By the time you’re reading this, I will be snuggled up with my daughter in the bubble of newborn bliss. But when Emilie Klein Robinson, founder of Root2Bloom yoga and Mama Bloom perinatal yoga, welcomed the inRegister editorial team to her studio for a rare group class, I was squarely in my third trimester. 

Though I’ve been fortunate to experience smooth pregnancies, motherhood has deepened my understanding of just how intricate, fragile and miraculous the journey can be, as well as how profoundly individual each woman’s experience is. There’s a well-known joke about how you can say just about anything is happening during a visit to your doctor, and they will assure you it’s a typical symptom of pregnancy. 

As a small example, while pregnant with my son, I noticed a blue-hued body print on my sheets while making the bed. To Google I went. “Sheets turning blue while pregnant.” Yep, a rare but normal and harmless symptom of pregnancy called chromhidrosis. At least my sweat wasn’t brown, although that would be normal, too. Aren’t our bodies amazing and bizarre?

Yoga for Every Body

Listening to Robinson describe her private and semi-private class offerings, I could almost see the women stepping into her tucked-away studio off Highland Road, surrounded by flowers and vibrant art, in search of a moment’s peace, not just from treatment plans or heavy conversations, but from the endless chatter swirling in their own hearts and minds. 

As she set up yoga mats, pillows, bolsters and blankets, I knew we were in for a treat. I’m certainly no yogi, but I’ve taken yoga and Pilates classes since high school—sometimes tuning in from YouTube, but mostly in person at various studios around town. In the last year or so, yoga nidra has become my practice of choice. Yoga nidra is a restorative yoga practice that uses guided meditation to encourage conscious relaxation. During these classes, it’s acceptable and sometimes even encouraged to fall completely asleep, making it the perfect workout for this pregnant toddler mom.

Robinson explained that the class would be a restorative yoga practice, with each pose held for 5 to 10 minutes. This extended holding would encourage deep rest for key muscle groups, reducing stress, improving sleep, relieving pain, and even enhancing focus and concentration long after we leave the studio. 

Rest & Reflect

As we settled into the first pose with our feet cradled in blankets, hips cushioned by pillows and backs sinking into the bolsters, Robinson began a gentle playlist of encouraging music and reflective poems. As we lay, letting our bodies soften, she gingerly made her way to each of us to rub Tiger Balm, a pain-relieving analgesic heat rub, on our wrists, necks and shoulders. “I hope Amazon has that,” I thought, breaking momentarily from my meditative state as the heated, tingly sensation melted the remaining tension in my shoulders. 

After about 30 minutes and three poses, Robinson instructed us to roll on our side and into the fetal position as slowly as possible. As I lay there, curled as close to the fetal position as my growing belly would allow, my mind felt clear. For once, there was no restless thought of what came next, no urge to sit up and roll away my mat before the next class began. A calm awareness washed over me, a quiet reassurance that I didn’t need to know what would come next, only that I’d be ready for it when it arrived.

In that quiet moment, I realized that motherhood, much like yoga, is an ever-shifting practice of surrender, learning to be present in uncertainty and trust the body that carries you through it. That small moment of calm reminded me that preparation and peace can coexist, even in uncertainty. These days, with two under two, I often remind myself of the lesson found on the mat that morning. 

To learn more about Root2Bloom Yoga Studio, read the article from our October issue here and follow @root2bloomyoga on Instagram. For a behind-the-scenes look at the private class Robinson offered the inRegister editorial team, visit the inRegister TikTok page.