Prenatal & Postpartum Classes
The Santosha Movement Society includes discounted private sessions from an experienced prenatal and postpartum Stott Pilates Instructor, Mandee Louie. Sessions include personalized resets and movements to strengthen and prepare for birth while navigating the changes in the pregnant body, including reducing the aches and pains that can sometimes come along on this journey. Mandee has gone through the birthing process twice while using Pilates and Movement Therapy to navigate it, and will help you feel your best during your pregnancy and beyond. Each session includes recap notes with videos to practice at home in between sessions that are customized based on what’s happening in that week of your pregnancy, and small group in studio classes are also an option to supplement the private sessions. Please fill out the new student form for more information!
More on the video library:
The Prenatal/Postpartum section will take you through pregnancy as well as the little spoken about fourth trimester after you give birth.
Modifications and adjustments for the changing body.
Modified classes for Pilates, Pilates + Fitness and Yoga for Pregnancy.
Shorter segments with weights focused on strengthening for birth, tight hips, other scenarios specific to pregnancy.
Sequence to prepare for labor for the 3rd trimester.
Stay strong and comfortable throughout your pregnancy.
Mandee is a fully certified StottⓇ Pilates Instructor with more than 14 years experience and holds further certifications in many areas including prenatal. She specializes in working with those interested in full body alignment, post injury and those in pain. Her Prenatal/Postpartum Video Library is a program she created while she herself was pregnant and postpartum (twice!). She teaches group classes virtually and on-demand, and in person private sessions at her small studio in West Portland, Studio 400. She is a Portland native and by supporting her business you are supporting a very small, local business!
Having a postpartum program is just as important as having a prenatal exercise program.
Birth is a major event for your body and it’s one that requires a lot more care and instruction in order to resume daily life in our bodies than we may have expected. Mandee’s approach is gentle and informative and will provide you the keys to recovery that will be long lasting.
You'll learn the keys to making sure you’re stable, in control of your body, and rebuilding strength from a foundational level post-baby.
“Getting your body back” has a different path than what society might tell us.
It’s not about pushing, it’s about patience and grace.
The keys are not faster, harder, or more. They are softer and gentler, reaching that parasympathetic state of rest and calm in order to rebuild and get back to where you were before and beyond.
We will do more harm to our pelvic floor when we rush into movement that our body can’t possibly be expected to do yet.
Pushing through exercise you think you should be doing without rebuilding the pelvic floor will lead to prolapse, incontinence, and more issues that you just don’t want.
Mandee’s functional approach will first focus on movements you’ll need to unwind tension and safely care for your baby as well as yourself (which is quite the task when you’re in recovery mode!)
You’ll reconnect with your body and begin to build back pelvic floor and core strength with attention to alignment and proper movement patterns.
This is not about "bouncing back"...it's about properly rehabbing your body from a major physical event to reduce leakage, low back pain, hip pain, etc. You will rebuild and find the strength you need to avoid issues down the road- leaving you in even better shape than before!
Then, when you’re feeling a bit more like yourself, you’ll find something you can do in realistic time windows in segments called “Quick Mom Movements” for busy moms.
You'll be the one in better shape than before after doing this course rather than dealing with long term pelvic floor issues, back pain and more that happens when we skip the foundations.
This course teaches you how to care for yourself postpartum when society puts so much emphasis on the baby- this is much more in depth than you'll get at your one postpartum appointment.