Mamaste: Yoga routines benefit mothers, babies

Emily Siemers of Edmond heard her baby laugh for the first time as she sang a silly song to her in her mommy/baby yoga class. She started taking baby Dylan to classes when she was 6 weeks old.

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Sun salutation: Greet a new way to stimulate child
In her Mamaste classes, Karen Prior guides her students through many yoga postures specifically geared to help new mothers interact with their babies. The Sun Salutation, or Surya Namaskara, is a common sequence of yoga postures that Prior has adapted for her Mamaste program. These postures can improve strength and flexibility of muscles in the spinal column while warming up the body and toning the abdominal muscles. The Sun Salutation is demonstrated by Emily Siemers and her daughter, Dylan.

1. Place the baby on a blanket at the top of your mat.

2. As you exhale and fold forward into a forward bend, reach down and draw the baby’s legs up, pressing her knees into her chest into a "wind reliever” pose. Do this two or three times to help relieve the baby’s gas pains. Step back into a lunge, smiling and talking to the baby or singing a song to the baby.

3. Step back into a plank position, lower your knees to touch the floor, then lower your torso and head and kiss the baby on her belly, raising and lowering a couple of times to make the baby laugh.

4. Inhale and arch up into the Upward Facing Dog.

5. Exhale and press back to Downward Facing Dog, keeping your knees slightly bent. Turn your heels out a bit to get release across the hips.

Inhale and walk your feet forward into a forward bend. Say "hi” to the baby, bicycle her legs and touch her toes to her forehead. Inhale up to a standing position.

Repeat the sequence several times.

Flying baby
Demonstrating the Flying Baby pose are, left, Lisa Wolfe with son Abraham Wolfe Mischler, and Emily Siemers with her daughter, Dylan.

In the Flying Baby pose, Mom gets help in strengthening her abs and gently stretching her lower back while the baby benefits by strengthening the muscles that support the cervical and lumbar spine. This exercise is good for babies 6 weeks and older.

→Getting into position:

Sit with your legs extended in front of your body. Baby is on a blanket at your side. Bend your knees and keep your feet together, feet flat on the floor. Lift the baby to rest on your shins, belly facing you.

→The adjustment:

Roll onto your back. You can hold onto the baby’s torso or hands. Raise and lower your legs as you breathe. This helps strengthen your abs as well as giving your back a little stretch. Baby will naturally lift her head. This action strengthens her lower back and neck muscles.

→Coming out of the posture:

Draw your knees close in to your torso. Hold the baby under your arms and part your knees, allowing the baby to rest on your chest.

Dylan, now 6 months, never stops laughing, Siemers said. She’s a happy baby, as are most of the babies in Karen Prior’s Mamaste classes.

"Mamaste: The mama in me salutes the mama in you.” It’s a play on Namaste, a Sanskrit phrase that, in yoga, means "the light within me honors the light within you.”

Prior, an Oklahoma yoga instructor, coined the term as a name for the mommy/baby yoga program she designed. It’s a way for new mothers to exercise with their babies while socializing with other new mothers. It’s also a great way to get back into shape after childbirth, Siemers said.

"We believe that babies have an intense need to be with their mothers,” Prior said. "With Mamaste, Mom can take care of herself and bond with her baby at the same time.”

The classes rebuild strength and flexibility in muscles after birth and help new mothers relax from the stress they feel in their new role. The stress women often experience when a baby enters their family can be compounded by lack of sleep and hormonal imbalances, Prior said.

In Mamaste, moms use their babies as weights during abdominal and arm exercises. They sing to their babies and interact with them during yoga postures.

"I was worried that it would be cheesy because I’m not a ‘sing to my baby’ kind of person,” Siemers said. "I got there, and the songs that we sang were so cute and cheesy, but I totally loved it.”

Like Siemers, most of Prior’s Mamaste clients attended her prenatal yoga classes when they were pregnant. Prenatal yoga eases aches and pains associated with pregnancy, Prior said. It helps expectant mothers clear their minds of the stresses that come with pregnancy and teaches breathing and relaxation techniques they can use in labor and in motherhood.

"The biggest benefit that I see, especially with first-time moms, is it puts them in the community and surrounds them with other women who will be having babies at the same time,” Prior said. It’s a great way for women to form close friendships for themselves and their babies, she said.

Siemers said just learning new ways to interact with her new baby was one of the Mamaste class’s biggest benefits.

"It really taught me how to play with my baby, which sounds silly, but I didn’t know how to do it,” she said. "As a first-time mom, I didn’t know what to do. So it’s really given me some things to do with her and some ways to kind of get me slowly back into fitness while I’m recovering from having a baby.”

Prior offers many yoga options for pregnant women and new mothers as well as couples and stroller classes. She also owns Samatva Yoga, a state-licensed private vocational school that trains certified yoga instructors in prenatal and postnatal yoga techniques. For more information, go online to www.mamasteyoga.com.

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