Heavily pregnant Chongqing policewoman Liu Liu leaves office for a yoga institute nearby. Although Liu's husband offers her a lift, the 30-year-old insists on getting there by foot. After changing, she strokes her ball-like belly tenderly, saying: "Hi, my little baby, let's do yoga together."

 

There are more than 10 women waiting for her, for the near full-term expectant mom is their part-time yoga tutor at the Jiayi Yoga House.

 

Yoga tutor Liu Liu (left) practices with her student in Jiayi Yoga House in Chongqing.  

 

Liu takes up to three classes of one-hour duration per week, putting 80 women through the paces.

 

"It is a common misconception among Chinese that a pregnant woman should not exercise to avoid the risk of a miscarriage. I want to use my own case to convince people that proper exercise is certainly in order during pregnancy," she says.

 

Currently, there are more than 60 yoga training centers in Chongqing, and Liu is probably the only pregnant tutor. Wearing her hair neatly in a bun, the slim and graceful woman's only sign of her pregnancy is her belly.

 

Liu became interested in yoga in 2001, after suffering ankle injures from intense workouts.

 

But at that time, there was no professional yoga center in Chongqing and Liu taught herself through books and VCDs.

 

To her delight, her ankle injuries, which were diagnosed as incurable, healed.

 

"I have long been looking for an exercise regimen that I can keep with throughout my life. I am very pleased to find it in yoga," she says.

 

The policewoman has done several stints at yoga classes in Shanghai since 2002.

 

In the beginning of this year, Liu found she was pregnant. "I did not see any reason to cut back on yoga because of the pregnancy. In Shanghai, I had a classmate who was seven months pregnant. If she could do it, so could I," she says.

 

What's more, many exercises recommended for pregnant women, especially breath training, are adopted from yoga, she says.

 

But Liu did stop teaching for the first four months of her pregnancy, using the time to read up widely on prenatal yoga.

 

After the Spring Festival, she resumed classes and says that except for some moves such as twisting the waist and bending backwards, she can do 70 percent of the exercises.

 

"At present, every move I do is based on a good understanding of my body. I never challenge myself to do something which is too difficult for me. It is important to listen to your body and know your limits," she explains.

 

In the classroom, her students look nervous as Liu presses down her ball-like belly to the ground or stands on one foot. But their calm teacher completes all the moves without faltering once.

 

As the students start to try the exercises, Liu either kneels on a carpet correcting their poses one by one, or repeats the key points of the move. The pregnant teacher seems to put in more effort than anyone else in that class.

 

In recent years, prenatal yoga has been attracting more and more interest from Chinese women.

 

Yoga is a great way to relieve stress during pregnancy, stay in shape and help prepare for a natural birthing, according to Zhang Lei, a yoga tutor at the Shanghai No 1 Women and Infants' Health Center.

 

Zhang kept teaching until two weeks before the 28-year-old gave birth to her daughter. The Shanghai native says yoga helped her recover quickly from labor.

 

"My two-year-old daughter has also benefited from it as I have been told that she has a better sense of balance than others the same age," she says.

 

Zhang believes it is better to start yoga classes after the morning sickness of the first four months has passed.

 

"Wear loose and comfortable clothes and make sure you listen to your body and do only as much as feels right on any particular day," she stresses.

 

According to Liu, her latest medical check-up shows that everything is going right.

 

"I seem more energetic than other women at the same stage of pregnancy," she says with a smile.

 

Liu plans to keep doing the exercise during her stay at home.

 

Wang Zhengping, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Woman's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, says: "Yoga is good for pregnant women as it allows them to contract the muscles, adjust their breathing during delivery and stay calm. But its practice must be based on one's own capabilities."

 

Wang says, in Liu's case, she has a sound foundation in yoga and her body has acquired the flexibility to cope with the more difficult moves even during pregnancy. But this may not be possible for other pregnant women with no background in yoga."

 

"Simple exercises may be better in such cases," he says.

 

(China Daily July 11, 2007)