Nurture & Bond | Baby & Me Yoga
Alexa Dean | 11:30 - 12:30 pm | Tuesdays | £60
3 June - 1 July 2025
Join us for this weekly intimate, community-building sessions for parents & babies.
This class is a beautiful way for new parents to develop, deepen and nurture their bonds with their babies.
And, if you attended our Pregnancy Yoga classes, a perfect continuation of your journey into parenthood allowing you to evolve your practice and connection with your baby from preparing for birth through delivery now to the early months of your baby’s life.
This class emphasises on connection and presence. Alexa provides a relaxed and supportive space for dedicated parent and baby time, learning valuable skills for life to support you and your baby.
*As with most our courses and classes there is a “Low Cost Course” option available for anyone who is unable to pay the full price.
Benefits of Baby & Me Yoga
Baby yoga, which complements infant massage, offers quality physical stimulation including flowing postures, holding, movement, touch, voice and deep relaxation. It induces a happy, care-free and lively parent-infant interaction which develops as the babies grow. The experience of movement combined with touch is probably the richest stimulation we can offer babies from birth.
In yoga, this stimulation occurs through the mutual involvement of parent and baby, at a pace at which the baby can absorb and integrate it. As yoga postures induce deep relaxation in adults, so in babies they bring a state of deep contentment and promote deep sleep. This playful stimulation through yoga-based exercise is the best possible way of helping babies relish life, with all its demands, as they grow.
During the class you will learn sequences with your child, which will stimulate the body’s systems and encourage co-ordination and flexibility. There will be a mix of dynamic exercises, special holds and relaxation techniques. This is “pure baby yoga” which originated from Dr Francoise Freedman’s work with the Peruvian Amazonian people.
in one short session, the baby is given as much physical activity as they would receive if they were handled and carried all day – this activity enhances deep sleep and more “settled” behaviour
a daily routine of activity is established through which the parent can engage constructively with their baby from birth
all the baby’s bodily systems are stimulated, including the digestive and nervous systems
the parent and baby get to know each other, enhancing communication and bonding between them and instilling confidence in the mother
birth traumas are healed and the baby becomes better equipped to deal with shocks
the baby’s enjoyment of the positive stress of yoga will increase the baby’s ability to cope with future challenges
through the high quality attention the baby receives from its parents, the baby learns to interact with others and play actively
the deep relaxation that is part of yoga helps parents cope with the stresses of early parenting.
What You Need to Know
A FEW IMPORTANT NOTES:
- Please bring a towel for the baby and all bits and bobs.
- As a suggestion maybe also bring e a teddy bear or doll next to you in case baby falls asleep or is not interested in baby massage so you can still practice the sequence.
- Unfortunately, there is no space to leave prams in the ground floor. We strongly recommend you arrive carrying your baby on a sling.
- We do ask that you take away any dirty nappies with you when you leave the studio after class.
- Baby & Me Yoga classes run throughout the year for 5 weeks at a time with a pause during term breaks.
- Absences: We understand that being a parent demands a flexible schedule, so if you do miss a class during the course, please contact admin@theshala.co.uk and we will offer you 20% off your next Baby & Me course (the equivalent of 1 class).
Partners are welcome.
Alexa Dean
Alexa is a Doula, Hypnobirthing Childbirth Educator, Yoga Teacher, Massage Therapist and Co-Founder of ‘London Bliss Doulas’ established in 2012. She runs the Pregnancy and Mum & Baby classes and workshops at the Shala as well as the Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training Course at the Shala School of Yoga. She passionately believes in active, positive and conscious birthing and in supporting women all the way through their own private and amazing experience of becoming a parent. She encourages women to intelligently align mind and body, enjoy their pregnancy and the empowerment obtained through knowledge and understanding of the process of birth.
Alexa qualified as a Hatha Yoga Teacher at TriYoga London and Vinyasa Flow Teacher in India. She then specialised in Pregnancy & Postnatal Yoga with Nadia Narain and continued her studies with YogaBirth, a program set up by Active Birth teachers that combines Yoga with Childbirth Education. Lastly she took up the Khalsa Way Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training, developed by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa (USA) based on Kundalini Yoga and Meditation as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Alexa is also a Relax & Renew® Restorative Yoga Teacher having trained with Judith Hanson Lasater (USA). She certified as a Doula guided by revolutionary childbirth pioneer Dr Michel Odent, studied Hypnobirthing with Katharine Graves and EFT Tapping with Sue Beer and Emma Roberts.
Alexa is a Massage Therapist with experience in Fertility, Pregnancy, Postnatal and Baby Massage. Alexa also trained as a Midwife Assistant at The Farm Midwifery Center in Tennessee, founded by Ina May Gaskin, the pioneer of natural birth in the United States.