In-person 5 day intensive, plus online self-paced modules
100 hour Contemporary Yoga and Opti-mum certification programme:
40 hours in-person over 5 days
+ 60 hours online and self study
With KeiShana Coursey, Amy Massey, Haidee Stairmand and Karla Brodie
Who is this training for?
For yoga teachers, health professionals and therapists passionate about women’s health during pregnancy, this programme provides information and tools to help you create yoga classes for pre- and post-natal women, and to integrate movement, breath and stress reduction into your classes and clinical practice.
You do not need to be a yoga teacher to do this training although some yoga experience / practice is strongly recommended.
What to expect
This is the fourth offering of the hugely successful Pregnancy Yoga teacher training which first ran in 2019.
This blended training includes a five-day in-person training in Auckland, an online Ayurveda module and a range of online recordings / masterclasses. The online masterclasses and movement practices can be explored at your own pace prior to or following the in-person training.
Participants also receive additional resources, including recommended reading, further study pathways, and a Sanskrit glossary.
Enrolment numbers
There will be a maximum of eight participants on training and a minimum of six.
Who are the tutors?
Contemporary Yoga Teacher Training and Opti-mum have collaborated to bring together leading educators in the field of midwifery and Yoga. Faculty include course director and midwife educator Keishana Coursey, Yoga and movement teachers Haidee Stairmand and Karla Brodie, and an online Ayurveda module by Amy Massey.
Assessments
Assessments are integrated into the training and ensure you gain knowledge and understanding of practices and principles for the Pregnancy Continuum. You will be well supported by the highly skilled team of tutors so you graduate feeling confident and prepared.
Contemporary Yoga and Opti-mum Certification
The course is approximately 100 hours of in-person, online, personal study and assessment. Upon successful completion of all modules and assessments you will be eligible for a certificate of completion from Contemporary Yoga and Opti-mum.
Have a question? Email us at: info@yogateachertraining.nz
This Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training is a collaboration with Opti-Mum, a pregnancy and parenting educational programme in New Zealand:
opti-mum.co.nz
Course Investment
Pregnancy Yoga Teacher In-Person Training + Online Modules
9th - 13th September 2026
Meadowbank, Auckland
Early Bird: $2300
(Full price: $2500)
Reserve your place with a deposit: $500
Training Overviews
This training includes:
5-day in-person intensive
This in-person intensive provides the necessary components to create your own fertility, pregnancy and postnatal yoga classes including information and tools to integrate movement, breath and stress reduction into your clinical practice.
You will develop a comprehensive awareness of the physical, mental and emotional considerations attributed to the continuum of a pre-and-post pregnant person. The training will focus on class design, anatomy, physiology and safe practice.
With KeiShana Coursey, Haidee Stairmand and Karla Brodie.
Meadowbank, Auckland
The schedule:
8am - 1pm
Lunch 1pm-2pm
2pm - 5pm
Ayurvedic Women’s Health
Self paced online delivery
Ayurvedic principles add a layer of awareness and alchemy between modern science and time-honored wisdom. Deepen your understanding of preconception, pregnancy and postpartum with insights from Ayurveda’s nourishing traditions of care.
This module is developed and taught by Amy Massey, PGDipHSc. BHSc. Dip Ayurveda. Dip Yoga.
Further information on the Ayurveda module here >>
Master Classes with Keishana
Educational video content - self paced online delivery
Access to an online series of master classes.
You will learn anxiety reduction techniques, mindfulness for the pregnancy journey, Yoga classes that can ease a tired body, optimal baby positioning, finding the basement, and deepen your understanding of challenges including the “red” and “green”. You can take as long as you need to work through and revisit each of these modules as you will have them for life!
More information about the birth mastery course here: opti-mum.co.nz/online-birth-mastery
Each video contains three core components (learn, breath and flow).
Julie Edlin, previous participant ...
The Pregnancy Teacher Training provided me with all the tools necessary to safely and effectively guide women through a Yoga practice during their childbirth journey.
The incredible wisdom and knowledge shared by the facilitators, allowed me to step competently into teaching Pregnancy Yoga with confidence soon after completion of the training.
As an extra bonus I have also been able to weave the learning I absorbed during the teacher training into my role as a midwife.
Julie Edlin, previous participant ...
