Prenatal Yoga with Bec Conant

Last week, I officially decided to shelve running until after I deliver the baby. And since yoga subsequently has been my main fitness practice, and since many of the sequences I typically enjoy aren't so great while carrying a giant pumpkin belly, I decided to buy a copy of Prenatal Yoga with Bec Conant following the rave recommendations for Bec (a local prenatal yoga teacher, doula, and hypnobirthing teacher) and her classes when I queried about favorite prenatal yoga classes in Boston.
And I totally dig this DVD and recommend it for expecting moms. The DVD is broken into seven sections (e.g., warm up, sun salutations, wall balances, seated poses, etc.) and you can either skip around or run the DVD in entirety (about 1 hour and 15 minutes). Throughout, you can follow Bec's calm voice and the visual lead of two women in early and later stages of pregnancy. Bec's directives are very good, and she's excellent at providing gentle reminders about the individual nature of the body and practice on a given day. Typically, for new yoga students I recommend attending classes so you can receive corrections and learn the poses properly, but I think this DVD would work for new or less experienced yoga students.

From the perspective of someone with a lot of yoga experience, I've been happy to learn some new poses and stretches that feel utterly delicious, and also learn about them in the context of how they impact my baby and upcoming delivery. At the beginning, I followed the DVD to the letter, and now that I'm familiar with the flow, I add in my own variations and favorite extra poses as I go. It's been wonderful to enjoy a fitness practice dedicated to pregnancy, and following Kate's lead, I'm now looking forward to picking up some additional prenatal fitness DVDs at the library.