind of got your but I but I just tell them that ultimately you know your own body and what you’re feeling now I don’t know. So it’s up to you

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Clare Newman: your thoughts on that. Yeah, I mean, it’s so. It’s so individualized. You know we can’t. We can’t make these assumptions. We can’t make these comparisons, because each and every mother and parent, as well as their experience, is going to be exceptionally different. So I’m like you, I tend to more. Look at each person individually, and then, you know, offer specific modifications.

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Going back to pregnancy, too. Like, if there’s a lot of hypermobility, they oftentimes need more support, so they need more of the, you know, props underneath their pelvis to not get huge amounts of external rotation, you know. If they’re a little bit more rigid they could use with some, you know, use some of more of the the flexibility postures. But, generally speaking, like they are hyper, mobile. So we wanna make sure that in pregnancy they’re safe

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Clare Newman: in postpartum, you know. I always also say like, if you overdo it in prenatal with the pre need of body in terms of connective tissue, you know we can overstretch, which means we have to work that much harder and postpartum. So even though you might wanna practicena 28 weeks because, you know, feels amazing, think about what that’s actually doing to your linear album with your rectus abdomen, because that’s gonna be that much harder

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to recover from that in postpartum. So

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Clare Newman: you know, there’s always this we have to like. Look at. I think the structure of the body in a different way, because what happens is postpartum is going to be more challenging. If we overdo it in prenatal. So I’m I’m you know. I like to definitely focus more on the support and the strength versus like the flexibility in pregnancy, because we need, as we move into postpartum, it’s it is a different structure hormonally, they’re still relaxing. That’s moving through the body. When people are nursing. So that’s

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changing the composition. There’s low levels of estrogen, because estrogen and progesterone are suppressed. If you’re nursing. So that doesn’t allow our body and tissue to hold lots of tone and composition. So when you hear this like 6 months, 2 years.

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Clare Newman: people can start postpartum yoga you know, usually 6, 8 weeks after a vaginal delivery, they say 12 weeks after a Caesarean delivery. So that’s kind of when our standards and postpartum Yoga. As to when they can return. They’re also brand new students most of the time, so they don’t have a lot of body awareness. But I always remind them that their body is completely new, like you have a new body so welcome to your new body.

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Explore the newness of this creation, and that’s going to change. So how can we compare ourselves to what happened, you know, with the first or

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Clare Newman: previous to even pre-pregnancy.

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Clare Newman: the the the 2 year remark in terms of our tissue. It we always say, and there’s lots of research to show this cause. I also teach postpartum corrective classes. So not just Yoga, but focusing more on the issues like diocesus or diocesus rectide. Pelvin floor issues. Right?

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Clare Newman: so it’s a little bit more.

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Clare Newman: you know, implemented with specific challenges that are are usually happening to most moms and parents. But the 2 years is like at your composition hormonally doesn’t generally go back to its strength and tone at least 2 years after postpartum. And by that time people are having other children. So it’s like this, you know, this continuous cycle of like pregnancy.

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Clare Newman: postpartum pregnancy, postpartum pregnancy, postpartum

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that makes a lot of sense. Actually, they’re not even really getting back to their original strength before they’re kind of going through it all again.

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Clare Newman: Yeah. And I wish more mothers and parents realize this because they’re so hard on themselves. And I’m always like, you know, we forget about our hormones. There’s tissue. There’s composition. There’s our, you know, our structure, our skeleton. But then there’s also hormones, and they are challenging in in that entire experience and in postpartum more. So. So we’re doing all this. They’re like, I’m working out. I’m doing all the right things. And I’m still not noticing any changes. And I was like, but you’re still nursing.

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and the and you still have these hormones that you know your estrogen levels are low, like there’s so much more to this like, just give yourself permission to be in this experience and find more joy, and the movement practices that you have.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I mean speaking from somebody who’s on the other side of that hormonal equation. Now, post menopause, I mean, yeah. Hi, welcome to our club. I mean, it’s you know, I at the beginning I didn’t.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I mean, I knew my hormones were shipped, but I didn’t really know how much that affected me until you know a few years in. Then I’m like, Oh.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: wow, okay, this is.

