When I was pregnant, I taught prenatal yoga in a studio that took almost an hour to get to in Los Angeles
traffic. My “Mama Circle” was so worth the drive! It was so sweet to have that time, three times a week for me – a luxury! – to just be pregnant, with other mamas who were feeling all the same strange sensations, emotions, and longings. I practiced enough throughout that I stayed strong and open, and even though sometimes I felt awful, at least we were together.
When I had my baby, I realized that the friends I’d made in my mama circle were way too far away. The hour drive was prohibitive. I couldn’t afford a nanny so I could go off and take – or even teach – class. And if I brought my baby, by the time we got there, she’d just be ready for a whole new cycle of eat, change, and sleep.
Despite how hard I’d worked to create community for myself, I felt alone. I spent most of my time isolated with baby, since my husband was in grad school and working. And of course waking up every 3 hours kept me in what I called a “bliss cloud” – I was so in love with my baby, but I felt disconnected from the world, and even my self. Long days stretched ahead of me in which my biggest goal was to get baby to sleep. Often I failed.
I had mild baby blues, but thankfully I didn’t fall in to depression. Still, I could see how it could have happened, but suddenly, things changed for me.
I found out that if I didn’t complete my Masters right away, my credits would start falling away.
So, in my dazed state, I hopped back in. I only had one Exercise Science class left, and then I had to do a Clinical Study.
I wanted to do a study on pregnancy and yoga, but there were very few studies to respond to, and that’s the way it works. You can’t start a new conversation as a Masters student, you can only add to an existing one. At least that’s what my professors told me…
One day out of the blue I got a call from the Chief of Ob/Gyn at Kaiser Permanente. She had seen a brochure I had left years before in Human Resources offering classes for people in their office chairs, and wondered if I had ever taught prenatal yoga? She had recently taken her first prenatal class, and couldn’t believe how much it opened the hips – how beautifully this would prepare women for labor! She wanted to do a study – and would I be interested?
Getting this phone call was the first of so many mindblowing synchronicities and minor miracles I would get to experience on this “Ma” path…
Under her auspices and a little under the radar at Kaiser, I developed and ran a group visit and prenatal yoga program at Kaiser Permanente for six years. In the “Pregnancy and Balance” program, moms-to-be came to their prenatal visits in groups for six years.
We would sit in our mama circle and talk about one of the 10 classic yoga principles (Patanjali’s yamas and niyamas) as they applied to our journey. Each session had a theme like “kindness to ourselves means kindness to baby”, “find your truth: educate and meditate”, “surrender to the part of you that knows it’s ok to need each other.”
Professionals did presentations – Lactation Consultants, Social Workers, and others… And the OB or midwife joined us after quick ultrasounds with everyone, sitting in the circle for a luxurious 45 minute conversation.
At the end we did prenatal yoga together, and the mamas got to make space for baby and breath, stabilize weak joints, release tension, reconnect to their core power, prepare for labor and motherhood and enjoy this exciting time together.
None of us were surprised when our “Yoga Intervention” group gave their care much higher ratings than the “Traditional Control” group, who sat in a waiting room until finally getting 10-15 minutes with their provider. What’s not to love about a Mama Circle combined with professional healthcare?
But we didn’t expect the results to be SO much higher…
The yoga group rated their emotional support at 96.7% vs. 61.1% for the traditional, one-on-one care group:
The yoga group rated the explanations they received of what to expect at 87% vs. 43.6% for the traditional, one-on-one care group:
The yoga group rated the advice they received on how to stay healthy at 91.3% vs. 65.3% for the traditional, one-on-one care group:
And finally, the yoga group rated whether they’d recommend Kaiser to family and friends at 95.7% vs. 55.3% for the traditional, one-on-one care group:
None of this was too surprising.
What WAS surprising was how they responded when we asked what they liked about it most.
A big group of participants reported that the yoga relieved their aches and pains, helped them feel stronger and overall better physically.
