How to Become a Prenatal Yoga Teacher

If you want to know exactly how to become a prenatal yoga teacher, our guide will tell you everything you need to know!

In this article we’ll take you through the following steps to become a prenatal yoga instructor:

• Step 1: Get Qualified to Become a Prenatal Yoga Teacher
• Step 2: Get Insured As a Prenatal Yoga Teacher
• Step 3: Decide Where to Work and Find a Job As a Prenatal Yoga Instructor
• Step 4: Implement Our Tips For Working With Pregnant

The most important first step for your future career is getting qualified! With OriGym’s Level 3 yoga teacher training diploma you can develop a solid foundation of knowledge and skills to find success! 

You can also download and browse our course prospectus to see the full range of courses we offer!

Step 1: Get Qualified to Become a Prenatal Yoga Teacher

In order to become a prenatal yoga teacher with the right knowledge and expertise to aid pregnant women, there are a couple of different qualifications you’ll need, all of which we’re about to explain.

How & Why to Achieve a Level 3 Yoga Teaching Qualification 

First and foremost you should complete a Level 3 yoga teacher diploma which will provide you with solid, foundational knowledge alongside practical skills to use in your career.

Our own course, for example, will provide the following skills that will be immediately, directly applicable once you graduate:

• Planning classes for individuals and classes
• Delivering a yoga session with confidence
• How to motivate clients during and away from yoga sessions

You will also learn about health and safety in a yoga class environment to help with some of your business and insurance concerns when you start practising.

A Level 3 cause will teach you about your duty of care as a yoga teacher as well as:

• Dealing with complaints
• Ensuring you have a safe and inclusive practice
• Keeping records effectively

As well as these practical elements you’ll be provided with an in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of yoga, yoga history, and its application for a variety of needs and goals. 

Level 3 courses like ours are also regulated by the government body Ofqual, a Governing body that regulates curricula to ensure that every course at a certain level contains the same information and tests the same skills, regardless of who you study the course with.

This means that you can be confident that completing a Level 3 course like ours will cover all of the core aspects of yoga teacher training so that you’re fully equipped to begin your career!

The course is available part time which means there’s a mixture of online resources and in-person, practical workshops.

When choosing a course, you’ll come across “guided learning hours” which literally means how many teaching hours there are with each course.

The standard is 200 hours but our own course is 400 hours to ensure that you get as much information and supportive material as possible.

The benefit of choosing a course with more learning hours is that it literally translates to more education for your money!

Those hours comprise access to a huge breadth of online resources including:

• Videos
• An e-learning platform
• e-Books
• Online lectures

Having online material like this makes the course adaptable to a huge variety of schedules and needs. You can fit learning in around your other commitments so that you can keep the stability of your existing work whilst you’re getting qualified!

These practical workshops will give you a chance to work directly with OriGym’s yoga teacher trainers, as well as networking and meeting other students.

The practical element of learning is vital for developing your confidence and easing your transition from learning to actually teaching in a classroom as you become more familiar with class structures and the environment.

Another benefit of a course like ours, with more learning hours, is that there’s no prerequisites! You can take our class whether you’re brand new to practice or a seasoned yogi.

You’ll most likely complete the course quicker if you’ve got experience but the course is open to those with absolutely no prior experience too!

If you'd like more information on this topic, check out our detailed guide on 'How to Become a Yoga Instructor'. 

How & Why to Complete a Level 4 Yoga Teacher Training Course

On completion of a Level 3 course, you’ll be able to move on to a Level 4 Diploma in teaching yoga will provide more bespoke and in-depth knowledge by building on existing foundations to specialise further. 

OriGym’s Level 4 yoga diploma will give you the know-how to become a prenatal yoga instructor through advancing your knowledge of yoga movements and techniques.

You’ll also learn the following practical elements to help directly towards becoming a prenatal yoga instructor:

• How to perform individual risk assessments
• How yoga can be harnessed for physical rehabilitation
• Understanding the benefits of yoga for pregnant women, inversions, and contradictions

You’ll also choose from several different yoga styles, including gentler forms like Iyengar and Hatha that are ideal for using with pregnant clients!

Just like Level 3, our Level 4 course is both part time and has 400 accredited yoga teacher training hours. 

You’ll also have access to our teachers and assessors and can contact them 7 days a week. This availability means you’re completely supported even when working online in your own time!

Having all of these foundational skills will prepare you for becoming a prenatal yoga instructor because it will provide you with a broad, holistic understanding meaning you can adapt your practice to suit each client or class member.

Step 2: Getting Insured As a Prenatal Yoga Teacher

The next step is make sure you have the right yoga teacher insurance to protect you and your potential clients and class members. 

If you’re becoming a prenatal yoga instructor this is especially important as you’ll be working with a particular group of clients with specific needs and safety concerns. 

