Seventh Series | ashtanga yoga and family life

Meghan Kirk is an Authorized Level II ashtanga yoga teacher living in Philadelphia, USA. Meghan shares her pregnancy, birth and postpartum recovery after the birth of her daughter Maggie. 

Meghan brings a wealth of knowledge to her yoga teaching, being an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant and a Birth arts trained Doula (birth and postpartum). She is also currently completing a course on Ayurvedic care specific to postpartum. Meghan sha...

Michelle Papa has been practicing yoga since 2004, she is a yoga teacher and birth educator. She has a ten year old daughter, Cassie. Michelle and her family reside in Sydney Australia.

Michelle has completed a Diploma of Childbirth Education and is the Co-Founder of Mindful Birth, a Pregnancy and Post natal yoga teacher training course, which aims to empower women and families as they navigate life from pregnancy, birthing and pare...

Alys Pardoe is an Authorized Ashtanga Yoga teacher, with two grown up daughters, and lives in Margaret River in Western Australia.

Alys started her family when she was very young, and soon after discovered Ashtanga Yoga. Living in the small town of St Ives in Cornwall, UK she was first introduced to Ashtanga Yoga by renowned teacher John Scott. After he moved from the area, she found it challenging without a teacher, and her physica...

Karyn Grenfell is one of the few Certified Ashtanga Yoga Teachers globally, and lives in Melbourne Australia. Karyn is the mother of six year old Hamish, and step mother to Bess, with partner Travis.

Karyn shares her journey into motherhood. After dedicating herself to her yoga practice through her twenties and thirties, as she approached her forties, she felt pressure from others asking if she would start a family. After some consi...

Tina Bock is an authorised ashtanga yoga teacher and lives in Abu Dhabi. In this episode she shares her journey of pregnancy, birth and postpartum recovery with her son James.

Tina has been practicing and teaching yoga since her early 20s. She developed her connection with ashtanga yoga after moving to Abu Dhabi and not being able to find a teacher or studio. She has established a strong self practice, and travels to Mysore to pract...

Patrick Nolan is an authorized ashtanga yoga teacher living in Miami Springs in the USA. He is the father to three year old Joaquin, with his partner Nubia.

Patrick started his yoga journey at Miami Life Centre, with well known ashtanga yoga teachers Kino MacGregor, Tim Feldmann and Greg Nardi, before leaving to start his own Mysore program.

After Patrick married his partner, Nubia, they wanted to start a family, however this became ...

Joumana Saber is an authorized ashtanga yoga teacher living in Dubai. Joumana is currently pregnant with her second child. In this episode she shares her journey with pregnancy, and also the birth of her daughter Tara.

For the birth of her daughter Tara, Joumana had a doula and had planned a water birth. After 26 hours of labour, when her waters were broken, meconium was discovered, and the birth took a different direction.

Joumana s...

Jessica Hunt is an authorized ashtanga yoga teacher in Columbus Ohio and co-founder of the Trini Foundation with her husband Taylor.

Jess and Taylor have three children together, Makayla, Isaiah and Xavier. It was during her recovery from addiction she found ashtanga yoga, and it became and still is integral in her recovery. After experiencing severe endometriosis in her early 20s, and a series of medications to assist this, Jess wa...

Nadia Stinga Rihani is an authorized ashtanga yoga teacher living in Manly Australia. Nadia and her partner Gabriel have a four year old daughter Indi.

Nadia shares how she met her partner Gabriel, who also practices and teaches ashtanga yoga, when studying with Sharath Jois in Mysore India. Their love blossomed and he moved to Australia.

In 2019 Nadia sold the yoga studio she had owned and operated for many years, and she and her fa...

Bibi Lorenzetti is an Authorized Level II ashtanga yoga teacher living in Newburgh in the United States, with her partner Walker. Bibi gave birth to her son Indie earlier this year,  her story is fresh and she shares in depth and with some humorous detail her pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience.

Bibi is also open in sharing her past experience of anorexia and issues with body image, and how this influenced her thoughts a...

Katy Wright has been a student of Ashtanga Yoga since 2005. While she has dabbled in teaching yoga her main profession is as a writer. She’s originally from the UK, and currently lives in France with her partner. Two years ago, Katy gave birth to their daughter Iris.

Being a writer Katy takes us on a journey through her experience of pregnancy birth and postpartum recovery. She shares the research she discovered during her pregnancy...

Lisa Meconi has been a practitioner of ashtanga yoga for 10 years, practicing primary and intermediate series. She and her partner Jeremiah, and son Cormac live in New Hampshire, USA.

This is a heartfelt episode, as Lisa shares in depth her journey of loss during pregnancy, experiencing a miscarriage within the first trimester of her first pregnancy. 

This episode is pertinent, as this month, October, is International Pregnancy and I...

Irena Bartolec spends her time between Bali, Croatia and Costa Rica, and is an authorized ashtanga yoga teacher. She is an amazing strong woman and shares with us her story of raising her child as a single mother.

Despite being told she wouldn't be able to conceive, Irena found out she was pregnant at eight weeks. Early into her third trimester, Irena experienced an issue with her cervix and was told to have complete bed rest. ...

Grace Joukhadar is a yoga teacher specialising in pre and post natal yoga,  and "mums and bubs" yoga classes. She has been practicing ashtanga yoga since 2003. Grace is originally from Sydney in Australia and has spent time in Port Hedland, a remote town in Western Australia before moving to Melbourne.

She had three children within a short period of time. She talks us through her three very different experiences, including...

Tanisha Walters lives in Cooper Landing in Alaska. Tanisha and her husband Zack live with their two daughters Kaia and Maya, in a home they built together. She is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Japanese acupuncture practitioner, and yoga teacher.

Tanisha shares how Traditional Chinese Medicine supports fertility and pregnancy through diet, how she used Moxibustion to flip her breech baby, acupuncture for induction for her ...