My Child
Autumn 2008, Issue 8

Yoga Babies
by Oryana Angel and Louise Conville

With prenatal and postnatal classes, as well as fun sessions for babies and young children, it's never too early to start practising yoga and aligning body and mind.

Six babies, six mothers and their yoga teacher lie on the floor. One baby is playing with his mother's toes and she does exercise to strengthen her pelvic floor muscles; an older baby, who was becoming restless, is gently rocked by the yoga teacher, Carine Lo Presti; another is breastfed; the others coo up at their mothers as they move through a series of postures. The class ends with a group chant, momentarily hypnotising the babies, and then feminine chatter fills the room.

"I like the mental side of yoga - how it makes me feel,' says Kath Vaughan after the postnatal (or mums and bubs) class at the Yoga Sanga centre in Surrey Hills, Sydney.

Vaughan did prenatal yoga, and after the birth of her son, Owen, she tried doing a regular yoga class but quickly fount it too strenuous on her stomach muscles. When Owen was four and a half months old, she joined a six-week postnatal course at the centre, not really expecting to be able to find a peaceful headspace with her rambunctious little boy in tow.

'With Carine looking after the babies and so feeling all right to let them do what they need, it was fantastic. I was surprised at just how relaxing it was and I didn't expect to be able to feel like that with the babies in the room,' she says.

Yoga centres around Australia offer courses specifically designed to accommodate mums and babies together. The class structures are flexible, allowing mums to feed, change or soothe their baby as needed during the class. The routines are also gentle, taking into account that the woman's body is still recovering from childbirth.

Some classes, like Lo Presti's at Yoga Sanga, are more geared towards nurturing the mother, while others incorporate a variety of postures and breathing exercises specially designed for mum and baby to do together. Some teachers, such as Yoga Babes pre-and-postnatal yoga specialist Katie Brown, bases in Sydney's north, also incorporate massage techniques into their classes.

'The yoga and massage routines mothers learn in my class help them to connect and bond with their babies. The class is centred on the union between mother and baby. It's a great way to tune into your baby's cues and a lovely opportunity for new mums to focus on their own bodies at a time when most of t heir attention is devoted to their child,' says Brown.

Brown believes yoga can help relieve the symptoms of colic, encourage coordination skills and leave babies feeling happy, confident, calm and secure. "Our infants spend so much of their time constrained in cots, prams and car seats. Yoga gives them a wonderful feeling of freedom and gentle movement,' she explains.

'Nothing in the class is forceful; rather, it's about the mum's working with their bodies, getting to know their littlies and helping the bubs to get to know t heir bodies,' says Brown.

By the time babies can crawl, they're generally no longer suitable for the mums and bubs yoga classes, and then from age four they can participate in special classes designed for children.

Shakta Kaur Khalsa, an internationally recognised teacher of yoga for both adults and children, author of several books on the topic and producer of numerous relaxation CDs, saying teaching yoga to babies and children is very beneficial.

'Yoga allows children to retain their flexibility and is a good relaxation technique,' says Khalsa. She says it can also help alleviate the symptoms of developmental difficulties such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Sensory Integration Dysfunction and autism.

'The way yoga works is different from regular exercise,' explains Khalsa. 'It helps to pressurise and organise the nervous system. Yoga works well because changes happen internally. Its power lies in the way movement links to breathing, which links to consciousness and inner awareness.'

Khalsa's teachings in school around the world became so popular, she develop a certificate teacher-training program for children's yoga called the Radiant Child Yoga Program, the share her children's yoga teachings with other teachers, therapists, parents and grandparents.

She has developed different teaching methods for each age group. 'Younger children aged from three to eight years old enjoy yoga taught through stories. So I developed my own songs and stories about going to the ocean, or visiting the zoo to do the elephant pose. As children get older, I teach them yoga that relates to their daily lives. In this way, they can learn to understand how it helps them each day.'

Kim McCormick, from Magic Monkey Yoga Kids in Manly, Sydney, says teaching yoga to children helps them develop co-ordination, flexibility and strength, improves self-esteem and teaches them about their bodies.

'One of the reasons children's yoga works so well is that it is non-competitive. Because there are no winners or losers, children become more confident to participate and try whatever comes up in class, without fear of failure or ridicule,' says McCormick.

On the other hand, she notes that children's yoga needs to be engaging, taking in their short attention spans and high energy levels. 'The pace and tone of a traditional yoga class is too slow to hold the attention of a young child.

'Many of the traditional yoga poses are inspired by nature and plenty of yoga poses are names after animals, such as downward dog, cobra, cat and butterfly. This makes it very easy to teach yoga to children - they have an image they are familiar with to mimic.

'Children's yoga is therefore animated, playful and often very noisy as the children bark, hiss, meow and roar when acting out the yoga poses, brining yoga to life. Amid all the fun, the yoga gets done and the kids move through a surprising number of sequences and breathing exercises,' McCormick says.

Understanding the power of incorporating yoga into children's life early, many Australian schools and introduced yoga into the curriculum.

Khalsa explains: 'Yoga taught in school allows children to relax and focus so it's a great way to start the school day. Long term it increases self-esteem, confidence and self-awareness.'

She says there is a type of yoga to suit almost everyone. 'I've practised yoga with children and adults in wheelchairs. If they can do nothing more then the breathing exer5xises, then I'll teach good breathing exercises. If they can move t heir arms, there are great yoga poses that don't require full use of the body to accomplish. Yoga is available to every age and it only takes simple techniques for as little as 15 minutes every day.'