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Clare Newman: who is this person? Yeah. And like, I had started having children in my 30. So by the time. And I’m I’m turning 46 this year. So for me, I feel like I went from postpartum to, you know, Perry menopause. I’m like, Oh, amazing thanks for giving me a break in between. Yeah, good. I just had like a few years there in between of something. How I used to be we forget. We forget about hormones. The other thing I often tell

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, folks who’ve just given birth is that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in the very beginning what you really need is rest.

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Clare Newman: Umhm, like, yes, you’re exhausted. Yes, I mean II don’t honestly don’t even know how people function, especially with that little sleep. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in the beginning, if you’re gonna do a yoga class like if you manage to get you know whether it’s your partner or a sitter, or somebody to watch the baby long enough that you can do an actual Yoga class. Pick a restorative class. Do a little yoga nidra like, just nurture yourself

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that you have some reserves for this new little being who’s waking you up every however, many hours at night.

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Clare Newman: Yeah, I think the baby starts sleeping a little more and they’re not. They’re not like a walking brain zombie anymore.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then I feel like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: now you want to start working back on your strength. So to me. And I know I’m going to get blue back about this, but I don’t care to me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: There’s like yin isn’t in there in that journey. Initially, it’s like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: let them rest first. Let them have restorative. Let them have Nidra when they want to start feeling strong again. They want to start kind of like whoop, seeming themselves back together.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then a postnatal class that focuses on that is ideal

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then, you know, depending on how long it goes between that and their next child. Then maybe some yin can come in there, and I totally know I’m going to get blow back on this. But again I’m going for. So if dear Yoga, teacher, if you’re listening to this, and you did yen right after your babies rock on with yourself. But I’m looking at this in a more sort of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: wide spectrum global.

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Clare Newman: What would we do as Yoga teachers? What will we recommend, you know, as a general rule of thumb to be safe? Not an individual experience. Because, of course.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I, as a teacher, can’t know each person’s individual experience.

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Clare Newman: Yeah. And I mean a yoga teacher like you and I have been practicing for 25 years like we can’t like my.

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Clare Newman: I share my experiences, but my experience in it, my body, my practice, is gonna be fundamentally different than someone who’s just starting Yoga for the first time. So there’s all sorts of scenarios that we can talk about. How I did this or I did this like, that’s great. That’s very individual based. But it doesn’t mean that. That’s, you know, the entirety of the population. I think that you’re right, like rest is huge, you know their nervous system is is, they have a hard time regulating their nervous system. So

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Clare Newman: they’re constantly in their stress response. Their adrenals are fatigued. They’re secreting high levels of cortisol. So restorative practice is great, but definitely still more supportive, like in yeah, like, true, like earthly true with all the props that’s that is great for the resting body, but you know, in terms of the lymphatic system, which is also really important. They do need some kind of movement, so I always

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recommend, like just gentle walking is gonna be great because we need to flush those hormones out. So some kind of mobility practice is definitely important. Later on. I think it’s always a a again, a good balance of having a bit of everything having it. I you know never! I never say it’s one is good or bad, it’s just. They’re all different. But they’re very important. You know that I think that having a strong, strengthening practice is just as important as having a resting practice.

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Clare Newman: This is just this pointing of having, you know, a really good, like stretching functional movement practice. So they they all serve a purpose. I think the balance of rich eventually is what we’re getting towards. But at the beginning it’s definitely more of a slower practice like, I don’t teach sun salutations until they’re far beyond. You know their their postpartum journey because they can’t. They don’t get great rotation in their shoulders because they’re nursing, and they’re like

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Clare Newman: normally rotated in their shoulders, like, we have to kind of start at the foundation again. But you know the biggest thing that no one thinks about in postpartum. The the number one thing I teach them is breath

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Clare Newman: is breathing because they’re so like their diaphragm has been, you know, right for 40 weeks for 9 months, so they don’t have really good excursion. Part of pelvic floor issues is because they hold their breath, and so sometimes the tissue becomes hypertonic, which becomes week. We forget that holding our breath applies a lot of pressure towards the pelvic floor and the

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abdomen. And so I like the one of the first fundamentals I teach postpartum is how to breathe properly because the breath

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Clare Newman: is what’s going to allow you to hold the strength right and without feeling pressure and exacerbating postpartum issues.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I would just had this Aha! Now that most students that I see who aren’t even pregnant

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Clare Newman: are not great at breathing. Oh, terribly! And then, if you take so like, you said a lot of times people come to Yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as a prenatal, you know, or just before, maybe with fertility. Yoga, maybe just before that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and they’re already not breathing in ways that are

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Nyk Danu Yoga: anatomically ideal. I’ll just say that. And then they start to lose that range. And then they come out, and now they’re postnatal, and they they still don’t haven’t ever learned that, you know. So I mean as always in Yoga. I think breath is

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Clare Newman: number one. Yeah, I mean, no, I always say to my students, you know, it doesn’t matter how fancy that poses. If you’re not breathing in it. You’re not doing yoga.

