Hi, my name is Rebecca, the very lucky owner of Mama Blossom with now 4 teachers and 1 therapist helping me to support women and families on their journeys.
A very unusual start for a perinatal yoga teacher, I am a qualified engineer and spent 21 years working in management jobs in a large manufacturing company. It was highly pressured and long hours. I have four children and when pregnant with my third I went to a pregnancy yoga class about 30 minutes away and loved the feel of the classes, so began my journey to train and set up my own class, closer and alongside my day job, it was just going to be something for me……but as it grew, in 2017 I took voluntary redundancy and gave myself the year (whilst having my 4th child of course lol) to see if it could work…
I started out by training and joining a Franchise in 2016, alongside this I had my first experience of Birthlight with the Aquanatal Yoga training later that year. The sense of community, warmth and welcoming from Birthlight in that first course warmed and inspired me. The Birthlight training was well laid out, but at the same time gave me the freedom to run classes in a way that was personal to me.
My franchise journey with the other company was the opposite of this, teachers weren’t working together, the classes were restrictive in what we could do with them and just didn’t allow me to deliver what my local mums needed at that time. So in early 2019 I took the leap, moved out of the franchise, set up Mama Blossom and began my training with Birthlight, where my heart belonged.
Having already completed Aquanatal with Birthlight in 2017, I started next with Pregnancy Yoga training with them in 2019. Again the course was relaxed, friendly with like minded women supporting each other, content was as always a really good mix of practical and theory. What do I love the most? The freedom to use my training as I wished, no franchise, no control over content, no restrictions on what I charge. Just a joined up approach to supporting women through pregnancy in a way that no other training providers seem to understand. I love Francoise’s story, her approach and how her tutors are almost like a family, how they have reached so many parts of the world and continue to do so. Being a part of this felt like I wasn’t alone.
As the mums that started out with me in pregnancy wanted to involve their partners, there was a call for antenatal workshops…… as they had their babies, there was a call for baby classes….. as they wanted time out, a call for postnatal classes…..when they were looking to conceive again, there was a call for fertility……moving all the way through to menopause support. So Mama Blossom grew…
Birthlight was perfect to support this journey, as they have supported so many other women and families. Since 2017 I have now trained with Birthlight in Pregnancy Yoga, Couples Antenatal Preparation, Fertility Yoga, Caesarean Scar Recovery, Baby Swimming, Aquatic Nurture, Baby Massage, Baby Yoga, Postnatal Yoga, Menopause Yoga, Aquanatal Yoga. Outside of Birthlight, I have complemented the offerings with Closing the Bones and Hypnobirthing. And with so many great CPD offerings too!
Why do so many offerings work?
As Birthlight recommends, we have small class sizes and run classes in circles (where space is restricted, in a semi circle), no rows! They are small, friendly, we set up WhatsApp groups to keep in touch and create that feeling of finding their village, a space to come into each week to relax, recharge and be with others following the same journey. After experiencing this in pregnancy, they now have a safe space, a familiar face, a knowledge of what to expect, and they can return again to this with their partner, baby, when trying to conceive again…. For their journey, their village.
But, with just me trying to run all of these classes, in multiple places it was just impossible to keep up with the business, to deliver quality and spend time with the family. In 2021 I reached out to my mum community for interest in teaching some pregnancy yoga for Mama Blossom, we had 4 ladies that had experienced Mama Blossom classes and wanted to help me reach more ladies with the classes, that teaching classes for Mama Blossom would be something for them, this was just perfect!
With all Mama Blossom classes based on Birthlight training, with the Birthlight vision aligned with integrated care and support for pregnancy, birth, early years plus their welcoming ability to create community and bring together differences in culture, social background and personalities it was the obvious choice for me. Training was set up with a combination of online and face to face training and they were very accommodating and organised their training locally to us all which made it so much easier with some teachers having very little ones or pregnant themselves.
2025, what does the Mama Blossom team look like now?
