Like millions of Americans, Shires, 39, had embraced yoga—a practice that originated 5,000 years ago in India—as a form of exercise, an emotional release and a way to connect with her mind and body.

But when she became pregnant and joined a prenatal yoga class at Willow Glen Yoga, the practice took on a whole new meaning. It was a chance to meet with other expectant mothers and share their hopes, fears and questions about parenting.

Prenatal and postnatal yoga are just two classes offered by Willow Glen Yoga and ReFormation Studio, two yoga studios in Willow Glen. Classes run the gamut from Vinyasa-style yoga, which combines a series of postures with rhythmic breathing for an intense, aerobic-type workout, to a style named Iyengar, in which poses are held longer and props are used to help the body achieve specific positions.

Photograph by Sarah Ruby Limber Limbs: Willow Glen Yoga student Michelle Chubbs began practicing yoga seven months ago, after a car accident left her with a spinal injury. The classes help her body alignment and internal well-being.

"Your body needs to acclimate to the heat at first, and you feel lightheaded and nauseated, but then it starts to feel great because your body is detoxing and getting rid of chemicals," says Willow Glen resident Melissa Mehta, 40, who takes Bikram and Ashtanga classes at Yoga Matrix three days per week. "Now I crave the heat. It gives your body and mind a complete workout."

The other form of yoga she practices, Ashtanga, is a type of Vinyasa yoga. It is a fast-paced series of postures in a "dance-like movement," says Kent Bond, the owner of Willow Glen Yoga and Yoga Matrix. "It's the really fiery practice Madonna does."

Bond opened Willow Glen Yoga seven years ago. After practicing yoga for 14 years, the 49-year-old Willow Glen resident decided to teach in the 900-square-foot location on Lincoln Avenue. But when yoga's popularity grew Bond decided he wanted to "cater to the diverse needs of the community," so last June he opened another studio that is double the size of the first, Yoga Matrix at 1114 Brace Ave.

"Yoga can be the most dynamic aerobic activity and gentle, restorative healing practice ever done," says Bond, who teaches people between the ages of 10 and 70. "Yoga was developed to provide a greater ease of mobility. Working out makes you stiff, but yoga makes you flexible and gives you longer and leaner muscles."

Yoga enthusiasts attending Willow Glen Yoga and Yoga Matrix practice the art between one and six times a week. While some use yoga to supplement another exercise regimen, others focus exclusively on yoga, Bond says.

Yoga has gone through several renaissances in the United States, according to Divya Zuccarro, 33, a prenatal yoga instructor at ReFormation Studio.

"In the 1960s and 1970s, yoga was about finding spirituality and experimenting with a new exercise," says Zuccarro, who has practiced for 11 years. "It fell out of popularity in the 1980s, and when it returned in the 1990s people were health conscious and looking to focus on the physical fitness aspect more than the spirituality."

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer Balanced Bellies: Marlisa Slack (front) and Sara Armstrong practice poses during a prenatal yoga class at Willow Glen Yoga.

Although pregnant women have been practicing yoga for many years, prenatal classes are relatively new in Willow Glen. Willow Glen Yoga has offered prenatal classes for one year and ReFormation Studio for four years.

Because the poses in Bikram, Ashtanga and other forms of yoga can be dangerous for an unborn baby, there have been classes designed especially for mothers-to-be.

However, it is advised that pregnant women wait until after the first trimester—or 12 weeks of pregnancy—to begin yoga if they've never done yoga before, Bond says.

"The first trimester is when women are most vulnerable to miscarriage," says Nanci Tudish, a prenatal instructor at Willow Glen Yoga.

During the past year Tudish has taught a class that avoids dangerous poses for pregnant women, like inversions—placing the body upside down in headstands or handstands—deep twists and backbends.

"In most yoga classes you're on your belly a lot, and you can't do that when you're pregnant," says Tudish, who taught other yoga styles before giving birth to her daughter recently. "Sometimes yoga class can be competitive and people suck in their gut. In a prenatal class there is no pressure to compete, and women won't miss participating in certain segments of a regular class, where there are a lot of unsafe poses for them."


Bringing the baby

After giving birth, many new mothers join the "mommy and baby" yoga classes offered at both studios. The purpose is to spend quality time with the baby, get out of the house and get back into shape, Tudish says. The babies lie by their mother's sides while the mother does yoga or sit in the mother's lap while they are cross-legged.