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Clare Newman: but you know what? As as you and I are a lot alike in terms of you know our our love for anatomy, physiology, and all things, body. And so, as someone who focuses more on women’s health myself.

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Clare Newman: you know, understanding even the way in which the diaphragm moves, as it relates to the pelvic diaphragm like the pelvic floor. You know Yoga teaches us to inhale, exhale through the nose, or, you know, exhale and hold specific breath working positions. Where whereas when you actually decipher what happens with our breathing patterns, a. As it relates to like pelvic issues which we, you know ultimately all have maybe challenges with at some point

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like when we inhale, you know, the diaphragm moves down. And so when we’re trying to contract and hold even like a bunda if people still practice that anymore. But like that actually compromises the pelvic tissue. Right? So it’s the exhalation. The exhalation gently lifts the pelvic diaphragm. So for me, in a lot of like a movements where we’re changing, you know, transitions or like a load bearing movement. I cue the exhale, not the inhale.

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Clare Newman: and I cue the exhale specifically because women’s health pre postpartum, and also ideal, and and teach a lot of like Menopusl women. The exhale is actually going to give us the power to create that gentle contraction in the pelvic floor versus the inhale. So I’ve like changed the way I teach the breath. And I’m not talking pranayam breath like even just basic breathing. Right? Yeah. Belly breathing, you know, using those primary muscle movers in the abdomen

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Clare Newman: to help move the diaphragm, not your neck and shoulders, which is what most part of moms do. Right? I’m talking like just basic, like breathing patterns to actually get them to function properly. That’s the foundation in all of it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s what I spend. Probably the first, you know I do in my classes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a guided centering in constructive rest. But that’s literally when we’re doing the breath. It’s like we start with the bell. I’m only doing the Yoga 3 part breath like, it’s not fancy I’m just getting people to realize that like you can breathe.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: There’s 3 areas where you can notice the breath filling. Not just up here. Yeah, that’s our anxious, you know, stressful breathing pattern, right neck and shoulders like, tell people to breathe in. They go.

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Clare Newman: Yeah. And II mean, and it’s not uncommon for students, I find, to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to really struggle with even noticing their belly as they breathe like that’s something right there that can take, you know, amount of time and practice to even be aware of the fact that this actually does move when you yeah, when you take a breath. Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yeah, it’s very interesting. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that’s what I’ve been telling my my folks that are that are prenatal. It’s like, look in the beginning. Just come and have naps here without the baby like. And, by the way, for those listening when I you’ll notice I’ve said at least probably 2 or 3 times true, restorative, Yoga. True restorative. Yoga. There’s a whole episode on that. I will link it in the show notes. The difference between and restorative because we don’t want to be blending the lines here.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So when I say true restorative, I mean, this mom is not feeling any stretch anywhere in her body. She is so supported with the bolsters and the blankets and the blocks, and all the things that it’s like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: being on a little cloud, and so she’s able to just completely let go and rest. So that’s what I mean by true restorative. Read.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And yes, there’s a whole episode on that. So I’ll link that. But just as a

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Nyk Danu Yoga: heads up for those that wonder why I keep saying a true restorative practice. Because one thing I’ve learned for those of us that weren’t trained sort of in. And I younger tradition, or didn’t then specialize in restorative and maybe study with Judith or some of her students. Is that a lot of people think as soon as you pull a yoga bolster off the shelf. Now it’s restorative, and it’s like, No, that’s one prop.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know it’s not, does not make it restorative. So again, we won’t go into that too much, because I have a whole episode on it. But

