VERGENNES — On Monday nights at 6 p.m., the yoga studio at Two Wolves Center on Main Street in Vergennes looks predictably like any other yoga class — at least at first glance.
Exposed brick walls, quiet music, and colorful yoga mats create an ambiance of serenity. Attendees saunter in and find a place on the floor.
A closer look at the participants, however, reveals what makes Monday nights at Two Wolves special: this is a prenatal yoga class, the participants are all pregnant women.
Lindsay Helwig of Burlington leads the prenatal yoga class. Helwig has been teaching yoga since 2008, and prenatal yoga since 2011.
“It’s a special class to teach,” Helwig said. “It has really opened up a whole new world to me.”
Training as a prenatal yoga instructor sparked a passion for birth, said Helwig, who subsequently became a doula. Yoga has had a long tradition of helping mothers before, during and after pregnancy, Helwig explained.
“Prenatal yoga helps prepare moms for birth,” continued Helwig. “I truly do think that the yoga makes a big difference.”
Many of her past yoga participants testified that it does help, both by providing relief for the discomforts of pregnancy and by easing the pain of labor.
“My delivery experience was amazing,” wrote Michelle (a mother in a previous class) in a past review of Helwig’s class posted online. “I was in tune with my body all the time, my daughter came to the world fast and with a big smile, and I attribute this to my yoga practice.”
The prenatal classes at Two Wolves are designed for women in all stages of pregnancy with any level of yoga experience.
Alison Wurst, 34, of Weybridge, had never done yoga before becoming pregnant. Wurst has a three-year-old who was born three months early, and is currently expecting again.
“I want to be present with this pregnancy,” Wurst said. Her last pregnancy was spent travelling, and this time, she is spending more time focusing on physical and mental health through yoga. So far, she said, yoga has seemed to help.
Tiffany Hotte, 36, of Vergennes, was also in attendance on Monday night. She has a 13-year-old son, and is pregnant again. Hotte said that prenatal yoga has benefitted her as well.
“Yoga made it a lot easier,” Hotte said of her pregnancy.
The Mayo Clinic says that prenatal yoga can be physically and mentally beneficial to pregnant women, and encourages women investigating prenatal yoga to be mindful of their physical limitations and never strain unnecessarily during pregnancy.
From Helwig’s perspective, she hopes that word will spread about the benefits of prenatal yoga, not only because she believes it can help pregnant women, but also because she enjoys teaching it.
       “I really hope that this class takes!” she said.