The right insurance will cover you for a number of situations such as:

• Damaged equipment
• Stolen equipment
• Injury claims from students
• Misconduct claims from students

Although these issues are few and far between, you can never be 100% certain to avoid them and so need to ensure you protect yourself financially, just in case!

Even if you work for the best yoga studios in the country, you won’t always be covered by their policy. In fact, one of the most common ways of working as a prenatal yoga teacher will be working freelance, across several studios, in which case you’ll need your own insurance.

The main kind of insurance you’ll want to invest in is public liability insurance. This policy will cover you for all third party claims including:

• Damage or loss of equipment by clients or third parties
• Claims of harassment from clients
• Claims of professional negligence if people suggest your practices have been unsafe or there’s supposedly been an oversight
• Injury or illness to you and clients

It’s not a legal requirement for you to have a public liability policy but by ensuring you have one you’ll be:

• Protecting yourself financially
• Protecting your reputation
• Opening more doors for yourself

In terms of opening doors, most studios will stipulate a valid and up to date insurance policy in their job listings.

So, despite it not being a legal requirement, without one you’ll be limiting what you can do and who you can work for!

There’s some other policies you might want, depending on the style of work you want to do, and we’ll cover those later when we look at available career progressions. 

Step 3: Decide Where You Want to Work & Find a Job As a Prenatal Yoga Teacher

The next step for how to become a prenatal yoga instructor is choosing which style of work you want to do.

There’s a few different options in terms of how you work including:

• Employed
• Freelance for one studio
• Freelance for several studios
• Mobile/one-to-one
• Becoming a prenatal yoga teacher online
• Start your own studio

We’ll look at each of these to show the benefits and process of each so you can decide how to become a prenatal yoga teacher in the best way that suits you!

Being Employed By a Studio As A Prenatal Yoga Teacher

Becoming a prenatal yoga teacher for a particular studio, in a salaried position, is a great way to build up your reputation and gain vital experience.

Though this may involve a wider variety of tasks, and you may not be able to specialise as much as you would like, the benefits of a salaried position in a studio include:

• Stable income
• Regular class attendees
• Build your confidence
• Learning practical skills that will be necessary for career progression

This will most likely be a holistic role where there’ll be room for you to specialise and shape classes once you’ve built up a reputation.

As you can see, there’s certainly a comfortable amount to be made working in a salaried position!

Though you’ll be expected to fulfil a potentially broader range of holistic roles, there’s room to expand existing classes and start to introduce your niche once you’ve built up a reputation.

This is great when you’re just starting out but there are obviously limits on the amount you can earn, and how much time you can dedicate to becoming a prenatal yoga teacher specifically.

Working Freelance as a Prenatal Yoga Teacher

If you’re interested in becoming a yoga instructor, another option is to work freelance. You can do this for one studio or work across several!

One of the main benefits of working in this way is that you have a bit more freedom and flexibility in terms of working hours.

You can decide how many different places you want to work in and how many classes you offer. A lot of studios will start you off with a particular slot and have room for progression with the potential for more classes based on popularity. 

For this reason, working freelance often has a higher potential income than working a set amount of hours in a salaried position.

Freelance positions advertised on job websites like Glassdoor and Indeed tend to be more holistic positions where you would do a few different styles or fulfil different roles.

If you want to know how to become a pregnancy yoga teacher, the easiest way to work freelance is to approach specific studios. 

A lot of yoga studios will have a “work with us” page because freelance is so flexible and many studios are constantly on the lookout for new instructors who can expand what the studio offers.

This is where you’ll need a really strong yoga teacher cv, and be able to promote yourself and your expertise in cover letters.

This is exactly what Whitespace Yoga Studio ask you do if you want to apply to be an instructor:

In order to apply in this way places like Whitespace want you to:

• Record yourself and/or a class you’ve planned and delivered
• Send a CV and cover letter
• Be a member of the community or attend classes at the studio

This last thing will be very important if you want to know how to become a prenatal yoga teacher for specific studios. 

You’ll give yourself the edge if you regularly attend classes in the studio you’re looking to work with or have networked with existing teachers there!

Become a Prenatal Yoga Teacher One-to-One

Becoming a prenatal yoga instructor who works one-to-one will predominantly mean going mobile with your practice.

This will involve designing more personalised yoga sessions based on a client’s specific needs, and travelling to different locations for them including:

• People’s homes
• Schools/Colleges
• Offices and other work spaces

Start a Mobile Prenatal Yoga Business

This would predominantly involve working one-to-one with people in their homes or travelling to various outdoor locations of their choice.

The benefits of this are that you’ll quickly build up rapport and trust with your clients and you can charge more for this bespoke service.

Though it may seem like you’d be earning less by working with one client, rather than several in a class, once you’ve gained a reputation you can charge what you want for classes and your schedule is totally down to you.

