DVD Review: Yoga for Pregnancy, Labor & Birth on Mother Popper

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DVD Review: Yoga for Pregnancy, Labor & Birth

Jul
5

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Yoga for Pregnancy, Labor & Birth is a prenatal yoga DVD produced by the Seattle Holistic Center. The instructor on the DVD is Colette Crawford, a registered nurse.

This is a very gentle yoga workout intended for yoga experts as well as yoga beginners such as myself. Crawford and two pregnant women work through various yoga poses that provide stretching during pregnancy and can assist in labor. In several instances, Crawford provides alternative poses for women suffering from any kind of pregnancy maladies or women who are further along in their pregnancies.

The tone of the entire workout is very calm, with soft lighting and music. And Crawford does not speak directly to the camera during the workout. Instead, she voices over the instructions so most of the video is actually focused on the two pregnant women and Crawford only appears periodically. While you are not required to have any yoga equipment for the DVD, I at least recommend having a yoga mat that will prevent you from slipping on your carpet or hardwood floor. The women in the DVD also have yoga blocks and blankets, neither of which were essential to the workout. Crawford kindly gives viewers the option of using blocks and a blanket for certain moves.

The DVD starts out with some words of wisdom that take a while to get through. They are meant to get the pregnant woman in the mindset for yoga, but I found them slightly irritating as I was sitting cross-legged on the floor waiting for my workout to begin. Thankfully, you can skip past this beginning portion by choosing the 'Chapters' function instead of the 'Play' function on the DVD.

I take a weekly prenatal yoga class and I recognized almost all of the moves in this DVD as the same ones we do in my class. However, as someone in her third trimester, I felt that Crawford moved too quickly through some poses and didn't hold others as long as I would have liked. For instance, she has viewers performing the "Opposite Limb Extension" at a somewhat fast pace, rather than having us hold the pose for the length of a contraction. The pose builds strength in the abdomen, lower back and shoulders, but doing it at Crawford's pace made me feel winded.

Another frustration I had with the DVD was that the moves did not seem to flow together. Rather than beginning on the floor and working our way up to standing, Crawford's routine starts out on hands and knees, then moves back to the floor, and then to standing position, and then back to the floor and then hands and knees... you get the idea. A pregnant woman--especially one in her third trimester--does not like to feel like she's constantly standing and then sitting. It's tough to get to a different elevation and, once there, I'd like to stay there. There was no smooth transition between sections of the workout.

Besides my general frustrations with the pacing and the choreography of the workout, I was very pleased by the poses. Crawford explains how certain poses can be used during labor and childbirth, and many of the poses feel very good to a pregnant woman's lumbering body. She repeats several poses that are very relaxing for pregnant women, such as "Child's Pose" and "Cat-Cow", which involves opening up space in the belly for baby.

I would recommend this DVD to pregnant women. Especially those who have never tried yoga before, because the moves are very simple and gentle. Even though I find my class to be superior, I am glad to have this at my home so I can practice poses for labor and childbirth during the week.

My Grade: B
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