A person who is eligible for registration as a Prenatal Yoga Teacher through the Yoga Alliance has completed at a minimum both a 200 hour yoga teacher training and an 85 hour prenatal yoga teacher training from registered yoga schools. Once the person has completed these registered programs, they need to teach at least 30 hours of prenatal yoga. I taught prenatal yoga for many years with only having a 15 hour weekend prenatal yoga teacher training, but as I put in the years of extra training and attended more workshops and trainings specifically dedicated to prenatal yoga, I have become a much more knowledgeable, safer, and useful prenatal yoga teacher. I cringe at some of the things I used to do in my prenatal yoga classes with my limited training. I completed a year-long labor doula program, which focused heavily on the birthing process alone, but this would not provide much help in prenatal yoga. If you’re considering prenatal yoga, it may be wise to find out what kind of trainings your instructor has so that you can get the maximum out of your prenatal yoga sessions while you’re pregnant. You may find that your teacher is great without having these trainings, but it may be something useful to look into. Many prenatal yoga teachers with online videos and live classes are not registered and have had very little training, if any, dedicated to prenatal yoga.
