Why you should attend a baby yoga class...
“Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate.”
- Anonymous
ZenMuma and ZenKids founder Jackie Heffer-Cooke initially discovered baby yoga as a response to her own experience of feeling quite lonely with her first daughter Megan.
She says, “Some days with a small baby I found it easier to get out of the house, away from the boring domesticity of washing endless clothes and mushing boundless vegetables. However, although I am pretty sociable, I find it hard to just enter a room and make small talk with other mums. I was looking for something where I felt I could take Megan and learn more about her and help her enjoy being a baby! I wanted to encourage her natural development, whilst at the same time grow some confidence in how to be a ‘good mum’. For me, classes like Massage and Baby Yoga tick all the boxes, and since then I have gone on to become a Baby Yoga teacher to help other mums to bond with their babies”.
Jackie set up the ZenMuma Teacher Training School, and Jackie now trains others to go on to teach their own yoga classes including baby yoga.
The benefits of baby yoga classes
It has been proven that classes like baby yoga have a very positive impact and enormous emotional benefits for your baby. Jackie says, “One of the most important lessons for a baby to learn is to feel secure and become skilled at trusting those around them. In baby yoga the baby picks up on the relaxed atmosphere of the class, the soft singing, the one-on-one eye contact between mum and baby. Through the eye contact the baby actually reads from the mum that she feels warm, safe and happy, the baby directly picks up on these feelings of calm and content and will follow mums lead. This in turn will help develop baby’s self-confidence and self-esteem. The classes allow mum and baby to simply ‘be’, away from the rushing around of life, sleepless nights and packing of baby bags. Mum and baby can connect, be as one, for a short amount of time they can completely invest in each other with no distraction”.
Baby Yoga and Massage classes also enhance your baby’s natural development, and have been found to help with digestive issues, colic, settling and sleep. They incorporate post-partum yoga too, so the mother can feel like she’s gaining some physical benefits through safe and gentle movement and breathing for relaxation and stress relief.
Here’s some more benefits of our ZenMuma baby yoga classes…
Baby Benefits of ZenMuma Baby Yoga:
Physical:
• Gently encourages the opening of babies chest and lungs, enables baby to breathe more effectively
• Brings more oxygen into the body helping baby’s nervous system and internal muscles and organs to work more effectively and efficiently
• Strengthens and tones muscles, keeping the spine straight and supple
Emotional:
• Baby yoga and massage classes encourage mum and baby to take some time out from the demands of daily life to connect through positive interaction, awareness and nurturing
• The communication encouraged through baby yoga and massage helps baby develop a sense of trust around them. This develops baby’s confidence and self-esteem
• Develops limbic system – the experience of emotion
Developmental:
The bouncing, swinging, rocking and spinning movements are loved by babies as they develop their vestibular system, which helps the baby to balance
By singing in class baby’s hearing and pre-language skills are developed
Develops a sense of spatial awareness, flexibility and the development of fine and gross motor skills
How Mums Benefit from ZenMuma Baby Yoga
And of course there's plenty of post-natal yoga benefits for Mums too!
• By encouraging new mums to breathe deeply, yoga classes help to develop a sense of calm and revitalisation.
• Shows new mums ways of holding their baby and transitioning between holds
• Builds confidence in understanding your baby’s needs
• Learning to release tension in the body can help a parent realise they have been feeling stressed, and may help them to identify and then work with balancing those areas of tension.
• Encourages self-belief as a mum.
• Baby yoga classes provide an opportunity for mums to have some time for inner reflection.
• Learning how to relax deeply for a few minutes can be as rewarding as sleep and can be practised whilst feeding, or comforting baby. Knowing this can help mum to recharge batteries throughout the day whilst looking after the baby.
• Helps mum to realign her body after birthing, restoring physical balance.
• Make new buddies and have fun!