A window shade has been lifted. Your morning sickness has most likely subsided. There’s a renewed sense of energy. You experience the first flutters in the womb and are excited to feel your baby moving around. Yes, you have nobly entered the 2^nd trimester – the honey-moon period of your pregnancy. The baby has functioning organs, nerves, and muscles, gender and its identity is gradually beginning to crop. It is an exhilarating stage of inner movement when you naturally connect with your baby’s growing needs and form a lulling rapport. You feel growing responsibility for the independent entity flourishing within. You are elated of becoming a mother –an epitome of the spiral of life unfurling in your womb. It is a time of magic and delight, a time of deepening insight and expanded receptivity. You are a vessel that channels divine feminine wisdom and transfers it to the baby’s shaping intelligence. You and baby have become an extension of the spiral of creation and manifestation and everything you attract now embodies into new life.

In prenatal yoga this honey moon stage is marked by an elegant maturation of your motherly instincts and you naturally feel the need to slow down and introspect. You and baby are growing exponentially at this reciprocal stage. On a purely physical level you start to experience the discomfort of your growing belly leading to sleepless nights; the increased soreness in your muscles; the swelling of your limbs and impaired balance. Your joints are looser; your lower back is tender; your heart rate is elevated; your blood pressure is lower, and your circulation slower. You are beautifully changing to accommodate, nourish, sheath and nurture your growing gift.

Prenatal Yoga in the second trimester is extremely safe and enjoyable as you feel the baby more secured in the womb, and the growing belly hasn’t yet started to hinder your ability to move around the way you want. Because the hormones are still fluctuating and the body has various needs it is highly recommended to engage in a gentle, but strengthening practice abounding with hip and chest openers, soothing forwards bends and standing poses that stabilize the joints and make you feel strong and serene. It is mandatory to avoid poses that strain or put pressure on the abdominals, intense pelvic twits, exaggerated backbends and deep forward bends. The focus is on keeping you limber, while toning your muscles, improving your balance and circulation and expanding your breathing for deeper relaxation and contemplation.

Interestingly, during this period your body will produce a hormone called “relaxin”, which plays a more important role in the development of soften bones and ligaments in order to make a comfortable place for the baby and preparing your body for birth. Overstretching can damage these relaxed parts, thus you need to avoid flexibility enhancing poses.

Personally, the second trimester felt so great during my pregnancy. My energy level was back up after the wooziness of the first trimester, so I could exercise regularly; I had a “bump,” so I got all the positive attention of being pregnant without being too clumsy (yet). As a yoga teacher, it is frustrating not to be able to do all the poses, but it was an opportunity to deepen my own understanding of yoga by doing more supported poses and Pranayama. I feel being pregnant is almost a yoga practice in itself. You have to practice vairagya (nonattachment) for nine months with so many things: fitted clothes, favorite foods, intense physical activity. You also become aware of your responsibility to the person growing inside of you, which requires a sense of selflessness. Instead of focusing primarily on the physical, many yoginis find their practice becomes more internal as the pregnancy progresses. My hardest lesson for this trimester was accepting and surrendering. Each month I felt I was shedding layers of my ego, and revealing more of my true identity. I naturally gave up my advanced yoga practice for a calmer and introspective immersion into my calm interior. I still challenged myself, but in a sere and steady manner.

I noticed that most prenatal yoga classes, especially in the second trimester tend to be less creative and more repetitive, limited to five or six poses that sometimes put extra strain on the arms, legs and the pelvic floor. As a designer of targeted yoga sequences, I have allowed all the stages of my pregnancy to lead me into discovering new poses that offer support, are absolutely safe, and encourage substitution. I have come to figure out new exciting “asanas” that will give the satisfaction of a contraindicated pose but are less demanding on my changing body. I have wholeheartedly included the baby in the practice, especially during relaxation.

By the fifth month, all moms-to-be are very aware of their baby’s movements and it is the perfect time to tune into your baby’s throbbing authenticity. In month four I focused on the symbol of the spiral as a force that constantly spins and generates momentum. It helped me visualize my baby unfolding beautifully in the womb, its body shaping, its organs functioning, its appearance animating. In month forth I would picture my child cradling on a crescent sliver of the moon, kissed by the stars and nurtured the Earth. It was a beautiful image that fueled the receptivity and unconditional love in my heart. During the six month I would see an eye pulsating from a triangle and focused on the perfect divine image reflected in the baby’s growth. I could feel my baby listening to my heart-beat and voice, intuiting the outside world from its moonlit cradle and expressing its identity freely and playfully.

My insights and motherly inspiration led me to designing this routine that allows moms to back off from strenuous poses and concentrate on turning inward – enjoying the middle trimester and preparing for the intense ride required in labor and delivery and, eventually, motherhood.

Prenatal Yoga Routine: Calm Interior (2^nd Trimester)

This Yogea routine targets the needs of moms to be in their second trimester and focuses on building strength, while relieving muscle soreness, and turning the focus inwards. A series of gentle diaphragmatic breathing and mudra flow opens up space in the belly and brings blood flow and nutrients to the baby. The sequence starts by gently massaging the hamstrings and lubricating all joints. Gentle seated hip openers and safe strengthening balances are introduced to open up the pelvic floor and harness a steady center. A series of soothing backbends and semi-lunges pave the way to introspective ham string openers and stabilizing standing poses. The mountain poses are coupled with shoulder and hip openers for stability and suppleness. Chest openers fuel the joy of motherhood and open more space in the belly. Semi-reclining forward bends activating the pineal gland turn the awareness inwards into the subtle body and reinforce the connection between baby and mom. Gentle massage of the lower back and toning of the abdominals pairs with arms strengthening to tone and sooth. A supported relaxation guides moms to creatively visualize the serene stability of her developing child.