“Yoga and birth are a match made in heaven. They are twin experiences born from the same root and nurtured with the same longing: to be present in body and mind, and loving in all our endeavors.”
Labor, Love and Liberation is a book about yoga and birth, but not your typical prenatal yoga book. Weaving her experiences as a long-time yoga student, mother, professional counselor, doula, creator and lead instructor of the Yoga Way to Birth together, Tina Lilly highlights the role of body and mind in the birth process. In labor, she writes, the mother’s body takes center stage while the mind serves as a reflective audience.
Based on this understanding, Lilly introduces a relational model of birth, taking childbirth education to a deeply personal level. She encourages her pregnant readers to be real as they prepare for their baby’s birth, just as birth is real and will ask everything of a woman in labor. To help with this process, Lilly shares her own birth stories and the lessons they have engendered, reflects on ideas how to embrace pain and fear in labor, and introduces yoga-based practices that support a love-filled and liberating birth experience.