Live & On-Demand Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training Online (RPYT)

Ma Yoga Prenatal Certification is an comprehensive, supported journey. Join us for:

Learn to teach safe, strengthening, inspiring prenatal yoga:

  • Learn simple alignment cues for  each trimester
  • Create inspiring prenatal themes to deepen your students’ experience
  • Prepare mamas for labor and postpartum physically and mentally

Support healing  throughout pregnancy and postpartum:

  • Discover simple ways to relieve common aches & pains in any pose
  • Help prevent and heal postpartum conditions
  • Address anxiety, infertility, diastisis recti (abdominal wall splitting) and more

Discover Ayurvedic self-care routines especially for busy nurturers:

  • Explore food-as-medicine practices
  • Integrate transformative Ayurvedic self-care routines
  • Align with your natural daily rhythms so you can sleep better, have more energy and thrive

Take an empowering journey through birth, guided by 2 birth doulas:

  • Learn non-judgmental, evidence-based pro’s & con’s
  • Practice mantras, meditations and movements to help birthing people cope
  • Process your own emotions around birth

Program includes:

💜both live and on-demand sessions, instant and lifetime access

💜up to a year of live sessions (takes about 4 months to complete)

💜one-on-one mentorship to get comfortable teaching prenatal yoga

💜free two months of unlimited yoga, live and on-demand

💜an opportunity to teach with us on our online platform to get your required Yoga Alliance hours

What Ma Yoga Certified Instructors Say

Colleen H.
Colleen H.
This is the best prenatal teacher training program around. Extensive and gives you the added business support to create your own pre and postnatal yoga business in your community. Outstanding.
Faith C.
Faith C.
I could never have imagined learning the way I did and becoming so invested in the work through a computer! I feel blessed to have found you and that our paths have crossed.
Beth M.
Beth M.
The training has not only given me the preparation to step confidently into guiding expectant and new moms in their practice, but it has given me the gifts of personal growth and healing on my own journey.
Emily B.
Emily B.
We all are so blessed to have you in our lives; especially the MAyurveda principles and practices with all of the shifts that are occurring. Thank you for going beyond your head and letting your heart and intuition guide you into sharing these principles with us.
Emily M.
Emily M.
The support you receive from the Ma Yoga community after you complete training is unparalleled. Every instructor is incredibly skilled and passionate. They are truly committed to building a suppose system for moms and teachers.
Ashley F.
Ashley F.
As a working mom of a baby and 3 year old, I felt overwhelmed before this course. Before you know it you’ve incorporated all the anchor practices into your life and it’s such a small investment to do so! My kids and I are eating so healthy now. Thank you Jess!
Annie K.
Annie K.
This training is so well put together, the information is infinite, and I have a whole new love for pregnancy and motherhood. I can't wait to one day teach with and be part of Ma Yoga!
Deborah A.
Deborah A.
Thanks again for such a great teacher training. It was so wonderful to see both of my passions, yoga and Obstetrics, come to life together. I learned a great deal from you!
Adrian R.
Adrian R.
Jessica, the alignment principles I learned in The Yoga of Healing were completely evolutionary for my practice in mind, body, and spirit. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for this priceless gift. I hope some day to embody a fraction of the goddess energy that radiates from you.

You'll Feel Supported Throughout

No previous training required

There’s so much fear around pregnancy and exercise, and I honor you for wanting not to add to it.

Unfortunately, lists of do’s and don’ts and videos of adjustments can leave teachers feeling even more anxious.

I’m excited to share with you the inspiring,  alignment principles of Ma Yoga, rooted in the five elements: space, earth, water, fire and air.

They’ll help you confidently offer safe, effective, and inspiring cues in every pose – and trust your own innate feminine wisdom and power.

The Ma Yoga Prenatal Certification Program is a wonderful foundational teacher training because it’s alignment-based. That means you’ll have principles to help you adjust any pose for any body, using our Five Sacred Steps. 

When you’re completed the program you’ll have the tools you need to confidently share yoga with pregnant moms, new moms, and anyone whose body is changing and vulnerable.