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So yeah, II find that like, I have a a good friend and a colleague that said she was, you know, interested in coming to my classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And she asked, which one and I mean I only teach 2 kind of more active classes a week. And they’re for back care. So we do some gentle core stabilizing. And so I said to where I was like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: definitely, not the yet like, because I know her well to, and I know she breast feeds for like quite a while, and then again, couple of years later, had another child. So I’m like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: definitely not, you know the end. But you know you could come to my my backcare class, and you would probably love that because it’s you know it. We are building strength, but in a very sort of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: small but mighty way, like a lot of deep core stabilizing. And then, of course, it always also finishes with Yoga and Indra. That one class, too. So you get a little bit of all the best worlds. You get some mobility, you get some, you know, perfect little strengthening things like not the you know everything. When people think of strength. And Yoga, they think you’re doing sun salutes, and you know Chaturangism like no, no, no, no, no

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then they do get a needra. So I always, if I do have folks that are postnatal. First of all depends how soon III like to tell them at least 6 months.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but I also like to just it’s

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I find it even in Victoria, where I live, which is not. It’s not a big city, but it’s not a tiny city. It’s really hard to find postnatal yoga and prenatal yoga like, and I don’t get it, because, like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so many women are having children. How is this like? Not a thing?

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Clare Newman: There was. There was a shift over the pandemic. And and right now, actually, like postpartum classes are far more popular than prenatal. And it’s it was always the opposite. But definitely after the pandemic that you know it really kind of closed off the the prenatal community a little bit, and that was challenging. So prenatals. Prenatal classes have not generally recovered as of yet like they were very popular prior to that.

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Clare Newman: you know. But postpartum classes right now are more popular, and I think it’s just that sense of community that we were talking about right. The the so many new parents feel so isolated through this experience that they like to be in connection and in community with other new mothers and parents. And so those classes are are far more oh, like you see them a lot more now than you do. Prenatal classes. Prenatal classes right now are few and far between, for sure.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: There was also a lot of

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Clare Newman: covid babies that happened there were. So I wonder if maybe that’s why there’s a little uptick now in the

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Clare Newman: challenging time for those, you know. My heart goes out to anyone that that had to have a baby during during that time. It was, you know, talk about again, an isolated experience.

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Clare Newman: 2 fold because they couldn’t have their partner in the room with them, you know, everyone was wearing masks and like it, created actually quite a lot of birth trauma in our community. Because those you know. Those mothers then had a lot of anxiety at, you know you’re already quite anxious as a new parent, and then you experience that, and their anxiety levels and their mood disturbances. There was a huge increase because of that.

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Clare Newman: Oh, yeah, yeah, can we can imagine going through that, not having the option of having your partner in there with you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That would just be brutal. Yeah, brutal. Yeah, there’s been a lot of damage done. Unfortunately, society level through all of the covid stuff that we’re

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we’re probably not. Most people aren’t even talking about, let alone addressing. And it’ll it’ll continue you know. So in the in our efforts to be safe.

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Clare Newman: So many other harms happened. I mean, if you look at you know what you just said with moms, if you look at kids. Some of them have never had never seen their friends. Faces. You know. And I mean, you know, seniors dying alone in nursing homes because their family can’t come like just so many things where I’m like, how addiction rates, you know. On and on we could go on mental health, right? I mean you and I have seen this shift like II in my trainings, too. II oftentimes talk like how it was

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Clare Newman: 20 years ago, was definitely more of a physical practice like we were just so physically driven. And the the power, Ashtanga, you know, age even I anger right to a degree. But then I said, now, like the majority of students that are coming to Yoga now are coming because they they want absolute 100%. It’s like, it’s all. So even my teaching has changed more on, you know, focusing on on the aspects of having a very quiet, slow process

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practice, because they are so anxious. They’re dealing with all sorts of challenges. And they just want like simple tools and techniques and coping strategies for their mental health

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Nyk Danu Yoga: agreed. Yeah, I often say that if

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if a student comes to my end class and they get nothing other than just a time to rest in their parasympathetic nervous system, I’m successful and like that. That alone, you know, even if they feel no stretch the whole time. But they feel supported and held, and they got some chance to rest. And you know, then

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then, pat on the back, we’re done. Yeah, cause it’s such a S, not even just a sacred space anymore. It’s a safe space like that’s ultimately what people want is like this, just a safe space. And so when we can provide that safe, comforting space like you said to just get them into that. You know that response, that parasympathetic response. That’s that’s that’s all they need like. It’s so simple. But it’s also exactly what people need right now.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s interesting that I just did an interview, and it had. It’ll go live, I think, just before this one, actually on

