Yoga for Mother and Baby: A Complete Mind and Body Workout for You and Your Child

Description

Discover simple stretches, poses and massages that will help your flexibility and suppleness, as well as nurture the bond between you and your baby. Yoga is beneficial to everyone and with today's emphasis on a healthy lifestyle, what could be better than carrying out simple yoga exercises with your baby? Here, Francoise Barbira Freedman offers exercises for all stages of early parenthood, from basic postnatal stretches to routines you can do with children up to the age of three. The stretches have been designed to calm the mind and increase alertness, but not put strain on any part of the body. If you already practise yoga, suggestions are offered on adapting classic poses to include your baby. Also included are exercises for special babies with particular combinations of motor skills. The routines aren't just aimed at mothers - fathers and grandparents are encouraged to take part as well, and no previous experience is required.

Francoise Barbira Freedman is a trained yoga teacher and therapist, and also a medical anthropologist at Cambridge University. After spending long periods of fieldwork in the Amazon, she was inspired by their gentle approach to parenting to create a programme of nurturing movements for mothers-to-be and new mothers. She also established Birthlight, a charity that has trained over 1500 instructors to teach new parents the benefits of yoga for babies in many countries in Europe and the rest of the world.