An even bigger group talked about how it left them feeling calmer, less anxious and more positive, and helped them deal with the challenges better.
But the largest group was talked more about what they got from the being part of a group: going through the ups and downs of pregnancy together, realizing they weren’t alone by hearing about each other’s experiences, and just connecting with each other. They loved the last session when they could come back and introduce their babies to the group, talk about their births, and get support for postpartum challenges.
One Ob/Gyn saw three of our moms pushing strollers together in the parks nearby many months after their program had ended.
A community had formed. Participants had shared their journey. And friendships were created – some for life.
When I presented my study to my advisors, one of them asked me whether I was disappointed that they liked the community more than the actual yoga.
I explained what I believe to my very soul: it’s impossible to separate prenatal yoga from the community that gets created by breathing and moving togethery. Prenatal yoga is in its essence about connecting to our more feminine, interdependent, intuitive side, the side that isn’t scared to say “we need each other.” We turn inside in a safe environment to explore our inner resources; to challenge ourselves; and to step into greater possibilities. It’s no wonder that the conversations run deep.
Unfortunately the program ended – Kaiser made a decision to discontinue the program for budget reasons, despite the improved patient satisfaction. When I got that call I was devastated.
And of course, that call became a gift that changed the trajectory of my life….
By now, my daughter was sleeping through the night, and I was so in love with her that it was a little scary. I knew that someday she would slam the door in my face – soon after that, she’d take the keys and say “bye mom”, and I would potentially collapse like a balloon emptied of its air.
So I began looking for something I could do something that felt meaningful, that would help me feel the illusion that there was something nearly as important as my daughter in my life, that I could do once she was in school.
I decided to create a school of yoga that combined all I had learned in my yoga and alignment studies with everything I’d learned in the hospital about birth, and I named it Ma Yoga.
I set out to create a Mama Circle in every neighborhood.
I created an 85-hour, Yoga Alliance registered RPYT program out of my prenatal training, adding in therapeutics and off-the-mat “Mayurvedic” self-care, and helped teachers find small businesses in their neighborhood to partner with.
We used waiting rooms and hallways, embodying the Ma Yoga principle that yoga can and must change for women in their childbearing years. We might not be in a pristine studio or have an hour and a half for a focused practice, but we can still connect lovingly to our body and breath.
By the time Covid happened, we had ten locations throughout Southern California. Our locations were boutiques for new moms, birthing classes and birthing centers, toddler music classes and women’s wellness practitioners. More than 18,000 women relieved aches and pains, prepared for labor and motherhood and made new mom friends in our Mama Circles.
Honestly, it was a lot of work for me trying to run all of them on the website, doing all the customer service and booking and buying. But I did it because of the joy I got from knowing we were making the world a better place, one mama circle at a time.
And then – quarantine, and all of our Mama Circles closed. By the time quarantine was over – almost all of those small businesses had closed down too.
We moved our classes and trainings 100% online and realized we could reach people in communities that don’t have prenatal yoga, or might not be able to afford a class or training.
Suddenly, birth equity had a new chance to improve.
As long as you have a phone you can be guided by expert teachers and trainers.
And suddenly, my original vision of a Mama Circle in every neighborhood became a possibility.
It changed – now we have the ability to train, coach, and provide marketing support for each teacher to be in charge of their own Mama Circle.
We help both the teachers and the students step into their highest, most nurturing, powerful and wise “Ma” Self.
So the Mama Circle became the “Ma Circle”.
This year we were invited under the umbrella of a nonprofit, Give Back Yoga Foundation, and began partnering with other nonprofits in the area of maternial health.
We have provided five scholarships so far for BIPOC trainees, and those who have a plan to create their Ma Circle in an underserved community.
And our new journey has begun…
If you’d like to donate to the Ma Circle Project, we put every dollar toward scholarships for teachers in underserved communities to create their own Ma Circles.
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