Beyond Modifications: Why Pregnancy Deserves Its Own Yoga Practice
"Can you just tell me which poses to avoid in pregnancy?"
It's one of the most common questions I hear from yoga teachers.
And while it's an important question, I don't think it's the right place to begin.
Because when prenatal yoga becomes nothing more than a list of contraindications and modifications, we risk missing the extraordinary opportunity that pregnancy offers.
We begin to see pregnancy as something to work around.
Something to accommodate.
Something to make smaller.
But what if pregnancy isn't a limitation at all?
What if it is one of yoga's greatest teachers?
More Than a Modified BodyMuch of modern prenatal yoga education focuses—quite rightly—on anatomy, physiology, and safety.
Teachers need to understand how pregnancy changes the body.
They need to know when to modify, when to support, and when to refer.
These things matter.
But they are only one layer of the story.
Pregnancy is not simply a body requiring different alignment cues.
It is a complete transformation of identity.
A woman isn't just growing a baby.
She's becoming a mother.
And yoga has always been about transformation.
Pregnancy Is Already Yoga
The deeper I have explored pregnancy over the past eighteen years, the more I've realised that the philosophies we've practised on the mat for thousands of years naturally come alive during pregnancy.
Pratyahara asks us to turn inward.
Pregnancy invites exactly that.
Dharana teaches focused awareness.
Labour asks for it.
Apana Vayu grounds us into the pelvis.
Birth becomes its fullest expression.
The Koshas help us understand that our experience extends far beyond the physical body.
Pregnancy reminds us of this every single day.
Suddenly, yoga philosophy is no longer abstract.
It becomes lived experience.
Beyond Anatomy
Yes, we need to understand the pelvis.
The pelvic floor.
Hormones.
Contraindications.
Birth physiology.
These form an essential foundation.
But they aren't the destination.
The destination is helping a woman develop trust.
Trust in her body.
Trust in her breath.
Trust in her intuition.
Trust in her capacity to move through one of life's most profound transitions.
That's what prenatal yoga has always offered.
Teaching the Wisdom of Pregnancy
At Bloom, we don't teach pregnancy as a modified yoga practice.
We teach pregnancy as one of yoga's most profound practices.
One that asks us to soften instead of strive.
To listen instead of achieve.
To become curious instead of controlling.
To discover that strength isn't always found in effort—but often in surrender.
When teachers understand this, everything changes.
Classes become less about "what not to do" and more about what women are being invited to experience.
Movement becomes preparation.
Breath becomes trust.
Rest becomes practice.
Birth becomes an expression of yoga itself.
This Is Why I Teach
After almost two decades of supporting women through pregnancy, birth, and motherhood, I have become less interested in teaching modifications and more interested in teaching perspective.
Because I have seen what happens when women begin to trust themselves.
I've watched fear soften into confidence.
I've witnessed women discover a strength they never knew they carried.
And I've seen yoga become so much more than movement.
It becomes an anchor.
A companion.
A way of meeting one of life's greatest transformations with presence and grace.
For me, that is the true practice of prenatal yoga.
And it's why I continue to teach it.
Every year, I meet teachers who come to my prenatal yoga training wanting to learn how to teach pregnant women safely.
They leave understanding something much deeper.
That prenatal yoga isn't about teaching around pregnancy.
It's about teaching into it.
About helping women trust their bodies.
Their breath.
Their intuition.
Their unfolding.
Because pregnancy doesn't ask us to become different teachers.
It asks us to become better listeners.
And perhaps...
that's what yoga has been teaching us all along.
If this philosophy resonates with you, I'd love to welcome you into Bloom's 40-Hour Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training.