Pregnancy Yoga: Book Review

The lovely Jo from RedMoonYoga wrote this lovely review of my pregnancy yoga book The Yoga of Pregnancy

hi mel,

i teach yoga at the muma baby sanctuary in lewes where i believe you used to teach; i guess this must be where i know about you from. i bought your book recently and i just wanted to let you know i think it’s great.

i have 3 children (all boys), all born at home in water. i practiced daily throughout all my pregnancies (and through 2 pregnancies that didn’t come to fruition) and i’m passionate about asana practice as a foundation for pregnancy, birth, parenting and partnering. (i do have other practices but i am in love with asana!) it’s my experience that these “off the mat” practices support my formal practice, too. i believe that yoga, like parenting, requires us to drop our ideas about how things should be in order to see clearly how things actually are, and that there is liberation and huge transformational potential inherent in this. so i’m really pleased to come across a down-to-earth, accessible book with some lovely gentle practices, and some more challenging ones, too. although there is of course huge value in slow, gentle poses, particularly for pregnant women who are often very stressed and live far from their bodies, my experience is that there is also room for poses that allow us to experience intense sensation and to notice our responses to this; and that the deep engagement stronger poses demand and working with ahimsa can support each other. i often get disheartened with pregnancy yoga books as they seem to fall into 2 camps – either endless cat pose and the odd squat, or headstands in the 8th month (iyengar yoga). your book bridges that gap beautifully and i shall certainly refer my students to it. gorgeously modelled poses, too 🙂

so thanks, mel! i hope you and your family are well, and that your practice and teaching are thriving. perhaps we’ll meet some day and pool ideas, knowledge and wisdom.

love and blessings,