Few changes with 3 of the original teachers that have taught so many more women than I could have done on my own and empowering them in ways they never imagined. They too have gained so much more as teachers and built their confidence to move away from home with their families and take on life changing opportunities, have excelled in their main jobs with promotions and had some family challenges that mean they can dip in an out of teaching to support this. Becoming teachers gave them so much more.
We now have one of these teachers running pregnancy yoga classes for Mama Blossom and launching Blossom Sister alongside to bring in new offerings. We now have our own treatment room with another team member offering postnatal and pregnancy massage. Then in September my sister will be joining and offering women’s reflexology. Plus we have one and soon to be two now ex NCT teachers joining us to support with classes.
What do we do in Mama Blossom?
Fertility Yoga, Pregnancy Yoga, Baby Massage, Mum & Baby Yoga, Pregnancy Relaxation Workshops, Antenatal Workshops, Hypnobirthing, Postnatal Yoga, Caesarean Recovery Workshop and when we find time in our timetable, hoping to restart Yoga for Menopause, Women’s Circles and when we find a new facility, hoping to have Aquanatal Yoga back, I really miss it and there is a big demand for it.
Why does Mama Blossom work?
Small classes, friendly faces, finding your village, continuity and familiarity.
What makes our pregnancy yoga classes different to standard pregnancy yoga classes?
We teach in a circle, classes are small and friendly, we run in 6 week blocks and every class is different over a 12 week period (most mums will continue classes right up to having their baby).
We create community, at the start of class everyone introduces themselves, how their week has been (if they wish). Sometimes this may open up a topic of conversation. We also set up a WhatsApp group for everyone to keep in touch during the block and after, a space for them to support each other, share their stories and meet up.
Classes are 1.5hr long and we incorporate yoga with education, breathing techniques and relaxation. Each week has a theme and the education is just 15 minutes, it’s a small snippet of antenatal education, just enough and then they can choose if they take it further with videos and links shared, reading books or antenatal classes if they want to know more. We all approach birth differently and this gives them freedom to do this, we give them the confidence to make choices to achieve their positive birth, however they birth.
We use part guided breathing in class, as most women that attend our classes haven’t really practised yoga before, this works well in helping them build muscle memory and the ability to move and breathe at the same time in birth. Feedback is often how effective the breathing techniques are in labour, by coming to classes they have anchored to the movement, breath work and confidence to make choices in a deep relaxed state.
The first 10 minutes of yoga and breath work in class is the same every week, it’s our program into a relaxed state that the body recognises.
The main part of the yoga class changes each week. We adapt to the mum’s needs in class and build on the techniques over the 6 weeks. We also have themed weeks with chair yoga, rebozo scarf, birth ball, wall work…..giving mums the confidence to move and listen to their bodies is key with tools they can use in labour, the birth ball class is often a favourite.
Relaxation to finish is a guided relaxation, with scripts created by myself using the hypnobirthing techniques. They work through a 6 week course specifically for mums to prepare the body for birth. Giving mums the much needed relaxation they need as well as them having access to pre recorded relaxation tracks they can use at home and during labour and birth.
As not all mums want to book 6 weeks if they have a holiday planned and may miss a class, we often give them an option to do an extra class elsewhere with us having a few classes on, but often they are just happy to miss the week and catch up with our online content. We have yoga videos, education videos and relaxation recordings for them. For insurance reasons this access is only given to mums that have attended a class and know all the safety recommendations.
The magic? Mums join class for pregnancy yoga, but find they get so much more than they expected, it’s the why, the whole package. And then they can join again for baby classes…
Don’t get me wrong, it’s tough and it’s tougher than ever before with more interventions occurring in local hospitals with less positive outcomes.
I love what I do, where else do you get such amazing feedback, see friendships being formed, women becoming empowered and we are seeing much more positive birth outcomes for mums attending classes xx
Rebecca Louis
Rebecca Louis and her team offer classes and therapies across Staffordshire & Derbyshire.