Conflicting Information, Yoga Style.

I will come right out and say that I don't believe in the whole, "pregnant ladies are fragile things," bullcrap. Sure, you probably should keep up a karate practice or play football, but not every activity is dangerous. There is still plenty of stuff a woman can do. We are not relegated to staying home, sitting on the couch and protecting ourselves from the world.

I've had some people be surprised that I am still bellydancing and teaching during my pregnancy. I've fielded more than a few questions about shimmies, belly rolls and their safety to the baby. To that, I can only respond that women have been doing much more vigorous things than bellydance since the dawn of time. Also, bellydance does not incur any impact to the womb, nor does shimmying dislodge the placenta (which someone actually, honestly was worried about for me). Sure, you're shaking and moving, but it's not high impact and I trust my doctor and other bellydancing mom's words on this.

With that said, I really didn't expect for Yoga to be another physical activity where I'd receive conflicting information. As soon as I got pregnant, I started reading up on prenatal yoga and safety issues. I even consulted my doctor and health professionals as well, asking what, if anything, should be avoided. Most told me that yoga was fine, as long as I stopped doing really vigorous/fast yoga (vinyasa flow, stayed away from inversions and honored my body. I enrolled in a prenatal class by week 8 and altered my home practice to reflect these changes.

Let me state that I have been really happy for my prenatal yoga class. Though the pace is much slower and the movements are not as intense, it's really good to be doing poses that will not over-stretch my body and learn the modifications I will need when I'm further along. There also are a lot of good techniques being taught to manage breathing, finding peace and relieving stress during labor. And finally, the ability to see women up to 39 weeks pregnant doing these poses and being SO STRONG is really inspiring. So, prenatal yoga = awesome.

Enter the conflict. I went to a class, at the studio I've attended for years, taught by my friend and her yoga teacher training class. It was all pretty basic, no amazingly challenging or inverted asanas. I told one of the other students upon entering the classroom that I was pregnant and yes, I knew how to modify poses or wouldn't attempt poses that could be harmful to me. She seemed a bit of an alarmist and was really stressing that I shouldn't do twists or inversions, to which I told her that I'd consulted my prenatal teacher and was aware of what I could and couldn't do, but thanks for the tips. This started me already feeling like I was being treated as an outsider, a fragile thing, a woman who didn't know how to respect or honor her own body.

Throughout the class, I felt more than comfortable with the poses. I've been doing yoga for over eight years now and I have a pretty good grasp of most poses this studio teachers. Also, my background in dance and anatomy has given me confidence that I know which movements are not good for me and when to hold back in a pose. So, I went through the class having a good time, observing these soon-to-be yoga teachers and, from the perspective of a teacher myself, noting where they could improve and where they were rocking. I was, after my first instance, starting to feel like I was a part of the class again and not "the pregnant lady" that was being carefully watched.

Then, when my friend was leading triangle pose, one of the veteran teachers in the studio came to me and said, "when we get to the twists, I'd like you to not do them." This baffled me, as we've been doing twists throughout prenatal yoga and it's not been anything that had a red flag over it. Her telling me that made me upset and started me questioning my prenatal teacher in my mind. Why am I not supposed to twist? Why am I not allowed to do something which, for weeks, I've been told as fine and my doctors have approved as safe? Why does all the literature I read, save some people on the internet (which are NOT reliable) say twisting is just fine, as long as it's not intense? I was really off during the rest of the class and felt like my wishes and experiences were not being honored.

Then, after the class, I spoke to the teacher and asked her about it. She explained to me that the first trimester is very risky (duh) and that she didn't want me getting into a twist that compromised my uterus and caused an issue, like the detatching of the placenta (note: I informed her that I was just over 10 weeks, well after the placenta has attached to the uterine wall. So this is a non-issue at this point). Also, that she was worried the students wouldn't correct me if I was in a bad place. I then explained to her that my prenatal teacher knew how far along I was and never brought up that twists were an issue. She replied that they were really bad to do during the first trimester and that my teacher shouldn't be having me do twists. I thanked her for explaining her thoughts to me, though it made me even more annoyed.

Because, basically, you just totally negated years of trust that I had in your studio. You just told me that the prenatal teacher in YOUR studio has been harming me for weeks. Not good. I just told you that she's known how far along I am from the beginning and you told me, "well, she shouldn't have had you doing twists." So, what does that tell me, the consumer coming to your studio? It tells me that the left hand doesn't know, or agree, with what the right hand is doing.

I'm not quitting prenatal yoga because I honestly don't believe this other teacher is right. I came home, re-consulted my trusted sources and all of them said it's fine to do twisting during yoga, even during the first trimester, as long as it's not intense. I also trust the prenatal teacher as she's specialized in this and taught for years, and hell... most of the ladies in our class have stuck through their entire time. I met a woman my first class who started coming at six weeks and lord knows she's fine. So, I'm going to keep taking this class because I know it's good for me because I'm feeling great. And twists will be perfectly healthy for me because I'm not some fragile flower and I trust a group of professionals from different backgrounds and their knowledge. Most of all I'll keep on because it makes me feel good.

But I'll tell ya, I'm going to be writing a letter to the director of the studio. Because this incident has made me feel a bit unsettled about their studio. How am I supposed to feel when I was feeling good and without stress, than another teacher tells me that someone they employ is doing me harm?

No Bueno!