Is pregnancy yoga teacher training right for you?

LushTums Teacher Training
Written By Clare Maddalena

What it really means to do work that holds women (and birthing people) through one of the most powerful experiences of their lives — and why so many of our graduates call it the best decision they ever made.

By Clare Maddalena, LushTums Founder & Senior Yoga Teacher

There is a question I'm asked all the time, in some form or another. It arrives in my inbox from midwives wondering what else they can offer their clients. From yoga teachers who feel scared when a pregnant student arrives in class. From new mums who've just surfaced from the fog of the fourth trimester and thought: I want to do this for other women. From people who can feel, somewhere quietly, that they are meant to work in this space.

The question is always some version of: could this be for me?

I've been teaching pregnancy and postnatal yoga and antenatal education since 2007. I’ve worked for decades as a doula. I've trained hundreds of teachers through LushTums — women who've built beautiful practices in village halls and community centres and online studios all around the world. And the thing I've noticed, over and over, is that the people who ask this question already know the answer. They're just looking for permission to trust it. So let me try to give you that.

What this work actually is

Pregnancy yoga isn't about getting women to do stretches in a hall. It is, at its best, one of the most powerful forms of birth preparation there is. When you teach a pregnant woman to breathe through discomfort, to trust her body's intelligence, to move in ways that open and soften and prepare — you are giving her tools she will use in the birth room, wherever and however she gives birth.

That is not a small thing. It is, for many women, everything.

Postnatal yoga is different again: it's about helping a new mother recover — physically, emotionally — while also holding her baby close. It's about rebuilding pelvic floor strength after a caesarean or a long labour. It's about being the one person in a room who truly understands what her body has just been through.

And antenatal education? That's about making sure every woman understands her choices. Her right to say yes, to say no, to ask for time to think. The difference between a birth that felt manageable and one that left a mark isn't always about the birth itself — it's about whether she felt seen and heard and involved.

This is the work our teachers do. And it matters enormously.

Who comes to us

There is no single profile of a LushTums trainee. What unites everyone who trains with us is that they care — deeply — about the women they'll be working with. Beyond that, our graduates have arrived from all kinds of starting points:

  • Experienced yoga teachers ready to specialise in the work they love most

  • Midwives and doulas wanting to expand what they offer their clients

  • Physiotherapists, osteopaths and movement therapists adding pregnancy to their scope

  • New mums who found pregnancy yoga transformative and thought: I want to do this

  • People making a career change after years in a job that no longer felt meaningful

  • Teachers, nurses, counsellors and fitness professionals crossing into birth work for the first time

  • Women who simply feel called to this space and can't quite explain why

You don't need prior yoga or birth experience to train with us. You need curiosity, warmth and a genuine desire to support women. We'll teach you everything else.

Our training programmes

All our trainings are fully online and self-paced, with personal mentorship from me throughout, monthly live Q&A sessions and a warm, active community of trainees. Most people complete a 100-hour training in around three months.

A rewarding career that fits around life

I am a little biased, obviously. But over the last 20 years I've also watched a lot of people build their lives around this work. And the things they come back to, again and again, go beyond the professional satisfaction of doing something that matters — though there's a great deal of that too.

School holidays are your holidays. When you run your own pregnancy yoga classes, you set the schedule. Our graduates with children genuinely do take the summers off, or scale back — and then pick back up in September when everyone else does.

Be your own boss. No commute, no performance reviews, no asking for time off. You decide when and where you work — from a local village hall to a fully online practice serving clients across the world.

Build a community you love. Your pregnant students become your postnatal students become your "mums who've been coming to me for five years" community. The relationships in this work are extraordinary.

Work that genuinely helps. Every week, you'll know that what you did made a difference — to a birth, to a recovery, to a woman who felt less alone. That doesn't get old.

Grow at your own pace. Start with one local class. Build to several. Add courses. Create retreats. The model scales in whatever direction suits your life at each stage.

Keep learning. This field is rich. Birth, physiology, yoga philosophy, mental health, trauma — there is always something to go deeper into. Our CPD courses and the LushTums graduate community keep you growing long after you qualify.

What your students will feel

When you train with LushTums you'll be equipped to offer women something genuinely transformative: breathwork tools for labour that actually work; physical preparation through pelvic mobility, strength and optimal positioning; confidence and informed decision-making around birth choices; better sleep, reduced anxiety and less lower back pain; connection with their baby through mindful movement and yoga nidra; a community — friendships that often last years beyond birth; postnatal recovery support for pelvic floor, diastasis and C-section healing; and a space to be held and seen during one of life's biggest transitions.

"Since training I know more about birth than my original midwifery training gave me" — that's something a midwife said after completing our Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training. It is, I think, the best summary I've heard of what our training does.

Common questions

Do I need to already be a yoga teacher?
No. Our Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training and Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training welcome people with a personal yoga practice but no teaching qualification. If you're completely new to yoga, Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training actually makes a good foundation. The Antenatal Educator Training requires no yoga background at all.

What if I've never worked in birth before?
Many of our trainees come from entirely different fields — teaching, healthcare, fitness, corporate life. You bring your life experience and your care for women; we give you everything else. The training covers anatomy, birth physiology, the stages of labour, mental health in the perinatal period and much more. You'll leave feeling genuinely equipped.

How does the online training work?
All our trainings are fully online and self-paced, with 12-month access. You study when it suits you — early mornings, naptime, evenings. Alongside the materials you'll have monthly live Zoom Q&A sessions, a WhatsApp community with fellow trainees and access to personal mentorship from me throughout. Most people complete a 100-hour training in around three months and begin launching their classes straight away.

Will I be able to build a business from this?
Yes — and this is something I feel strongly about. All our core 100-hour trainings include business development content, and we offer optional 1:1 Business Launch Mentoring post-qualification. Many of our graduates have built wonderful local practices; others have created retreats serving students worldwide. The model is genuinely flexible.

Which training should I start with?
If you love yoga and want to teach pregnant women, start with the Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training. If the fourth trimester and early motherhood is where your heart is, the Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training. If you want to run hypnobirthing or full antenatal courses, the Antenatal Educator Training. Many of our graduates do more than one — they tend to be people who just keep wanting to learn.

Is the training accredited?
Yes. All our core 100-hour trainings carry FEDANT accreditation — the UK's mark of excellence in pregnancy and birth education. This matters for your professional credibility and for insurance purposes when you begin teaching.

If you have any other questions just reach out and we can have a chat to see if this might be the right fit for you. We look forward to welcoming you to LushTums!


Clare Maddalena is the founder of LushTums and has been teaching pregnancy yoga and antenatal education since 2007. She is a Senior Yoga Teacher with Yoga Pros, Doula and FEDANT-accredited Antenatal Educator with nearly 25 years of experience. She has trained over 150 pregnancy and postnatal yoga teachers — and mentors every single trainee personally.

Clare Maddalena
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