I developed Ma Yoga at Kaiser Permanente as part of a group visit and prenatal yoga program called Pregnancy in Balance, in collaboration with OBs and Midwives. 

Ma Yoga combines biomechanical alignment principles with meditation, breath, strengthening and opening postures to help your clients connect to their bodies’ wisdom and power.

Ma Yoga practices and principles provide a beautiful compliment to Western medicine – before, during, and after labor.

JESSICA JENNINGS founder Ma Yoga prenatal yoga teacher training

Developed and taught by Jessica Jennings, MS, Founder of Ma Yoga® for Pregnancy, Postpartum & Beyond

  • Masters in Kinesiology
  • Certified Feminine Power Transformational Group Facilitator
  • 24+ years teaching prenatal yoga
  • 19+ years training teachers
  • Mom of 18 year old, Lela and poodle mix, Desi

Why I Created Ma Yoga

Hi I’m Jessica Jennings. I’m so glad you’re here.

When I got pregnant in 2006, I’d been teaching prenatal yoga for six years, in yoga studio and hospital settings, and I saw how it transformed anxiety to calm, fear to power, and isolation to connection.

But as a new mom  felt unprepared. I felt isolated, depleted, and anxious (see pic – my curly hair even got straight).

I realized my prenatal yoga hadn’t really given me tools for the hardest part – healing and thriving as a new mom.

Ma Yoga has now helped more than 18,000 moms and moms-to-be relieve pain and stress, prepare for labor and motherhood and enjoy a transformative journey. And we’ve trained hundreds of teachers to be able to have their own “Ma” Circles!

prenatal yoga teacher training - for prenatal teachers

“I love the profound wisdom of the methodology and Jessica, its founder. The Ma Yoga approach is not only beneficial in the time around giving birth, it can change your whole perspective on life.”

– Ann-Christin G.

The "Ma" in Ma Yoga

The syllable “Ma” means “mother” in almost every language.

It also means “the highest, most powerful and wise” in Sanskrit.

Ma Yoga is about learning to mother yourself.

And when you do, you’ll begin to embody your highest, most powerful and wise “Ma” Self.

With our framework of the five natural elements – space, earth, water, fire, and air – you’ll find confidence and clarity in your teaching, and a new connection to your power as a co-creator in your own life.

 

ayurveda self-care - what's my dosha - prenatal yoga and postpartum yoga off the mat

In the Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training Online, you’ll be able to…

  • receive personal support as you grow as a teacher
  • drop in to live sessions on Zoom or watch videos on your own
  • be part of a global Ma Yoga community
  • apply to teach with us on our online platform
  • access all your trainings instantly, and once you’re Certified, as long as we’re online
  • learn to use the five natural elements as a guide to bring whatever’s gestating within you into the world in your most empowering, authentic way

For more testimonials, click here.

A comprehensive journey

Learn to use the five natural elements as a guide through the physiological and psychological changes for each trimester. You’ll use them to know how to adjust regular yoga poses, create prenatal sequences and develop inspiring themes. Prepare mamas for labor, help them feel better, and create a space where they can connect and enjoy this exciting time. 

Guided by two birth and postpartum doulas, travel through the stages of labor, exploring the pro’s and con’s of each choice and challenge. Learn meditations, mantras, mudras and movements that help us stay connected to our bodies’ wisdom and power – and be prepared no matter what direction  birth goes.

Pregnant bodies tend to have new aches and pains not just every day, but every minute! Discover simple but powerful cues to relieve back pain, knee pain, neck and wrist pain on and off-the-mat. We’ll use the chakras to understand postpartum healing, and help prevent and heal birth-related conditions. 

Explore quick but effective self-care, daily rhythm, and food-as-medicine routines for busy nurturers of people and projects. Honed down from the 5,000 year old sister science to yoga, Ayurveda, you’ll improve your sleep, digestion, metabolism and energy – and fall in love with the “Anchor Practices”. Full sessions on pregnancy, postpartum, and kids.

