A brief introduction to Maternity yoga class and mom and kids class in Kyoto 1/2

Today's blog is not meant to introduce a yoga class run in a foreign language in Kyoto but share the atmosphere and experience of a maternity yoga class run in Japanese that I attended in Kyoto. I hope you would find this article helpful when you look for a maternity class/workshop.

Hello, thank you for visiting and coming back to Porch's blog. Today, I'm writing about my experience in the maternity yoga class that I attended back in 2021.

I have longed for a community of moms since I watched the series "Workin' Moms" on Netflix. In the show, various types of mothers were gathering around a therapist in a small group to meet up and catch up with their constantly changing situations about work, partners, and children. They always looked out for each other, however, they had each other when they had issues.

I knew I would like to join a community of moms if I could find one. That's because I wanted myself ready to be parenting my baby with my husband in Kyoto in a long term. Friends matter to us more than family in reality because our both families live on Kyushu island. In short, I was in need to make an environment where I could feel I was ready to start parenting.

Due to the pandemic, finding a class or workshop for mom-to-be was harder than I expected back in the Spring-summer of 2021 when we embraced the fourth and fifth wave of COVID-19. Firstly, a maternity yoga class that my OB&G clinic organized had been canceled. Secondly, most maternity classes/workshops at the children's center in my neighborhood also had been canceled.

Therefore, I felt very lucky when I came across a website for a maternity yoga class in my neighborhood. I wasn't sure how the classes were tailored to corona's situation so I sent a message to my teacher and ask if she offered a face-to-face class. She told me that a face-to-face class would be back on in two weeks in her reply!! So I waited two weeks excited about my first maternity yoga class.

On the first day of the class, I was a little nervous because I was worried about whether yoga was safe for my baby and me. Also, I wondered whether I could make yoga in the first place. I could say one thing that experience helped. I used to attend a yoga class once a week for almost a year in the past. In the end, I managed to follow my teacher somehow but it was the most challenging class I ever had.

When I finished the first class, I could feel the connection and deeper trust in my baby. At that time, I was 7 months pregnant and I already had a big belly. I had to care about him and even talked to him in order to give him a cue in my heart every time I made a move following the teacher. Interesting thing was that my baby was quiet and less moving during the class. But, once the class finished, he began to move briskly as if he had been holding back from moving until then.

Since then, I continued to take the maternity yoga class until 5 days before my due date. It definitely helped me during in total of 16 hours of contractions and delivery in terms of inner peace and stable breathing in my case.

In respect of friendships with other moms, it was rather casual, and I was not as close to any moms as I wished. Probably it's because the class was held every other Monday and I didn't have much time to get to know other moms.

In Japan, there is a word called ママ友 (mama-tomo). ママ(Mama) is a mother as it is. 友(Tomo) refers to friends in Japanese. This is a word for friendship between/among moms. If you see a couple of moms chatting in front of supermarkets or schools, they might be mama-tomos.

Mama-tomo isn't just for the good. Friendship with mama-tomos has a negative image, which is thought to get easily complicated and messy because they are not true friends. They wouldn't have met unless their children made friends with each other. Anyways, I might have felt pushed to make some mama-tomo even before I gave birth.

My continuing attendance of maternity yoga classes made me feel the more yoga classes I attend, the less nervous and the more natural. Certainly, I had many nice small talks and information exchanges with my teacher and other moms. So I consider the class is the third place that I belong for my well-being now.

This blog will continue to the second half part which I will write about a yoga class with kids that I currently attend.

We would like to know if there are any classes for pregnant women in Kyoto that you had/ you would like/ have wished to have. Also, please let us know about any classes for pregnant women offered in your home country!