If you become a prenatal yoga teacher who works in this way, not only are you working on a more personalised level, you’ll also potentially be able to work with clients for longer. 

Pregnant clients may be more comfortable in their own homes and if you can visit them this means that even when they’re nearing labour, and perhaps are unable to drive or are less mobile, you can still work with them!

In order to do this there’s a few extra initial costs to be aware of. You’ll have to make sure you have the following:

• Yoga equipment
• A driver’s licence
• A budget for marketing

You’ll have to invest in an essential yoga kit for using with clients including:

• Yoga mats
• Yoga blocks 
• Yoga straps

This is an ideal step once you’ve developed a bit of a reputation and got connections with clients. This is one of the career progressions you can take once you’ve developed your niche and your practice!

For more information on the different types of yoga teacher you can become, check out our articles below:

• How To Become an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher
• How To Become A Travelling Yoga Teacher
• How to Become a Trauma Informed Yoga Instructor

You can use your existing work to research whether there’s a demand there for these bespoke sessions. If you’ve become a freelance prenatal yoga instructor you can ask existing clients if they’d prefer sessions at home.

This way you could supplement your freelance work with one-to-one sessions, whilst you build your reputation, and develop your brand. 

First to Fourth offers prenatal yoga sessions in clients’ homes:

As you can see there’s a variety of reasons people will come to you for yoga in their home, and these prices show just how lucrative it can be to tailor your services to people’s needs!

Becoming a Prenatal Yoga Instructor Online

This can be one of the most lucrative options when becoming a pregnancy yoga teacher because, though it involves some initial extra costs, you’re cutting down on several costs in the long run.

For example, if you become a yoga teacher online, you won’t have to pay rent for a space, instead you can create a home yoga studio and record from there! This will also allow you to cut down on travel costs.

You won’t be limited by location for this reason and therefore can potentially teach anybody within a reasonable time zone, opening your business up to a wider pool of clients and a result, a higher income. 

Another benefit of working this way if that you’ve got the option to work in a variety of capacities, including:

• Pre-record yoga classes and exercises
• Stream live for an audience at a set time
• Teach prenatal yoga one-on-one via Zoom or other video call software

This is one of the most adaptable options for becoming a pregnancy yoga instructor because you can mix up packages, live classes, and pre-recordings to adapt around your own schedule.

The flexible nature of this role means you can start to build up your online presence alongside freelance work whilst you’re growing your brand and gaining a bigger following and reputation.

If you want to pursue a career as a prenatal yoga teacher, you can grow your brand and reputation by utilising social media and marketing skills to create your online yoga business. 

You can start by researching existing yoga instagram accounts and influencers on other platforms, to look at the kind of content they produce and the way they work.

Becoming an Online Pregnancy Yoga Teacher: Case Study

Lucy Flow is the perfect example of a successful, online prenatal yoga business. Her philosophy is to use yoga holistically to help women prepare for, and recover from, childbirth.

She offers a range of online services including:

• Online pregnancy yoga
• Online postnatal yoga
• Free yoga and birth talks

An important way that you can capitalise on a strong brand like Lucy’s is that with enough interest you can start to offer memberships, monthly subscriptions, and package prices to boost your income.

Lucy has done this as a subscription service where you have access to her online content and pay a monthly fee:

By doing this you’ll be developing a steadier, guaranteed income and will help you to make sure there’s no gaps between clients as people reach the end of their pregnancy!

Looking at her website, it’s clear that she has a good knowledge of how to market a yoga business. Firstly, we can see that she has included plenty of client testimonials on her website:

These testimonials demonstrate a record of success and are a great way to create trust with prospective clients.

There’s also a consistent aesthetic across her website and Instagram which include a few of the following key features for any yoga brand:

• Centres herself and makes the brand personalised
• Consistent font across platforms
• A mixture of content including videos/reels, personal photographs, and instructional posts

You can see from how big a following she has, and her positive testimonials, why this process has worked for Lucy and why these are some important things to use when you become a prenatal yoga teacher online.

Starting Your Own Prenatal Yoga Teacher Studio

If there’s a gap in the market and enough demand for the service, opening your own niche prenatal yoga studio could be the most remunerative option!

This is the ideal career progression for somebody who has worked freelance, for several studios, and has first hand experience seeing what works and what doesn’t when it comes to running a successful studio.

There are huge benefits to owning your own studio, including:

• You’ll be able to focus on developing your prenatal niche and focus solely on this style of yoga
• Flexible working hours
• Creative freedom for the studio’s branding and aesthetic
• Higher earning potential and keeping more of the profits

You should make sure to do your market research first and foremost as you need to make sure there’s a demand in the particular market and location you want to open a studio.