The 5 Sacred Steps

The Healing Alignment

The Self-Care Practices

What to look for in a prenatal training

FAQs about prenatal yoga teacher training online

The Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Certification Program is 100% online.

Generally, prenatal yoga teacher trainings online come in some combination of three formats:

  • Self-paced, in which you watch videos and download pdf’s to study on your own time
  • Zoom meeting, in which you have discussions and even practice teaching with others in the group
  • One-on-one support

The Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Certification Program includes all of the above: you can do the sessions live on Zoom, watch the vides on your own, or both – whatever way works for your busy life. Plus, there’s a “Ma Mentorship” at the end to make sure you’re feeling good as you begin to teach prenatal yoga.

The Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Certification Program will make you an expert in the field of yoga for pregnancy and postpartum.

It goes so far beyond keeping people safe…

You’ll be able to help moms and moms-to-be:

  • prevent and heal common conditions
  • relieve aches and pains and stress
  • support baby’s health, both inside and out
  • enjoy this exciting time

Yoga Alliance requires an 85 hour prenatal yoga teacher training online or in-person for your Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher Certification (RPYT).

Curricula vary, but most prenatal yoga teacher trainings focus on:

  • prenatal yoga do’s and don’ts,
  • prenatal yoga poses
  • adjustments for the different trimesters
  • labor prep

The Ma Yoga prenatal yoga teacher training online curriculum also includes:

  • alignment principles based on the five natural elements that guide us through any co-creative act
  • prenatal class sequencing
  • how to create inspiring, personal prenatal class themes
  • postpartum yoga class sequencing
  • preschool yoga
  • off-the-mat “Mayurveda” self-care, daily rhythm and food as medicine
  • yoga therapeutics for common pregnancy and postpartum aches and pains, on and off-the-mat
  • prevention and healing for birth-related conditions
  • comprehensive, no-slant birth preparation class with yoga mantras, meditations and movements for each choice and challenge throughout labor
  • one-on-one mentorship 
  • prenatal yoga class visits
  • opportunity to start teaching prenatal yoga on our online platform after your Ma Mentorship

You do not need to be a Certified yoga teacher (RYT) or have any previous training to take a prenatal yoga teacher training.

If you choose the right training, a prenatal yoga teacher training can be a wonderful foundation for all future trainings and teaching that you might choose to do in the future.

If you feel drawn to support, guide, and inspire moms and moms-to-be, following your “Inner GPS” will be the most rewarding and easeful path to take.

Actually most people are surprised to hear that you do not need to be a Certified yoga teacher to teach prenatal yoga.

There are no laws that say you must have Yoga Alliance’s approval to teach.

Yoga is a spiritual path, and the most important question is this: do you feel that you have enough information about prenatal yoga that you can benefit others by teaching?

If you apply to teach prenatal yoga at a yoga studio, they will most likely ask if you are in the process of getting your Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher Certification (RPYT). 

However, if you plan to have your own “Ma Circle”, where you share prenatal yoga in your own space, partner with a local business, or one-on-one, being well-trained with safe, effective and transformative prenatal practices and principles will serve you well.

No, you do not need any experience with pregnancy or childbirth to take a prenatal yoga teacher training online, or to be a wonderful prenatal yoga teacher.

In fact, some say that not having had children allows you to avoid the trappings of assuming you know what’s best for someone else.

As yoga teachers, we want to encourage people to “educate and meditate” – and then make the choices that are right for them.

Prenatal yoga teacher trainings online vary in length. While Yoga Alliance requires an 85-hour program, many trainings take advantage of the lax post-Covid restrictions and offer a fully downloadable training that you can do over a weekend.

Others are two full-time weeks, totaling about 80 hours.

The Ma Yoga Prenatal Certification Program can be done in about four months depending when you start, but you have a whole year to complete the program.

It’s made up of four 3-week trainings totaling 65 hours.

Class write-ups total 12 hours.

You’ll finish with a nurturing one-on-one Ma Mentorship that’s about 8 hours. 

Yes, at the end of the Ma Yoga Certification Program you’ll receive a Ma Yoga Certificate.