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Nyk Danu Yoga: on holding brave space versus safe space. Because I think, no matter how much we intend as a Yoga professional, to create a safe container. And we do. Obviously we do try that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: are best. There’s no way that everybody in that room is not like going to. Somebody’s not going to be sad. Somebody’s not going to have a trauma response that you know what I mean. So I always try to get my teachers think about holding a a brave space

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as far instead of a safe space. So you’re still creating the space as if

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Nyk Danu Yoga: with that same, you know, safe space in mind, right like you’re you’re thinking about those things.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you’re prepared for the fact that, especially in some of these practices like in that, like some shit’s gonna come up, you know, and that. And how do you, as a teacher, stay grounded

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to holding that container when that stuff comes up? So yeah, it was an interesting conversation. But yeah, it’ll be, it’ll be coming out, I think, probably right before yours.

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Clare Newman: That also applies to the postpartum, because there’s so much release that happens, and if you know, I tend not to ask for birth stories other than when I’m like meeting people for the first time and inviting them into this space. But I tend to. Not like as a group ask for birth stories, because that’s just a whole class itself. But there, you know, and there is like we’re on. There’s an increase of birth trauma. And so when we we also, you know, it’s a beautiful. That’s a beautiful message, because we

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Nyk Danu Yoga: also have to hold a lot of brave space in the postpartum classes, because so much, so many of them are dealing with postpartum trauma in different ways. Right? Everyone’s trauma is different, depending on their experience. But it’s there’s a lot of stuff that comes up in a postpartum class, and I would imagine, even though it’s getting better now, it’s still nowhere near where it needs to be.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know better than when I was younger, or when I was a child where nobody even acknowledged postpartum depression

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Nyk Danu Yoga: like I mean, so many women

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Nyk Danu Yoga: had never heard of that didn’t know it was a thing. And so they were feeling that we’re just feeling like they were a terrible mother and so I would imagine that there’s a ton of that that can come in to to small degrees, and also big degrees

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Clare Newman: in those rooms. So yeah, definitely, brave space needs to be helped. For sure it’s and it’s more. It’s actually like more, you know, anxiety like before the the the. The language was postpartum depression. Now, we just call it postpartum mood disturbances, because anxiety is actually probably the bigger part than that actually like depression. Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I know II know I have friends that are moms that said that you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: no matter how much, no matter how much. Of course they love their their baby, that sometimes they’re just on their last nerve, and they’re not patient, and they’re just like, Oh, my God! I just want my old life back. I love you, but like I, you know. And then, of course, there’s all these messages that they could be believing in their head about that. So yeah, I think, holding when we’re holding a brave space, we’re giving permission for those kind of shadowy aspects to come forward and see the light and be okay with them.

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Clare Newman: Yeah, yeah. And it, you know, being transparent with knowing that be becoming a mother and a parent is very hard. And it’s and it’s and it’s a lot. And it’s a lot like, you know, I have 3 kids. And I’m like pulled constantly with 3 right? These like and like sometimes I always say to my mom’s like, the need to not be needed is like a real thing, like we just sometimes don’t wanna be needed because we’re constantly being needed for something. And so the the Nidra, the you know, those slower practices of true restorative are huge for us as our nervous system cause we don’t get that much rest.

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Clare Newman: Totally agree? Totally agree. Yeah. till I become teenagers.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, and then they need you in a different way, but on their terms. And when they want to. Right? Like, yeah, chauffeur, I’m a chauffeur and a cook. Now, chauffeur, exactly. Yeah. Well, maybe that’d be a good opportunity to start to close

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Nyk Danu Yoga: close up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I have some rapid fire questions, and I every time I say that someone feels pressured so they don’t have to be rapid.

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Clare Newman: but you know we don’t have to think about them too much, but you know, if you need a moment or 2, some are fun. Some are more soulful

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Nyk Danu Yoga: coffee or tea

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Clare Newman: T.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay. Favorite ice cream flavor.

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Clare Newman: Oh, anything like mint, chocolate, chip.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: awesome. Umhm. One thing people often get wrong about you.