As well as your public liability insurance policy you’ll also need to invest in two more policies to ensure you’re covered and protected for every eventuality:

• Personal accident cover (this will cover you for any injuries sustained and will also cover you for a certain amount of loss of earnings)
• Equipment repairs and replacements (this makes sure all of the equipment you use, from the yoga equipment to speakers or screens, 

Much like becoming a pregnancy yoga teacher online, or one-to-one, starting your own business will involve:

• Marketing
• Using social media
• Building a website

All of these things will help attract a steady stream of new clients. One of the reasons why, as well as how, to become a prenatal yoga teacher is that you can rely on word of mouth from mums through:

• Antenatal classes
• Play groups
• Schools/PTA (if they have older children)

As we’ll show in our next section, pregnancy is an incredibly sensitive time for people and they will want to make sure they’re doing yoga in the most healthy way, with the most expert instructor.

If your studio is dedicated solely to prenatal yoga, and you have plenty of testimonials on your website, this will show your brand is the best on the market for yoga during pregnancy!

You can also use your studio as a hub for online content and classes as well as standard classes and one-to-one sessions.

You could use the studio to film online tutorials and classes as well as working in a more traditional way. This is another thing that will give your space an edge and spread the reach of your prenatal yoga brand!

Step 4: Implement Our Tips For Working With Pregnant Students

Now that you know how to get qualified and find a job as a prenatal yoga teacher, there are some soft skills you should cultivate, as well as things to bear in mind, to make your practice as inclusive as possible.

As we’ve already touched on, pregnancy is a sensitive time in somebody’s life, they are in a more physically vulnerable position, and will be putting a great deal of trust in you and your practice.

If you can display the appropriate interpersonal skills then not only will clients feel more at ease they will promote your services and help to build your brand!

Some of these include:

• Being adaptable for people’s specific needs
• Conduct assessments or ask questions at the start of classes and sessions to establish people’s needs
• Check whether clients have a diastasis recti

Adapt Your Services to Meet Specific Needs

You can make sure you adapt your practice based on different things to make sure clients feel their needs are being met exactly.

One of the ways you can do this is by splitting your classes depending on goals or stages of pregnancy. For example, a lot of prenatal yoga studios will combine prenatal yoga classes with other services:

As you can see, Sundaramama split their timetable between pre and postnatal yoga services including:

• Pregnancy Yoga and Relaxation
• Hypnobirthing
• Baby Massage

You could make your services even more niche, and specific, to cater to pregnant clients’ specific needs, splitting your classes for particular goals like:

• Yoga to improve sleep
• Yoga for strengthening core and back muscles for birth
• Relaxation yoga and breathing meditation

Or you could split the classes based on difficulty based on which trimester clients are in!

This is one of the ways you can be as bespoke and specific with your services and make sure you have prenatal yoga teaching to suit everyone!

Conduct Assessments to Establish Clients’ Needs

If you make sure that you ask questions at the start of classes or one-to-one sessions you’ll establish trust with clients as well as avoiding potential risks.

If you’re working one-to-one this will be especially important as you’ll need to establish:

• How far along clients are in their pregnancy
• Whether they have any injuries or existing weaknesses
• Establish their particular goals

These assessments will help you to design your programmes and make sure you adapt your services to suit whoever it is you’re working with.

It will also help to protect your clients from injury, as well as protecting yourself from any legal issues. For example, women tend to be more fatigued, dehydrated and tend to overheat during the first trimester.

So, if you’re working with people in their first trimester you can make sure you reassure them to stop whenever they’re uncomfortable, and make sure there’s plenty of water to hand.

However, everyone is different and people’s symptoms throughout pregnancy will be different so asking questions and creating a supportive, open dialogue will make sure you make your practice as specifically helpful as possible.

Then you will get a reputation for being available for a variety of goals, stages, and different experiences, maximising your client numbers and, ultimately, your income!

Check if Your Client Has a Diastasis Recti

A diastasis recti is essentially when the two muscles that run down the middle of the stomach separate during pregnancy.

This is a very common symptom. In fact, studies have shown that half of pregnant women experience it. Because of this, it’s likely you’ll encounter a student with a diastasis recti and so need to be aware of how to adapt your practice.

If your client is experience this they’ll need to avoid:

• Supine abdominal crunches
• Spinal flexion
• Positions on all fours
• Plank position

Instead you can tailor your classes to avoid these and include the following instead:

• Pelvic tilts
• Toe taps
• Heel slides

These are all safe positions and will still help to strengthen other muscles that women need for their pregnancy and childbirth.

Before You Go!

Hopefully our step by step guide has made you feel more prepared for every stage of how to become a prenatal yoga teacher.

Don't forget the most important part of kickstarting your career is getting qualified! Enquire below and get started with OriGym's Level 3 yoga teacher training course.

Alternatively, you can download our free course prospectus to see everything we offer and to find out more!