Pregnancy & Tribe Yoga’s Classes

At Tribe Yoga, your wellness and fitness are our first concern. As such we have developed a policy around attending any of our classes whilst pregnant. We also recognise that just because you are pregnant shouldn’t impede your intention to remain fit and healthy. We have consulted with a number of professionals on the matter and have a number of key pieces of advice and our studio policy below.

Key Pieces of Advice

Consulting with our studio doctor, various NHS paediatricians and experienced pre-natal yoga teachers we have a consensus.

• -You should avoid exercise or yoga in the first 12 weeks of your pregnancy.
• -Everybody’s bodies are different. You should always have your doctor, midwife or health visitor assess your for what types of exercise and yoga you can do.
• -If you have an existing yoga or Pilates practice, it is is generally accepted to maintain a personal yoga practice, however only after the first 12 weeks.
• -You should avoid as much as possible to not lie flat on your back (in particular after 16 weeks). This is quite difficult in traditional yoga classes.
• -There are a number of poses used in our normal Yoga, Barre & Pilates classes that should never be undertaken by someone who is pregnant.
• -The qualification to teach pregnancy yoga if quite a specific qualification for which only a few of our teachers have.
• You should avoid any classes that are heated.
• -Our cycle classes are not suitable at all for anyone that is pregnant.

The Tribe Yoga Pregnancy Policy

Given the above, we have defined that our policy is to not admit clients who are pregnant to regular classes. We have decided this because in most situations our teachers are (1) not qualified to advise you what is safe and not safe, (2) our classes often have 20+ people in the room and it is impossible for the teacher to pay specific attention to one client, (3) we have no understanding if you have been passed to do yoga or have the knowledge and experience to adapt your practice to your pregnancy.

For those of you who have spoken to a health professional, had an existing practice and understand what you should or shouldn’t do, you can opt to sign our pregnancy waiver which states we have advised you that we cannot recommend our classes to people whom are pregnant due to the above reasons.

If you would like more information on the above, please feel free to pop in and talk to one of our teachers. We would recommend talking to a studio manager, in particular pregnancy trained studio manager Tessa Crolla.