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Clare Newman: that I think that opinionated like can be very opinionated. But it’s mostly just out of, like my deep passion for people that I care about and injustices. So that’s probably the biggest one. Yeah, we share that gift.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I often say I’m the queen of unpopular opinions. Are you a tourist, too? No, I’m a sage. Okay? Similar fire. Yeah. Do you have a pop culture vice like a show? You binge or something that you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you’re just like, yeah. People won’t guess that I love this. But I do. I don’t. I don’t. I don’t watch a lot of reality. TV. But my partner and I really do love a vanter pump rules. So that’s probably a Pop culture thing. I’ve never seen a Kardashian so never seen that so? Not interested? Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when I’m not practicing yoga, I am.

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Clare Newman: But like in the kitchen, I’m a big baker, big cook.

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Clare Newman: Yeah, I’m always always baking something making bread and making baked goods for my kids I love. I love being in the kitchen. Lovely. Yeah.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: One weird fact about you.

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Clare Newman: one weird fact about me. Oh, A weird fact.

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Clare Newman: I don’t. I? Probably, you know, probably like as I think, that the expectation sometimes of Yoga teachers is is like just a little bit more, I think, serious. And I think the weirdness of these my sense of humor like I just love.

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Clare Newman: I I’m just like a very fun, humorous teacher. I just like to crack jokes, I think you know, from from the seriousness of Yoga, which can be irritating to some and refreshing for others, maybe. But I think the weird thing is that you know, people maybe achieve a sense of something. But I’m actually like, I love to laugh and crack jokes, and just be fun and humorous in my classes. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we also have that in common. And I got, if I got a sense of that, even just from your website and your Instagram. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, like to poke fun at myself for sure. Yeah, that’s usually how I do it, too. The humor usually starts at my own expense, so that because I think other people relax, and then they can relate. Yeah.

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Clare Newman: you know, Yoga, yoga can be fun like, let’s just let’s let’s just let it be the whole human experience we’re having. Yeah. Yeah. And I would say, you know it is possible to have a deep reverence for something

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and still be able to laugh.

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Clare Newman: Yeah, these 2 do not need separate, agreed

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Nyk Danu Yoga: what the world needs now is

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Clare Newman: love. grace. Actually, I think, Grace beautiful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah, one thing I wish people knew. Actually, it’s it’s normally yin, yoga. But for you, I’m gonna say one thing. I wish people knew about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: pre and postnatal. Yoga.

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Clare Newman: yeah, that I think specifically that that there’s a balance like that. There has to be a balance between the the stability. The flexibility and also mobility. You know, we teach a lot of functional movements, so I think the mobilization is really important

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is there anything else that I forgot to ask you that you would like to add

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Clare Newman: no, I think that was a great conversation and and you yourself as a Yin teacher, you know, saying all the right things to to students. I think again, you know, if you are a Yin teacher, and you practice a certain way, and you got back to your yin experience. I think it’s just really important to understand that our experiences are our own, and they’re very individualized. And so we just have to give permission and grace for our students to move

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Nyk Danu Yoga: through a practice that feels very aligned with their recovery. That’s the most important piece. So there’s no right or wrong way of doing things. But it’s definitely, very, very individualized. Yeah, that there are some general

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Nyk Danu Yoga: themes, but that there’s always exceptions

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Clare Newman: for sure. Yeah, yeah, exactly with it, with everything in life. Right? Just let me think we’ve got it figured out. We’ll find an exception. Yeah, that’s the case.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would love for you. I will put a link to all your things in the show notes, but I know some people. Sometimes people are out and about and don’t have a pen, and there may be walking on the path and wanna get on their phone right away. So if you could just share where people can find you if they want to get some prenatal training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or you know I know you do fertility. Yoga and post that like you’ve got a gamut of things that you offer. So yeah, yeah, they can find out more about the courses and trainings that you offer. Yeah, any anything pre post part of Mayo fascial like II teach at all. It’s mama to yoga.com. So mama, to means mother’s affection in Sanskrit, and that’s where I’m at.

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Clare Newman: Okay? And then on Instagram. Same yeah. Moment to yoga, you’ll find my humorous reels poking fun at myself constantly. Yeah, that’s where I’m at. So everything is Moma to yoga.

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Clare Newman: Nice simple. Yes, it is. Yep.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So of course I’ll have links to all of that in the show notes, and we’ll do our proper goodbyes once I hit stop.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but for those of you listening on the pod. Bye, for now

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Clare Newman: bye.