If you have are registered through Yoga Alliance, you can submit your Certificate plus 30 hours of prenatal teacher for your RPYT Certification.

If not, you can still say you are Ma Yoga Certified, which is considered one of the highest quality Prenatal Certifications available globally.

Yes, the 85-hour Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Certification Program was created in collaboration with Yoga Alliance in 2012. 

You don’t need very much to enroll in a prenatal yoga teacher training online program.

A laptop or tablet is important, as well as a yoga mat. 

Two 4″ purple blocks are useful, as is a Mexican blanket.

A bolster is really wonderful to have for prenatal yoga poses – but it’s expensive and not essential.

You can use a firm couch cushion instead.

You do not need to purchase any books – you’ll receive more than 60 pages of handouts on your “Ma” journey.

Pregnancy is a time of immense change. Because of this, pregnant women experience new aches and pains seemingly every day… anxiety about all the very real risks… isolation, lack of sleep, and of course postpartum depression, which in the majority of cases, begins during pregnancy.

In the Ma Yoga prenatal yoga teacher trainings online, you’ll learn ways to calm the nervous system, stabilize weak joints, and help your students feel connected and supported – in other words, you’ll have tools that change pregnancies, labors and lives.

Typically, a prenatal yoga teacher training will include prenatal poses, adjustments to regular poses, and labor preparation.

The Ma Yoga Prenatal Teacher Training online curriculum is much more comprehensive, and includes: 

If you want your Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher (RPYT) Certification from Yoga Alliance, you must also take a 200-hour Regular Yoga Teacher (RYT) Training.

For more on Yoga Alliance and what to do if you don’t have your 200-hour yoga training – here’s a video.

If you do have your RYT, you simply complete the Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Certification Program, teach 30 hours of prenatal yoga, submit your Certification and hours and pay your fee. Please visit Yoga Alliance for more details.

Since Ma Yoga is also an online prenatal yoga studio, you can reach out after your Ma Mentorship for information about how to teach with us to start getting your hours.

You’ll learn about the business of prenatal yoga in our prenatal yoga teacher training online.

Our foundational principle for structuring your offerings is the “business funnel”: the open end is how people initially find you, and it’s easy to enter.

A free prenatal yoga class can be part of the open end of your funnel.

After that, as the funnel narrows, you can offer higher priced offerings and your students get more of YOU. 

More on that in The Yoga of Pregnancy, and then in our ongoing C.A.R.E. teacher coaching program.

Some prenatal yoga teachers are also doulas, midwives, RNs and OB/Gyns.

Our Yoga of Birth training module is taught by two birth and postpartum doulas, and can share how they combine these two paths and keep very busy!

Other people focus more on yoga offerings like workshops and retreats.

After the Mayurveda self-care and Yoga of Healing therapeutics trainings, you’ll be able to offer packages to support people at every stage of their “Ma” journey.

We try and stay on top of all the latest studies of the maternal health crisis in the US, inequities in birth outcomes and prenatal yoga as part of an effective solution to the lack of comprehensive prenatal care.

Go here if you’d like to see a blog that puts it all together.

PRICING AND DISCOUNTS

Full 85-hour Ma Yoga/RPYT Certification, self-paced, live, or combo:

  • Regular Price: $1,297

  • If you prefer fully on-demand, with no live sessions (still includes office hours), only $997!

Payment Plans Available:

  • Pay $357 now + 3 monthly payments of $357

  • On-Demand Only: $267 now + 3 monthly payments of $267

Once you register, you’ll get instant access to all of your trainings, plus live classes, personal coaching, and ongoing community support.

If you need more than one year, you can continue your training with CARE Coaching for just $20/month (includes Friday drop-in teaching support with Jessica + full training access, both live and on-demand).

If you're nervous about teaching prenatal...

You’re in good company.

There’s so much fear in our culture around exercising during pregnancy.

It wasn’t until 2002 that the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) started recommending 30 minutes of daily movement for pregnant people.

Before that it was a lot of “just rest, dear.”

