Birthlight Perinatal Yoga Teacher Training

Are you drawn to supporting women journeying through pregnancy, birth and postnatal recovery?

Learn how to share specially adapted Yoga that will enhance all women’s health and wellbeing throughout pregnancy, helping to prepare mentally and physically for labour and birth and begin to restore balance and strength in the early postpartum period.

Nurture, calm strength, and balance are our priorities.

This course covers everything you need to know in order to offer effective, inclusive and supportive Yoga for Pregnancy and birth classes plus early postpartum recovery practices. Based on over 30 years of collective experience of working with pregnant women from all walks of life and from different cultures, this training has inspired many other training courses.

Birthlight’s Perinatal Yoga teacher training (also known as Pregnancy Yoga) offers original adaptations of classic yoga practices for women from conception through to the early postpartum period. This course is complemented by Birthlight Postnatal Yoga covering Early Postpartum practices with progressions to a classical yoga practice through the first year after birth.

What makes Birthlight’s Perinatal Yoga teacher training unique?

This Yoga offers a wealth of embodied resources that resonate with both ancient wisdom and recent findings on the physiology of birth. Nurture, with emotional wellbeing rooted in body-based practices, is at the heart of this training. Birthlight’s ‘Mothering the mother’ approach provides an essential foundation for a woman’s self-confidence and ability to nurture her baby, creating cascades of wellbeing all around her.

Whilst adaptations of classic poses will be explored, this course focuses on Yoga specifically aimed at the holistic wellbeing of the pregnant person and their baby. 

Many women start yoga for the first time in pregnancy and the practices in this course are beneficial for both beginners to yoga and those with an established yoga practice.

What is the Course Schedule?
 

This course takes place in 2 parts with time to study and practice in between. Coursework is ideally completed between Part 1 and Part 2, including teaching your case studies. All coursework is carefully read and commented on, helping you to further refine your teaching.

Part 1: 
7th, 8th, 9th February 2025
4th, 5th, 6th April 2025

Part 2:
3rd, 4th, 5th October 2025

All Live Online via Zoom, 9:00 to 13:00 UK time each day.

What will you learn on this course?

• How to guide the building of self confidence through embodied understanding.
• Lead flowing sequences originally designed for pregnancy, birth and beyond.
• Gain confidence to combine movement, breath, and relaxation. Learn how to guide postural awareness on and off the mat.
• How to enhance pelvic health and function, awareness of the pelvic floor and practices to enhance elasticity.
• Guide the strengthening of the muscles supporting the growing baby.
• Skillfully deliver effective birth preparation.
• Understand how to support pregnant women with common ailments such as backache and pelvic pain.
• Get inspiration for offering classes that give women the opportunity to bond with their babies before birth.
• Train to support groups of mothers-to-be with individual and group attention.
• Learn methods for preparing the body and mind for labour and birth.
• Gain a repertoire of breathing for pregnancy, any kind of birth and early parenthood.
• Learn to teach a range of relaxation techniques for pregnancy, birth and after.

Who can join this course?

Birthlight trains both yoga teachers and maternity professionals who go on to offer successful regular Pregnancy Yoga classes and workshops in yoga studios, community spaces, hospitals as well as midwives integrating the practices into their care on labour wards, in birth centres, routine appointments and home visits.

• Yoga Teachers with a 200hr+ general yoga teacher training
• Health professionals with a personal yoga practice but without a formal Yoga teacher training.

Course Resources:
 

• A comprehensive course manual
• Access to the Birthlight online learning platform
• Support from tutor and fellow students via online group and access to a dedicated members training website (learning resources, business and marketing resources, film clips, latest research)

Assessment:

• Parts 1 and 2 are assessed by a practicum observed by a tutor.
• Coursework: an essay (2000 words) or presentation and 10 questions, two case-studies, four class observations and a review. The aim is to develop your teaching skills and knowledge around pregnancy and gain confidence for the best delivery of your classes.

Course attendance requirement:

Students must attend the course in full in order to get the qualification. If more than 2 hours of the course are missed, certification cannot be granted and arrangements will need to be discussed and agreed in order to complete.

Qualification:

The Perinatal Yoga Diploma is awarded after assessment of coursework and a final practicum on the Part 2 course.

Accreditation:

Successful completion of Part 1 and 2 Perinatal Yoga plus Postnatal Yoga together including the coursework create a comprehensive training of 8 days that satisfy the requirements to register as a Yoga Alliance UK Professionals Prenatal Yoga Teacher.

Due to the changed YAP requirements Postnatal can be listed as a separate course, and is not needed to be included for a Pregnancy Yoga teacher listing.

On successful completion of the training, teachers will be able to list themselves on the Birthlight international directory of qualified teachers.

Yogacampus Diversity and Accessibility Bursary

We are offering one bursary (50% off the full course price) to a dedicated yoga student with a demonstrated financial need and active involvement in a community that could benefit from yoga. This bursary is provided by Yogacampus – The Life Centre Education, a not-for-profit educational body committed to sharing knowledge and making yoga accessible to all.

Bursary places will be awarded to a teacher or trainee who has the ability and commitment to take the course teachings into a disadvantaged community and play their part in the drive to increase accessibility to these profoundly healing practices. Priority will be given to those who themselves are from marginalised or vulnerable groups or are from a minority ethnic background.

To apply, please complete our online form before the closing date of 5 January 2025. 

Meet the Teacher: Kirsteen Ruffell

Kirsteen Ruffell is the Co-ordinator for Birthlight’s land-based training courses and is one of our experienced Perinatal and Baby Yoga Tutors. She is a registered Senior Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance Professionals, has been teaching yoga since 1998 and began tutoring in 2008. Kirsteen is passionate about nurturing students’ professional development on every training course and enhancing their ability to use new understanding creatively to best serve the students in their own classes.

Within the sphere of Perinatal Yoga, Kirsteen has developed a particular interest in Postnatal Yoga and has worked closely with Birthlight founder and pioneer, Dr Françoise Freedman, to develop specific practices for the postnatal year. She continues to refine her practice and understanding through regular CPDs (Continuous Professional Development courses) and Birthlight Conferences. Her background is in Hatha Yoga (Sivananda) and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and she started teaching Birthlight Perinatal Yoga in 2002. She is also a trained Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist (Karuna Institute).

Kirsteen is continually inspired by teaching Birthlight’s gentle and enjoyable yoga practices that work profoundly across languages and cultures to support women and babies around the world. She regularly leads Birthlight training courses in London, the Netherlands, China, Russia, Portugal, Belgium, and Germany