Whether pregnant women should be allowed in hot yoga classes has become a hot topic after a London woman was asked to leave a class at a local studio.
Upon getting a call from a worried teacher shortly after the start of a Tuesday night class, Yoga Shack owner Lisa Shackleton instructed her employee not to let the woman participate.
“First and foremost, we have to go back to our policies and procedures about being safe. So as much as that’s a difficult conversation, to crouch down and say ‘hey can we talk outside’, this hot yoga is not safe during pregnancy.”
The studio’s policy stems from research by Motherisk, a resource for pregnant women from Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.
It says when women are in their first trimester of pregnancy, using external heat sources like hot tubs, saunas, and electric blankets to warm the body temperature up to around 40 degrees doubles the risk of neural tube defects.
“Practising hot yoga should be avoided,” Motherisk states, also citing an increased potential for injury because a pregnant body bears extra weight, and loses muscle.
But Hayley Ross, who happens to be a midwife herself, had signed a waiver and had been attending classes for nine weeks leading up to last week’s incident.
“I was told that I was showing off my pregnant belly, and that made other people uncomfortable in the class. It was a distraction, and I shouldn’t return to practice.”
Ross, who is now eight months pregnant and well past the stage of neural tube development, describes the incident as being distressing, and shocking.
“On her website, it says that all people are welcome. I guess she’s since changed all of that.”
The Yoga Shack website now includes notes on its hot yoga class descriptions, saying it should be avoided by pregnant women. Others, including a specialized prenatal class, are better suited for expecting mothers, recommends Shackleton.
She says the original basis of her conversation with Ross was “of course around health and safety, and the literature and these studies that have been done.”
But it’s left Ross feeling discriminated against.
Her own midwife signed off on her attending the classes and two of her midwife colleagues were present when she was asked to leave.
“My goal is to have a healthy pregnancy and feel less stressed,” she said.
And for the weeks when she was allowed to participate, she described being encouraged by her other instructors and feeling happy.
“I’ve definitely done my research,” she said. “And I’m hoping that it won’t happen to anybody in the future.”
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