So many in-person events have been cancelled during this pandemic, and prenatal yoga has unfortunately been one of them for safety concerns. Mandy Rodenberg turned that lemon into some great lemonade by recording her yoga classes for students to watch and move along with her for FREE on YouTube! The first time I met Mandy, I felt and instant connection with her, and I am certainly not alone. I have had so many clients tell me that her soothing calm voice helped them during their pregnancy, and her prenatal yoga classes are an amazing chance for them to connect with their bodies and their babies. Mandy is a gifted yoga instructor, and all around fantastic human. Mandy let me ask her a few questions, and I think you can see from her answers why so many people love her.
Q & A:
Doula Group of Evansville: Why are you passionate about the restorative and healing properties of yoga practice, especially for the perinatal period?
Mandy: During my 200 hour yoga teacher training in 2009, we were asked to write a paper on ways yoga benefits and heals the body from injury. My teacher at the time allowed me to instead write about how yoga movements ease a mother throughout pregnancy and childbirth. My research solidified my passion for helping bring yoga together with the most life changing and amazing experience a woman will go through. Prenatal yoga will help moms start to understand the connection of mind and body and how and what movements make her body feel safe and nurtured and comfortable. She can use these tools to breath through a tough labor or even preparation for caesarian. She will learn to mother herself.
Doula Group of Evansville: What special training have you taken for prenatal yoga instruction & why is that important?
Mandy: I completed my 200 hour teaching certification in 2010 here in Evansville with Chris Crews as my teacher. Before I was even pregnant, I participated in a prenatal yoga class with another local teacher, Leslie Ward. I began teaching prenatal yoga in 2011, 6 months after giving birth to my daughter. In 2015, when I traveled to visit friends in Denver, Colorado I completed my Prenatal Yoga Certification at Belly Bliss Yoga. The training empowered me to focus on what pregnant mothers CAN do, instead of focusing on what they can’t. The teachers covered more that just the basics of yoga. One taught us about birth trauma and how to listen without taking on the emotions, but witnessing them for her. One afternoon class was all about the benefits of doulas and they put us through a simulation to help us to better understand the empowerment a doula gives the mom. The training was so much more than I expected. Truly though, my best teachers are my pregnant moms. By them reaching out to me, letting me know their own struggles and discomforts, I am able to be a better teacher. I usually teach live classes in 6 week sessions, and no two have been the same in all 5 years. I did also have the pleasure of teaching while I was pregnant with my second child, that was the best.
Doula Group of Evansville: What sparked your interest in creating a YouTube channel to house such awesome resources?
Mandy: My husband, Andrew, and I both teach yoga at several locations here in Evansville. We were both home during the shut down in March and were wondering how we could continue to stay connected to our clients. We decided to try making videos that we could make available to everyone. We have resumed some in-person classes this past summer, but we have some clients that don’t feel safe returning to class. With our videos we hope to stay connected to our clients in hopes they do return to class when they feel safe. My prenatal yoga classes at Deaconess Women’s Hospital have not yet resumed since the shut down. The need to limit the number of people coming into the hospital is paramount to the safety of moms and babies, so all classes have been canceled for the time being. This year has been so stressful for everyone, I knew pregnant moms would need yoga and relaxation now more than ever.
Doula Group of Evansville: How did your own pregnancies, births, and postpartum experience influence your yoga practice?
Mandy: I am an anxious person, and had no idea until my first yoga class. I sat on my mat with my legs crossed and the instructor said to quiet your mind and focus on my breath. I had no idea that I was thinking all of the time. I still struggle with it. That was my biggest challenge with the birth of my first child, just trying to fully relax, to give in. I was fortunate to have great birth experiences with the support of my husband though. My pregnancies were both pretty blissful. I walked 3 miles nearly everyday and practiced my yoga, more so with my first pregnancy for obvious reasons. My second pregnancy I had the wonderful opportunity to teach prenatal yoga to a lovely group of mommas. I loved how we all mothered and supported each other. They would call me afterward to talk about their birth and give me support for my big day, which by the way I was still nervous about even though it was my second birth. My experiences guided me to form a style of yoga that simply focused on learning how to make your own body feel better through movement and relaxation. Sure my practice builds strength and flexibility too, but listening to your own body’s cues is what will help you through your toughest moments in labor, birth, and even motherhood. Yoga has helped me in every aspect of my life, but especially for motherhood. The postpartum period, or fourth trimester was really challenging for me. I realized that I just couldn’t do everything I could before. I think of my yoga practice the same way. I do what I can and when I can’t always roll out my mat, I try to be kind to myself about it. It’s hard. We moms have so much on our plate. I try to live my yoga, by breathing at traffic lights, watching my children play, enjoying nature, and trying to be in this moment.
Doula Group of Evansville: What is your favorite way to connect with clients in a virtual space?
Mandy: I have so far had most of my connections with clients through facebook messenger and posts. It warms my heart to have someone describe to me how they benefited from one of my classes. Comments help me to understand my audience’s needs. You can always click on the like button at the bottom of the screen and subscribe to my channel. Likes show me the most popular videos, and I can make more like them. You can leave me more personalized feedback in the comment section below on each video. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for this opportunity, Hillary to connect with moms. Ladies, you are in good hands with The Doula Group!
Prenatal Yoga Benefits
According to the Mayo Clinic, Prenatal Yoga has the following benefits to practitioners:
- improved sleep
- reduced stresss and anxiety
- increased strength, flexibility, & endurance of muscles needed for childbirth
- decreased lower back pain, nausea, headaches, and shortness of breath
Online learning is so quickly becoming the norm, even for childbirth classes. We are looking forward to a time when we can meet in person, but for now, online learning is where it is. We know that you will find Mandy’s YouTube channel a great stand-in until she can resume teaching in-person prenatal yoga classes. Have you tried prenatal yoga?