I named my prenatal method Ma Yoga because in nearly every language, “ma” means mother – and in Sanskrit, the language of yoga, “ma” also means the highest, most powerful, and wise.

And that’s what I witnessed in my students over the years.

They came in anxious and overwhelmed.

They left feeling grounded, strong, and empowered – 
“I am woman, hear me roar.”

What changed?

They chose to slow down, listen inward lovingly, and honor what their bodies were telling them. 

By taking time to learn to mother themselves, they opened the door to their power and wisdom – and their Ma Self was born.

If you've never been pregnant...

The reason I’m still excited to teach prenatal yoga teacher trainings online after more than a decade is that learning to align with the five natural elements within – space (receptivity), earth (steadiness), water (playfulness), fire (power) and air (freedom) –  is transformative for all of us.

Because we’re all pregnant with something. Whether it’s a baby, an idea, or a new version of ourselves, we can follow what I call the “Five Sacred Steps” to bring it into the world in the most authentic, meaningful way.

The Five Sacred Steps can help us all become powerful co-creators in our own lives – whether we’re becoming a teacher, to writing a poem, or stepping on a new path of self-actualization.

I can’t wait to share the Five Sacred Steps with you!

More FAQs About the Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training Online

A direct route to Certification

Your Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training journey is simple:
  1. START WITH A FREE 5-DAY PRENATAL YOGA TEACHER TRAINING.
    Jump right in with our FREE 5-day Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training and earn 3 hours toward RPYT or CE. Fill out the form below.
  2. SCHEDULE A CALL WITH ME. Most people have questions and circumstances they want to talk through. I love talked to the people drawn to Ma Yoga, and I promise it won’t be a hard sell.
  3. REGISTER FOR CERTIFICATION.
    Watch videos and do practices on your own – plus come to live sessions when you can.  Start with any training and complete in 4 months to 1 year, depending how motivated you are.
  4. DO YOUR MA MENTORSHIP.
    Get one-on-one feedback for your first prenatal teaching experience, so you can integrate all that you’ve learned and find your authentic voice.
  5. TEACH ONLINE WITH US.
    After your Ma Mentorship you can apply to teach on our online platform, so there’s a seamless transition from trainee to teacher – and you’ll continue to receive support for your teaching. Plus, you’ll start getting your Yoga Alliance hours. Plus, receive free CARE Coaching and Ma Membership!

The Five Sacred Steps help you birth whatever's gestating within you.

Yes, the Ma Yoga Prenatal Teacher Training is 100% online. 

You can join us live on Zoom, watch the sessions on video – or both.

Once you register you’ll have instant access to all the trainings, plus you’ll be added to our rosters for upcoming live sessions.

See www.MaYoga.com/events for dates.

Yes, the Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Certification (RPYT) Program was created in collaboration with Yoga Alliance in 2012. This means if you have your RYT, this program fulfills the requirements for your RPYT Certification.

You don’t need any previous yoga teacher training or experience to take this course, and get all the tools you need to start teaching prenatal yoga.

For more on Yoga Alliance and what to do if you don’t have your 200-hour yoga training – here’s a video.

While you can’t get the RPYT letters after your name unless you have your RYT, you can say you are Ma Yoga Certified, and to anyone who is familiar with prenatal yoga trainings this means the highest quality prenatal yoga teacher training online.

If you do decide to do a regular yoga training in the future, you’ll have a leg up as you will have foundational alignment principles that that will give you a leg up in any future trainings or teaching you choose to do.

If you do choose to do a 200-hour yoga teacher training (RYT) down the road, you can submit your Ma Yoga Certificate to Yoga Alliance and get your RPYT at that time.

If you feel drawn to teaching prenatal yoga, we highly recommend that you start with this training as the principles you learn are easier to learn as a foundation for all yoga teaching.

When you register for the Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training Online, you get INSTANT access to:

  • The Yoga of Pregnancy & Postpartum Training
  • The Yoga of Healing for Women Training
  • Mayurveda: an Ayurveda Training for Busy Women Training
  • The Yoga of Birth

You can take any of the above self-paced, live with us, or both throughout your Certification year.

