Secrets to an Easier Birth?

There are many ways to help facilitate an easier birth for you and your baby. One of those ways is to get your baby into a position ideal for rotating and moving through the pelvis. Turns out, there’s more to it than head-down!

Join Gail Tully, Certified Professional Midwife — also known as “The Spinning Babies Lady” for an afternoon of learning and fun all about Optimal Fetal Positioning, Saturday, March 2, 12:30-4:30 p.m. at Blooma Minneapolis.

Gail Tully shows an expecting mother how to correctly do an inversion.

You’ll learn easy, easy exercises to encourage baby into a sweet spot for birth. These exercises also come in handy during labor!

Bring a birth partner to the workshop, and please wear yoga/sweat pants for easy movement. (No yoga experience necessary for this workshop.)

Gail travels the world teaching these exercises and concepts to parents, doulas, midwives and OBs — now it’s your turn to learn it, too!

Sign up online or call Blooma at 612.223.8064. Learn the best ways to use balance, gravity and movement to your advantage!

Love,

Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

BELLYRAMA Outdoor Yoga – Save the Date!

Blooma’s 3rd annual Bellyrama yoga festival is coming up Saturday, Aug. 25, 9-11 a.m. As always, this FREE event will be held at the Lake Harriet Bandshell in Minneapolis, rain or shine, bring your own mat + water + sunscreen.

ALL mamas — whether prenatal or postnatal — families, sisters, friends, grandmothers and kiddos are welcome to attend this FREE, fabulous morning of sunny energy, live music, and inspirational yoga taught by Sarah Longacre (with a couple of surprise guests!).

Bellyrama yoga starts promptly at 9 a.m., followed by kid + family yoga at 10:30 a.m. by the Adventures of Super Stretch.

You’ll also have the opportunity to have your beautiful pregnant belly painted by Gail Tully of Spinning Babies. This is a favorite of mamas every year!

Mark your calendar now for Aug. 25 and bring the whole family! Though this event is free, we’d love it if you signed up online, too. Come kiss the sunshine with us!

Big Love!

Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

Bellymapping – FREE this Sunday!

Mamas, come to Blooma Edina Sunday night to bond with your baby and learn more about the position of your baby (best at 30 weeks or later). Certified Professional Midwife Gail Tully, Spinning Babies maven and author of the Belly Mapping Workbook, leads this workshop, Sunday, 6-8 p.m.

It’s free for expecting moms and their partners ($25 for birth professionals), but please register online in advance or by calling Blooma at 952.848.1111.

Midwife Gail Tully helps a mom, Crystal, feel her baby's shin during a Belly Mapping session.

Belly Mapping is a three-step process for identifying baby’s position in the final months of pregnancy. The course of labor can be affected by baby’s position. Gail likes to call it a game of “fetal hide and seek!”

“Belly Mapping’s unique and fun approach helps you to connect to your body and your baby in pregnancy,  and gives powerful techniques to create ease in labor and birth,” says Dr. Sarah J. Buckley, family physician and author of Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering.

As Gail says, “Come play bellies with us!”

Love,

Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

Bellyrama THIS Saturday!

Blooma is SO excited about our Bellyrama event this Saturday! Come breathe the fresh air, enjoy an invigorating, FREE yoga class, and absorb the amazing energy of all the women you’ll be surrounded by.

WHAT: Bellyrama, a FREE yoga event for all women who support motherhood!

WHEN: THIS Saturday, Aug. 28, 9-11 a.m. (class begins at 9:15 a.m.)

WHERE: Lake Harriet Bandshell (43rd St. W. and E. Lake Harriet Pkwy, Mpls)

MORE: BYOM (Bring your own mat); Come rain or shine.

Class begins at the Lake Harriet Bandshell at 9:15 a.m., kicking off with a fashion show of lululemon gear (you’ll love their stuff), and ends at 10:45 a.m. Whether you’re a Blooma regular or have never been to Blooma, you are welcome!

Blooma teachers will be on-hand to help adjust, support, and rub you down during savasana (resting pose). The amazing Carin Vagle (and others) will sing us through class. How can you beat moving and grooving while practicing in the beautiful outdoors?

The Childbirth Collective will be there with more information about its organization, as will midwife Gail Tully of Spinning Babies, Health Foundations Family Health & Birth Center, Nine Maternity, lululemon athletica—all to support moms and to be a part of this great event.

Come if you’re pregnant, come if you’re not. Bring a friend, your sisters, your daughter, your mom, your neighbor! Have your kids and partner come down to watch, take pictures, and play in the park while you get your yoga groove on.

See you on Saturday!

Love,

Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

Belly mapping!

Last night’s Belly Mapping workshop with certified professional midwife (CPM) Gail Tully was a hit! You may know of Gail from her web site, SpinningBabies.com, or because of her new book, The Belly Mapping Workbook (which we sell at Blooma!). Or perhaps you’re wondering, what the heck is “belly mapping?”

Gail Tully drawing baby's position on the belly of mama Miriam Johnson-Dunkirk.

In short, it’s paying attention to baby’s kicks and wiggles in utero to identify baby’s position in the final months of pregnancy. And why is that important? If you discover that baby is not in an ideal position for birthing, your doula (and SpinningBabies.com) can help by suggesting specific movements and strategies to help baby turn into a more optimal position. When it comes time to push your baby out, a well-positioned baby can often mean a more straight-forward labor.

If you were at Blooma last night for Gail’s Belly Mapping workshop, leave us a note and let us know what you thought. Hoping to see another Belly Mapping workshop? Let us know that, too!

Love,

Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

Amanda Henderson, 34 weeks pregnant, after Gail Tully's Belly Mapping workshop.

Miriam, with a drawing of her baby's position on her 26-week belly.