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span class="inline inline-left">Getting ready: Yoga helps to prepare a pregnant woman'€™s body for the rigors of childbirth.-Courtesy of GBUSTo experience a healthy and worry-free pregnancy '€“ before having a safe, comfortable and less-traumatic labor '€“ is a dream of all mothers-to-be.

Gentle Birth For All (GBUS) is a non-profit peer-to-peer support group with the idea of empowering moms-to-be in order to reach such a dream.

The group, which has about 31,000 members on Facebook since it was founded in 2011, focuses on pregnancy, labor and breast-feeding.

'€œWe really hope everyone can feel the benefit of soul-friendly labor, whether it is through a natural process or C-section [Caesarean] procedure,'€ GBUS founder Dyah Pratitasari told The Jakarta Post.

Besides providing members with information on pregnancy and labor, GBUS offers free weekly prenatal yoga classes to help moms-to-be prepare their bodies for pregnancy and labor.

Prenatal yoga is a light yoga practice that is specially designed for pregnant women '€” needed since contemporary life offers conveniences on a daily basis that reduces the work of a person'€™s muscles, Dyah said.

'€œPeople travel from one place to another by motorcycles or cars. Televisions are complete with remote controls. Such conveniences stops people from doing basic things like moving, walking, running and crawling with their muscles, Dyah says.

'€œSquatting [on toilets] is also a rare thing, because we use sitting toilets now,'€ said Dyah, who took up yoga in 2007 due to scoliosis.

Moving less is an unfortunate thing for moms-to-be as natural labor requires healthy and strong
bodies.

'€œNatural labor, especially the method that allows you to stand up while giving birth, requires trained, elastic and relaxed muscles in order to easily open the way for babies to come out.

By practicing yoga, we earn the chance to train our physique as well as morale and emotion [for labor],'€ said Dyah, who is a certified prenatal yoga instructor.

One of yoga'€™s benefits for pregnant women is reducing physical uneasiness like morning sickness, back pain, weakening bladders, heartburn and constipation.

GBUS offers prenatal yoga classes in Depok, West Java; Duren Sawit, East Jakarta; and Semarang of Central Java.

As a flexible physical and mental exercise, yoga is also suitable for children.

Kids Yoga Jakarta, founded by Tina Maladi in 2011, offers training for instructors of yoga for kids, workshops for educators, regular yoga classes for kids, private classes for kids with special needs as well as an extracurricular program.

'€œYoga is knowledge for the balance of human life. By introducing yoga to children as early as possible, they will enjoy physical, emotional and psychological benefits,'€ Tina told the Post, adding that her organization has welcomed 25 participants so far, ranging from the age of three to 13 years old.

On the organization'€™s website, kidsyogajakarta.com, Tina said that yoga would improve the quality of children'€™s respiration, boost their self-confidence, increase concentration and focus, train coordination and balance, teach them how to release stress, enhance stamina, build healthy lifestyles and increase awareness of the need to respect and love others.

'€œThe foremost thing in teaching the kids in how to do yoga is applying communication methods and movements that are suitable for their age.

'€œPhysically, [the children] will still grow. Therefore, each of them has unique profile and posture,'€ said Tina.

How much time does a child need?

'€œIt depends on the time that parents and the kids have. It can be 10 to 15 minutes, five minutes before going to school, or 20 minutes during trip to school,'€ said Tina.

'€” JP/Niken Prathivi