We are proud to offer two lists of excellent teachers
Janet Balaskas Active Birth Workshop ©
Pregnancy Yoga Classes
Click on the link above to find the list you need
Click here to find out more about our upcoming training courses
How Active Birth Teaching started
The first Active Birth Teachers were trained by Janet with the start of the Active Birth Movement in London the 1980’s. She coined the phrase Active Birth in the late 1970’s and started the first Active Birth classes in London soon after. She pioneered an approach to birth preparation that was revolutionary and was the first to liberate women from the supine position and educate them about their instinctive potential to give birth. This has had a global influence and is now becoming generic and is at the heart of all birth preparation methods that inspire women to trust their bodies and to be empowered for birth. There have been several generations of Active Birth Teacher Trainings which Janet has directed and run with colleagues Lolly Stirk, Yvonne Moore, Alice Charlwood, Lynn Murphy and Jill Benjoya Miller.
The Janet Balaskas Active Birth Workshop ©
This workshop has been developed recently as an empowering and inspiring day or short course for pregnant women and partners that is an excellent choice for today. You can rest assured that if your teacher is on this list it means that she has done the authentic training, been certified by us, is insured and has been accredited by FEDANT (Federation of Ante- Natal Teachers).
This is an empowering workshop that offers inspirational teaching of the essential philosophy and practice of Active Birth that has the power to transform your experience of giving birth. Here you will learn the secrets of the age old birthing wisdom that is universal, cross cultural and based on the physiological design of a woman’s body for birthing. This is a very focused and practical workshop which, like a ‘birth rehearsal’, will offer you guidance for the whole birth process through body learning which is often missing in other courses.
What you learn here can be easily accommodated in birthing centres, at home births, in midwife led hospital units and will also be helpful in combination with interventions. It is devised specifically to complement and enhance other birth preparation courses that may include some Active Birth, but would not be as detailed or comprehensive or delivered in the same experiential way, based on the principal ‘the mind forgets but the body remembers’ which is at the heart of teaching Active Birth.
About our approach to Pregnancy Yoga
Our approach is inspired by the teachings of Vanda Scaravelli which brought awareness of gravity, the breath and the gentle unfolding and lengthening of the body to yoga practice. This is a way of doing yoga that liberates both body and mind and helps us to find balance, inner peace and connection with ourselves and others. It is very suitable and safe for pregnancy, preparation for birth and motherhood.
We are closely associated with YogaBirth, a sister organisation that developed from the same origins and currently trains Pregnancy Yoga teachers. All pregnancy Yoga teachers on our list were trained and certified either with the Active Birth Centre or YogaBirth or both. Both programmes developed from the pregnancy yoga classes pioneered originally by Janet Balaskas and Lolly Stirk, specific to pregnancy and preparation for Active Birth.
If you would like to become an Active Birth Teacher:
click here to find out more about our Professional Training.
Click here to read or download the Active Birth Manifesto.