New mother Shannon Graham brings her 4-month-old son Ryan to class so she can exercise and still be with her son.

Taking the prenatal class helped her stay calm during pregnancy and when she went into labor because she learned relaxing breathing exercises, she says.

"We focused on stretching muscles used during pregnancy by doing 'opening poses' like squats," says Graham, who also did yoga before pregnancy. "But the class was also about meeting new friends and being given a resource list of herbalists and acupuncturists by the instructor."

Like Graham, most of the students in the class are first-time mothers, so Tudish provides a resource list of doctors she says can be helpful during pregnancy. Tudish even explained how a birthing coach works, and several students took her advice and used her coach.


A support group

The class is also an opportunity for students to do everything from discuss good books to vent about their husbands, says Cindy Walker, a yoga instructor at Willow Glen Yoga who is taking the "mommy and baby" class with her 8-week-old daughter, Taitem Rose.

"I don't know what I would've done without prenatal yoga," Walker says. "The support alone is worth a million bucks. Doctors don't provide much more than a 10-minute checkup. In class we went person to person, expressing concerns, worries and delights about pregnancy."

For many women the prenatal and postnatal classmates are like extended family. Some don't live near their mothers or sisters and lack support outside of class, Tudish says.

"It's also nice because once the babies are born they already have playmates," says Tudish, who shared the same doula, or birthing coach, with Graham and Walker. "The women call each other just to ask how much sleep they got the night before."

Walker even used yoga skills she learned in class during labor and delivery, which made her feel better and got her "through it."

Most women stay in the "mommy and baby" class until the baby starts crawling—unless they want to chase them around—or until the mother goes back to work, Tudish says.

"Pregnancy is scary and stressful. Women have society telling them they should be happy, when really many women are not," Tudish says. "This is a safe and nurturing environment where they can share with each other."

It is so nurturing, in fact, that the eight women who met in the Willow Glen Yoga prenatal class formed a moms group. They meet every week outside class to further build a relationship and provide support.

Willow Glen resident and moms group member Marlisa Slack, 33, is experiencing her third pregnancy and has rejoined the prenatal class. She is only in the first trimester and has pulled back from her normal routine of kickboxing, cycling and swimming. Yoga is a safe and gentle way to keep active, she says. Yoga is so relaxing she used it during labor.


Going through the motions

During a recent prenatal class, Tudish discussed the difference between natural birth and receiving an epidural. Shires shared information about postpartum depression and swaddling a child.

After the sharing session, Tudish then tells the class to close their eyes, place their hands on their belly and connect with their baby.

"This is time to spend with your baby," Tudish says. "Focus on your breathing and lift your arms up like you're picking grapes."

The class does a series of poses such as child's pose, in which one kneels with one's head on the floor. Another pose is called "downward facing dog"—the student is on all fours, with knees under hips and hands at a distance in front of the shoulders.

But instead of laying on the back at the end of class in corpse pose, which is typically done for relaxation, the women lay on their sides, hug their knees and close their eyes for 10 minutes.

Women are advised not to lie on their backs after the first trimester of pregnancy because the body's biggest vein—the vena cava—runs through the back and might cut off the blood supply to the baby. Many women in the class have back pain because they're not used to sleeping on their sides, and yoga helps to alleviate the pain, Tudish says.

Sara Armstrong, 34, is eight months pregnant with her first child and started taking the class early in her pregnancy to help her back pain. She says the breathing has helped her relax, and during labor she will try positions learned from yoga.

Shires expects the endurance she has developed from holding poses in yoga will help during labor.

"Nanci will have you hold a pose for a while to learn how to breathe and concentrate," says Shires, an English teacher at Leland High School who is seven months pregnant. "Everything she says I translate into how I'm going to feel during labor-like contractions or breathing. It used to be just about exercise. For me yoga is centering because while pregnant I go through lots of emotional ups and downs. I'll be laughing hysterically one second, then crying the next. Yoga provides balance."

At the beginning and end of most yoga classes the instructor says the Indian word namaste, which has a lengthy meaning: "I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides. I honor the place in you of love of light, of truth, of peace. I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us."

For more information about Willow Glen Yoga, 1188 Lincoln Ave., call 408.289.9642 or visit www.willowglenyoga.com. For more information about Yoga Matrix, 1114 Brace Ave., call 408.358.1777 or visit www.yogamatrix.net. For more information about ReFormation Studio, 1070 Lincoln Ave., call 408.993.9642 or visit www.reformationstudio.com.