My interest in Pregnancy Yoga sparked after I gave birth to my first child. I had heard about Pregnancy Yoga before, but I was unable to attend classes, at the time, because I just came back from an overseas trip during the later stages of my pregnancy. My friend taught me a few breathing techniques she had learned in her yoga classes and told me how to use these techniques during labour. There was not much time to get my head around it, being 35.5 weeks pregnant, my labour started off with my water breaking. I was fighting and resisting the surges which meant that I was working against my body rather than working with my body. Fear was definitely a big part of the process which made the surges even more intense and made the labour last longer. It was fear that made me forget how to listen to my body.
“My passion is to teach other women to gain more confidence through connecting with their bodies.”
After dealing with those surges for nearly 20 hours, it was time to give birth to my son. This time, I remembered the breathing techniques that my friend taught me. In a very powerful way, I felt that I was able to work with my body. This experience is the reason that my path has led me to where I am right now. I started a 2-year training and became a certified Hatha Yoga teacher. I added another year to specialized myself in pregnancy yoga which I received a certificate for as well.
I was able to use what I had learned with my other three children. They were all born in their own special way. One was a breach baby, one was a home birth baby and my last born child was a water birth baby. I gave birth to all my children naturally, with no intervention. A positive mindset, which includes trusting the process of labour, helped me enormously coping with the waves of surges. The body wisdom who already knows how to birth a baby flourished as I surrendered myself while using my breathing.
My Yoga CV
In 1995, I finished a two year Hatha Yoga teachers training at Yoga Opleidingen Limburg in the Netherlands. Furthermore, in 1996, I continued a one year training at ‘The Parelmoer’ in Amsterdam. This is a teachers training course for pregnancy guidance.
Between 2009 to 2018, I participated in many workshops throughout New Zealand and abroad to help me improve my teaching skills for Pregnancy Yoga and Postnatal Yoga. I would like to acknowledge some of the courses that I participated in, starting with Amanda Reid from Samadhi Yoga in 2009, Natal teacher training with Roselle Gould from Yoga Joy in 2009, Judith Hanson Lasater Ph.D. Therapeutic application of Yoga in Brisbane 2010, Developmental Baby Massage with Peter Walker in London 2011, Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training for Conscious Birthing with Janice Clarfield from Urban Yoga in Sydney 2012, Wendy Gadsden midwife and Birthlight Tudor in Auckland 2012, a Doula training with Cathy Daub from Birthworks in Auckland 2014, Creative ways of making space for the baby with midwife Jenny Blyth in QLD Australia 2015 and a two day workshop with midwife Gail Tully founder from spinning babies in Sydney 2018. They have all contributed to the knowledge that I carry today.
Alongside being a yoga instructor, I am also a CNT Practitioner. I received my certificate from, Master Mantak Chia and Jutta Kellenberger at Tao Garden in Thailand. Atarangi Muru who has thought me the art of Maori Healing. I have participated in many of her workshops together with the late Manu Korewha. In 2015, I attended Te Rongapae, which is a two week intensive workshop in Auckland. I have travelled back to Indonesia, on several occasions, where I learned to massage from Usi Nona in Jakarta during 2015. In 2014, I attended Jamu Spa in Bali and received a certificate for Traditional Indonesian Postnatal Massage. This involved a herbal abdominal selendang body wrap. During 2017, at the same school, I received another certificate for vaginal steaming and herbal tonics making. During 2017 in the Netherlands, I also did an Imas Training course. There, I learned how to massage the body with my feet. This technique is called Pitjit Jalan.