Prenatal Yoga & Birth Prep Sessions
with Cait Harwood
Pregnant People Need Pregnant People
Abide’s longtime prenatal yoga teacher, Cait Harwood (they/them), first attended birth doula training in the Summer of 2010, the same summer that they began Yoga Teacher Training. Immediately they saw the ways that coping techniques for birth meshed instinctually with the movement, breathing, and awareness practices taught in their YTT, and they started to imagine ways to create a shared offering. A few years later, when Cait became pregnant, they began co-teaching a weekly prenatal yoga class through the duration of their pregnancy. Confronted by their expectations of a comfy, glowy pregnancy (because that’s how it works when you know all the things, right?) and the nauseating reality of hyperemesis gravidarum, Cait was deeply overwhelmed by the experience, struggling to find ease and stability through the body changes and sensations. Yoga gave them tools to face the transformations of pregnancy and birth with flexibility, understanding, and courage. They have been expanding and sharing these tools with pregnant folks on a weekly basis ever since. Over the past fourteen years, Cait has acquired additional training and skills to support the class, including functional anatomy, childbirth education, and pregnancy options counseling. Aside from birthwork, they also bring eight years as an abortion worker and decades of facilitation experience to the class.
Cait’s favorite things to witness in Prenatal Yoga are the connections that form between students and the relief that students feel through pregnancy-specific movement and birth preparation. Every session includes at least two breathing techniques and a Yoga Nidra meditation to develop breath capacity, coping techniques, and set intentions. Pregnant people need pregnant people, and there’s a special magic that occurs when we take time at the beginning of each class to check-in and share experiences, anxieties, struggles, and accomplishments. There’s nothing quite like meeting someone whose due date is within a few days or weeks of your own, and finding out that they have the same weird pregnancy discomfort or carry the same fears. The connection and support offered in the class beautifully tends to those facing their first births or navigating subsequent pregnancies, and we have had many students return again and again over the years as they expand their families. Cait feels like an incredibly lucky and grateful nerd to be trusted with stewarding this sacred time.
Prenatal yoga is every Sunday from 5:30-6:45 PM at Abide Larchmere, and all pregnant folks, their birth partners, and birthworkers are welcome to attend. Sliding scale private sessions are available by request.
Words from Cait’s prenatal students:
“The class was my standing saving grace through both of my pregnancies. I loved having this sacred space of pregnant people and Cait’s guidance through the tender time of pregnancy. I learned so much about my body and learned tips to help feel connected to it and my babies. Cait also gave me so many applicable tips and movements that helped me have two wonderful and natural births!” -Paige
“My yoga practice and the practices I was consistently led through in prenatal yoga with Cait were central to my birthing experience. This was my first pregnancy and having both the supportive space for my heart and for my body was so healing every week. I know it was because of my weekly practice with Cait that I knew how to breathe through my contractions, to relax in between, to move when I needed, and when the time came, to push that baby out! Cait’s supportive and knowledgeable class is such a gift for anyone going through their pregnancy journey” -Laura
“Meeting each week during pregnancy was incredibly helpful. I found a group of friends going through the same major life event, and now our babies are friends too. The emotional support was wonderful—Caitlin created space for check-ins while also providing education on labor and delivery, practical guidance for pregnancy challenges, and relaxing, supportive yoga. The class helped ease my anxiety and made the weeks leading up to birth feel more grounded and manageable.” -Andrea
“I started attending the prenatal yoga class with Caitlin at Abide when I entered my third trimester of my first pregnancy and my only regret is not going sooner! This experience was truly one of the highlights of my entire pregnancy. Caitlin creates a safe space to feel seen, heard, and valued in the company of other pregnant humans. It was physically, mentally, and spiritually rewarding. Of all the classes I took throughout the duration of my pregnancy it was Caitlin’s words, teachings. & instructions that rang in my head during the birthing process. I got so much out of it. I can’t rave about Caitlin enough. They are truly a kind, incredibly knowledgeable, compassionate, welcoming human being that I am eternally grateful for being part of my birth story now.” -Loren
{“I loved Caitlin’s classes for both of my pregnancies! The breathing techniques they taught helped me stay calm both during pregnancy and both labors. I literally birthed my second child using the poses taught in class, and I felt so strong and powerful doing it! I can’t recommend Caitlin’s classes enough.” -Heather
“I met Caitlin years before I was pregnant, and even though I didn’t even know at the time if I’d ever have kids, I filed their name away in the “just in case” file in my brain. That calm, knowledgeable, intuitive energy that struck me when we met is what saw me through my pregnancy a few years later. The first thing I did when I crawled out of the shock and nausea of the first trimester was go to their prenatal class and it was the foundation on which I built a happy, healthy pregnancy.” -Ali} (These last two are about five or six years old, from my website, and can be left out if we need to cut some)
Media Mentions:
https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/yoga-by-benefit/placenta-previa-yoga/
Private session options:
I have space for 4 low cost clients per year. Please inquire to hope.abideyoga@gmail.com if you would like access to these practices and feel that you’d qualify for this offering. Low cost clients must commit to at least three sessions on a pre-planned schedule.
Sessions can be held for individuals, couples, and small groups of 4 or fewer. Consider finding friends to come and play with you and split the cost! When we come together to practice, we heal together.
Sessions are held on Tuesdays at Abide Larchmere, and Fridays and Saturdays at Abide West (Willow Room Collective) in Lakewood.
About Cait Harwood:
Cait