Yoga for mothers and babies

“Never put a baby into a position she cannot get into or out of all by herself” (M. Gerber, personal communication, November, 1986).

While babies will explore free movement, we will practice different meditation and yoga techniques for relaxation, clarity, love, patience, balance, stress reduction, full awareness and presence.

Mothers will sit in circle while babies will lie down on a comfortable tatami in the middle.

The following excerpt, taken from Ruth Anne Hammond´s article “Respecting Babies: A New Look at Magda Gerber’s RIE Approach” underlines the importance of allowing children to develop at their own pace: 

The seminal research on natural movement development, done over many years by Emmi Pikler with the infants at The Pikler Institute, shows that typically developing infants do not need to be taught how to crawl, sit, stand, or walk. These milestones are only a few of the rewarding and fascinating physical skills infants who are allowed to move freely show us. Giving infants, even if they have developmental delays, the freedom to move in accordance with their innate impulses may seem radical, but it is essential to their becoming persons with uncompromised self esteem.

Here is the explanation from Dr.Harald Blomberg’s from Rhythmic Movement Training (RMT) for Preschool and Kindergarten

Parents naturally want to help their children to develop their motor ability, but rarely understand what babies need for their motor development.  Instead of letting them develop their motor abilities on their own and at their own pace,  (i.e. rising from lying position to crawling and finally standing up) most parents try to hurry up their motor development.  Instead of letting infants lie on the floor and develop their postural reflexes, ( i.e. moving about by themselves) parents put them into baby seats, car seats or even strollers long before they are able even to sit on their own.  Instead of encouraging them to develop by moving as much as possible on their own and at their own pace, ( i.e. on the floor) parents put them into baby walkers long before they are ready to crawl or walk.  This will restrict natural motor development and obstruct the basal ganglia and primitive reflex integration.

If parents want to help their children to develop proper motor ability, they must begin from the level of development of their babies.  A baby that cannot sit is better off lying.  An infant must be allowed to lie on his stomach in order to be stimulated to lift its head.  The infant must be encouraged to move around freely on the floor, to gradually develop its movement patterns, master gravity, balance and stability and integrate its primitive reflexes.  Allowing the baby to spend a lot of time in baby swings and baby walkers will ultimately inhibit its motor development.  Further, the child runs a greater risk in developing ADHD or ADD, learning difficulties and emotional problems.

Restricting the baby’s freedom of movement is especially harmful if the baby is left alone with deficient contact with parents or caregivers.  The baby needs to by touched and rocked in order to get inspiration to move spontaneously and access its inborn program for motor development.  If the baby is under-stimulated and depressed, which is common in orphanages and institutions, the child’s basal ganglia will not be integrated.”

Save your space, limited places.

Carla + 43 67 69 572 486 or info@carlabc.com