After The Yoga of Pregnancy and The Yoga of Healing, you can schedule your Ma Mentorship.

Finally, when you register for the whole program, you’ll have six months to enjoy Ma Collective Membership with monthly Masterclasses, business coaching, yoga and tons of resources for studying and teaching.

Yes. With modules in Mom + Baby Yoga as well as preschool yoga and postpartum healing, you will know exactly what and how to teach yoga to new moms.

Here’s what’s NOT included when you register for the Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Certification Program:

Requirements not included: 

  • six prenatal yoga classes ($50-ish with your Ma Member discount)
  • $50 Certification Fee before your final 30 minute coaching call (fee will be waived if you choose to write a blog about a principle or practice you learned that’s meaningful to you).

Each of the four trainings is three weeks, twice-a-week – Wednesdays and Saturdays.

If you can’t make it to any of the sessions, you can watch the videos and stay in the nurturing current of the group.

OR, you can watch them whenever it’s convenient for you.

You have a year to complete your Certification program.

Go up to Upcoming Events for dates, discounts and times – and to register!

Yes, as soon as you register for the Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training Online (RPYT), you’ll receive instant access to all of your training videos and materials.

You’ll also be automatically added to the rosters for the four 3-week trainings.

Just email us if you’d like to do a training self-paced, and you’ll receive emails that guide you through.

We’ll take you off the roster – or you can stay on it, and come to any sessions that you have questions about.

You must do six of the 24 sessions on Zoom. 

You may do one of the four trainings live online, OR spread out your 6 sessions over the 24.

There’s a short quiz at the end of each session that you take to get credit, whether you were there live or you watched the video.

Whatever you decide – join us live, do it self-paced, or combine both – you will be part of the ongoing conversation in our training Circles and you’ll enjoy support, guidance, and inspiration throughout your Ma journey.

You have one year from the first day of your first LIVE training to complete your Certification.

If you need an extension – it’s ok. There’s a small fee ($20/mo) for ongoing access so you can extend as long as you need. Plus, we give you Ma Yoga Anytime so you can keep practicing.

You can even hop in live again to a training for a refresher – we love to see you!

Once you join the Ma Yoga community, you’re part of it as long as you want to be.

All the training materials are available and since they’re changing all the time, you can keep learning by watching new sessions you’re interested in.

You can choose to teach online prenatal yoga classes with us and get free Ma Membership with Ma Yoga Anytime, free live classes and tons more.

Plus, you’ll receive 20% off Ma Mastery, our teacher coaching program for graduates of the prenatal yoga teacher training online.

We love continuing to support you on your “Ma” journey, whatever that may be!

Just go up to Events.

Click in to any training and you’ll see dates, times, prices and registration for that individual training OR for the whole Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Certification Program. 

After you’ve completed the Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Certification Program, you’ll have all the tools you need to teach prenatal yoga.

If you don’t have your Yoga Alliance RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher), you won’t be able to get the RPYT (Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher) until you do.

Many yoga studios will require that you have your RPYT, but if you want your own Ma Circle or you just want to share these practices and principles with clients, you’ll be more than ready.

Click here to schedule a call with founder Jessica Jennings. She’ll answer all of your questions and help you figure out what version of prenatal yoga teacher training online is right for you.

For testimonials about every aspect of the Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Certification Program (RPYT), click here.

You’ll have the option to continue growing with our CARE Coaching membership for just $20/month. CARE Coaching includes ongoing Friday drop-in support and continued access to both live and on-demand trainings.

Connect with me about prenatal yoga teacher training!

Fill out the form below and I’ll email you pricing and details for the Ma Yoga prenatal yoga teacher training and Certification pronto.

Let me know a bit about what draws you here and what you’re looking for and I’ll send you a personal email! 💌

After you submit, you’ll be taken to a page with an invitation for the free 5-Day Ma Yoga Prenatal Yoga Training (2.5 hours toward Ma Yoga/RPYT Certification). 

Jessica Jennings, MS, ERYT, RYPT prenatal yoga teacher training instructor; founder, Ma Yoga Prenatal Certification Program