Fells Point

This training is open to men and women, parents and non-parents alike - anyone who feels the calling to teach pre- and post-natal yoga is welcome. Even if you have never been pregnant yourself, the foundation of your success as a teacher will revolve around your self-inquiry and experiential participation in everything we do and learn.

The training is designed to feel at once like a yoga retreat and a rigorous course of study. You will be given a chance to integrate all layers of self into the learning experience. You will prepare a solid foundation for the demands of working with a range of pregnant students, while at the same time participating in a space for embodied daily yoga practice and a felt firsthand understanding of meditations, chants, and energetic practices that support women during this rich, creative time of life. Respectful community and fellowship is a vital piece of this training: each graduating class emerges close-knit and you will be given tools to help one another grow and evolve as teachers, share critical and supportive feedback, and exchange ideas, experiences and responses to materials learned. Graduates will emerge empowered to teach from the heart grounded by sound knowledge and expertise.

This program curriculum will give you:

• Daily Prenatal/Postnatal Yoga and Meditation practices
• Understanding physiological changes of each trimester and postpartum and how to utilize yoga practices to best support each phase of the childbearing year
• Knowledge to adapt postures and tailor sequences to support common pregnancy discomforts
• Meditation practices to support pregnant and postpartum mothers
• Chanting practices to support pregnant and postpartum mothers
• Hands on Assists Clinic
• Verbal Teaching Skills Clinic: build awareness, strengthen your voice, and refine your word choice to speak powerfully to your students
• How yoga postures can support fetal position
• In depth understanding of how the energetic body relates specifically to pregnancy: Koshas, Vayus, Chakras, and Nadis
• The art of holding space for prenatal yoga classes
• Weekly practice of your teaching skills with truly supportive feedback designed to help you evolve as a teacher - whether you are a veteran yoga teacher or brand new
• Yoga for Fertility approach to supporting the four phases of the menstrual cycle
• Full Weekend devoted to the art and science of Postnatal Yoga
• Practical advice on how to make it as a full time yoga teacher and how to build your class sizes and foster community

• 4 hour module with a Johns Hopkins Physical Therapist on the female pelvic floor and postural adaptations during pregancy and postpartum
• 2 hour module with a Johns Hopkins Midwife on phases of labor, birth environment options, and pain management options during labor
• 2 hour working lunch with a doula who has attended over 400 births in her 17 years as a doula

This is Lily Dwyer Begg’s fourth year offering PYTT at YogaWorks Baltimore. Though she has had a committed practice since 2000, Lily's most profound, direct, earthy, transcendent, and soul-altering experience of yoga in her lifetime was giving birth to her son Blaise in 2013. Lily has taught yoga since 2005 in Berkeley, CA; Berlin, Germany; and Baltimore, Maryland. Her work has brought her to work with hundreds of pregnant and postpartum mothers, in yoga studios internationally, with an NBA basketball team, an NCAA diving team, and to homeless women and children. Lily studied with Shiva Rea, Ana Forrest, Don and Amba Stapleton, David Moreno, yoga for scoliosis with Elise Browning Miller, Ayurveda with Kameko Shibata, Prenatal yoga with Marisa Toriggino, and Yoga for the Female Pelvic Floor with Leslie Howard. She is a California licensed massage therapist and has studied anatomy with Art Riggs, Thomas Myers, and Narelle Carter-Quinlan. Lily grew up in the dance studio, has studied ballet and modern dance her whole life, and prior to moving to Baltimore, she worked as a professional modern dancer with the San Francisco troupe, LEVYdance and as a freelancer in Berlin, Germany. She currently makes her home in Baltimore with her husband, Aaron and sons, Blaise and Ray where she is the director of the YogaWorks Baltimore Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training. Her approach to Prenatal and Postpartum Yoga is a signature balance of precise alignment based posture, slow flow, uplifting community building, and humble acknowledgement of the sacred inner strength, boundless love, and liberated consciousness within all mothers every step of their own motherhood journey, no matter what shape it takes.

Full payment is required to reserve a space in workshops. All workshops are non-refundable. Cancellations made two weeks or more prior to workshop start date will be issued store credit. No store credit will be given for cancellations made less than two weeks prior to workshop start date. YogaWorks is not responsible for any costs incurred for travel arrangements or accommodations related to this event.

• Those pondering pregnancy in the near or distant future who are interested in learning about proactively caring for their bodies and reproductive wellness
• Those actively trying to become pregnant
• Those interested in learning more about female hormonal cycles and how holistic nutrition and yoga can support thriving, balanced, hormonal wellness
• Professionals (Yoga Teachers, Midwives, Doulas, Massage Therapists, Nutritionists, Coaches) who wish to support women yearning to become mothers

• The importance of detoxifying, optimizing digestion, and restoring your microbiome
• How to use food to promote a healthy weight, hormonal function, immune system, and mood
• How your diet can help to minimize the risk of pregnancy related complications, including: diabetes, thyroid and autoimmune disorders, anxiety, and more

• A gentle, all-levels, beginner’s welcome Fertility Yoga practice to open and align the pelvis, increase blood flow to the pelvic organs, and restore balanced energy flow to optimize fertility, reduce stress, and increase presence.
• A lecture on the traditional yogic approach to adapt practice for the tri-phasic monthly cycle and choosing asana and yoga practices that best support the Follicular, Ovulatory, and Luteal Phases as well as Menstruation to support and nourish the endocrine and nervous systems for optimal fertility.
• How to adapt your yoga practice to support your pregnancy trimester by trimester

• A Fertility Yoga practice
• Information sessions describing how yoga and food can best support you during your reproductive years
• A delicious, organic, vegetarian lunch applying the principles you'll learn about during the information sessions
• A mini-consult with a licensed nutritionist to assess your energetic constitution and unique preconception planning needs
• A customized herbal tea recipe designed to promote detoxification, digestion, and a calm and centered mind
• A 10-day gentle fertility cleanse protocol and email follow-up from Rachel