Yoga Birth Philosophy

Yogabirth was conceived by Shelley Wilcox Purcilly in 2000 as a way to integrate various aspects of yoga with the pregnancy and birth experience. Yogabirth is both a philosophy and a practice. The philosophy is based in the belief that yoga and its associated practices offer many techniques and approaches that can greatly enhance pregnancy and birth. The practice is taught by Shelley Purcilly in her regular classes at the Santa Barbara Yoga Center.

Shelley: "Teaching yoga for pregnancy and childbirth preparation has been for me a journey into nature. Being in the presence of pregnant women, women physically filled with life growing from within, is an awe-inspiring experience to behold. It allows me to see how nature can both transform and be transformed.

Weaving a yogic ritual, doing the same exercises at each practice, I encourage the yoga to become innate, so it may stimulate body-mind-breath memory when the time calls to give birth. The ritual incorporates a modified Eight-Path approach of Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharna, Dhyana and Samadhi. Here they are adapted and defined as they pertain to the practice:

Yama	ethical observances are honored by first taking the time to speak with each individual as a group helping fellow student and teacher to become aware of one's Self, body and baby in the present moment.
Niyama	personal discipline is encouraged by seeking ritual through repetition.
Asana	the physical postures are modified for the ever-changing pregnant body.
Pranayama	the control of breath is crucial to a successful birth experience.
Pratyahara	the drawing in or turning inward of the senses through imagery, meditation and aromatherapy (defined differently not as a withdrawal from but rather a more Tantric reverence of the senses)
Dharana	concentration on body-mind-breath in connection to the fetus baby.
Dhyana	meditation as a tool to recreate an introspective environment that may nurture the birth of new life.
Samadhi	higher consciousness is a potential made possible through ultimate surrender to the birthing process. Maiden becomes Birth-Giver becomes Mother.

The Yogabirth ritual is enlivened by delving deeper into the mythic domain of body and soul, and translates ancient ideas and images into the layers of one's physical and psychic being. To ease the woman's body and spirit through the transformation, I call upon the wisdom of Nature as well as the Tantrics, Shamans, Goddesses and Alchemists. Natural elements, shamanic animals, alchemical rainbow hues of the chakras and tantric traditions of the goddess, are meditated on in yogic postures that mindfully illuminate the body.

The birth of my second child gifted me with an ecstatic and pleasurable birthing experience. I give credit to the kind of ritual preparation that has come through my research, experimentation and teachings. I was prepared physically through asanas and pranayama, psychosomatically through guided meditation and opened to a telepathic and telesomatic directed communication with my baby and his world. I experienced a world between worlds that transcended space and time.

Dismissing the fear in the mind and trusting the body to instinctively release the pain-relieving e ndorphins rather than rationally suffer, the Birth-Giver is able to open her body and heart to the pleasure that is present.

It is my hope that the Yogabirth ritual may help to change the way contemporary society perceives childbirth. By observing nature transform and recalling ancient wisdom, women may be able to tap into the restorative and creative forces that the birthing experience has to offer. Women no longer feel alone but rather allow the powers of nature to support, guide and increase their awareness of the body, mind and breath in connection to their evolving child. Women, once again, become active participant-observers in this mysterious initiation called Birth."