I have been exploring this question for several years, and not out of idle curiosity. The subject became especially relevant after the birth of my two younger children.
I began practising yoga in 1999. At that time the overall algorithm of practice was fairly standard, and there were not yet so many individual methodologies. In 2005 I began teaching, and most practitioners in my group were my age: young, relatively healthy, without children or families at that point.
When my eldest son was born in 2011, I continued practising with the same diligence and according to the same pattern, but with less enthusiasm and more disappointment, because there was less sleep, less rest, and the condition of the tissues, especially in the first months after childbirth, was simply different.
If someone had redirected my attention during that period toward recovery and toward caring not only for the child but also for myself, it would have given me more physical and emotional strength. Now I understand, not only from books, why asana is only the third limb of yoga while yama and niyama are the basic principles from which everything begins.
Strictly speaking, there is no separate thing called women’s yoga. But Ayurveda offers a wonderful principle: Desha-Kala-Patra, or Place, Time, and Circumstance. Through my own health I came to appreciate how important it is to practise gently and in accordance with the body’s real condition.
The main elements I keep returning to are:
- Rest and nourishment – sleep, Yoga Nidra, ghee, and the restoration of basic reserves.
- Abdominal support – learning to engage the deep abdominal muscles correctly so that the lumbar spine is truly supported, rather than forcing the body through strain.
- The hormonal factor – a woman’s tissues change continuously under hormonal influence, and practice must take that into account.
The body will execute every command we give it, but the question is always: at what cost? This applies not only to women after childbirth. Many people need to restore breathing patterns and learn where true support in the body comes from.
Women’s yoga is therefore more accurately described as yoga with particular attention to the needs of a woman’s body, life stage, and rhythm.