The Pregnancy Teacher Training provided me with all the tools necessary to safely and effectively guide women through a Yoga practice during their childbirth journey.
The incredible wisdom and knowledge shared by the facilitators, allowed me to step competently into teaching Pregnancy Yoga with confidence soon after completion of the training.
As an extra bonus I have also been able to weave the learning I absorbed during the teacher training into my role as a midwife.
This Pregnancy Yoga Programme includes …
- Hormones:
Understand the physiological effects of hormone changes that occur during pregnancy, labour, birth and breastfeeding. - Anatomy:
The pregnancy continuum affects every single anatomical body system. An appreciation of the body’s extraordinary adaptation will enhance your ability to facilitate yoga practices to support pregnancy. We will explore pelvic floor, psoas, uterus, breast, centre of gravity effects on skeletal changes, and journey through the body systems. - Body diaphragms:
Explore practices that focus on increasing awareness of body diaphragms and breath. - Optimal Fetal Positioning:
Learn what hinders and supports optimal positioning and explore the most common birth complications. - Complications and Contraindications:
Learn about safety considerations, accountability and how to make appropriate referrals. - Asana:
Learn how to sequence and provided modifications for the pregnant person throughout the trimesters and beyond birth. - Class Structure:
Explore themes (teaching threads and loops) to support class design and development. - Sankalpa:
Explore the power of inner resource, intention setting and connection. - Restorative Yoga:
Discover how to create a container for rest, repair and reset (props and support for pregnancy).
- Pranayama:
Learn specific breathing practices that support pregnancy. - Shavasana:
The “power pose”! Explore how to support rest and integration. - Cueing and ‘languaging’ classes:
Set the tone and intention of your class through artful use of language.
We will also explore the intimate, social and cultural complexities of pregnancy and birth.
- How we do life is how we do birth:
Address thought, belief and behaviour around birth practices. - Infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth and birth trauma:
Explore loss, acceptance and trauma-informed yoga. - The culture of birth fear:
Develop your understanding and learn how to support pregnancy confidence.
Ayurveda For Women’s Health Module
Preconception, Pregnancy and Postpartum
Ayurvedic principles are infused throughout this training and there is a separate Ayurveda for Women’s Health online module. Deepen your understanding of conception, pregnancy and postpartum with insights from Ayurvedic philosophy and an exploration of Ayurveda’s nourishing traditions of care.
The online module explores: foundations of Ayurveda and women’s wellness; cycles, seasons, and hormonal balance; preconception care and conscious conception; Ayurvedic perspectives on pregnancy and prenatal care; postpartum recovery and maternal nourishment; and an introduction to Ayurvedic nutrition
and healing foods.
The Ayurvedic part of the training is taught by Amy Massey, PGDipHSc. BHSc. Dip Ayurveda (see bio).
The Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training Faculty
KeiShana Coursey
When I became pregnant while living in Australia, I was immersed in positive birth philosophy and the power of informed, confident choices. That experience ignited a fire in me — one that led me home to New Zealand, into midwifery, and into decades of walking alongside people through profound life transitions.
Over the years, I have trained extensively in trauma-informed modalities including NLP, HNLP, Havening Techniques®, hypnotherapy, coaching, mindfulness, and yoga. What began in the birth space expanded naturally into supporting individuals and couples navigating stress, trauma, loss, burnout, and relationship challenges.
My work now sits at the intersection of nervous system science, relational depth, and lived experience.
“KeiShana never seems to utter a word that doesn’t have a powerful impact on the listener.”
Sonya Simpson, at the Hauora Yoga Conference
Amy Massey
PGDipHSc. BHSc. Dip Ayurveda. Dip Yoga. Cert Kinesiology. Registered Natural Therapies Practitioner.
Ayurveda has been guiding my day to day for more than a decade now, bringing greater balance, nurture and delight – especially with kitchen healing! As a way of healing, Ayurveda has inspired Somama Yoga & Ayurveda’s offerings of care. My work with women becoming mothers began shortly after the birth of my son, based on the traditions of Ayurvedic postpartum care and therapeutics of Yoga.
I’d come to yoga some years earlier when, brimming with exuberance, I signed up to a series of (hot) yoga classes. I thought I was just signing up for an exercise class. On the floor in a sea of nausea and a sweat puddle one day, I met an unfamiliar experience of boundless sensation within and all around me. Entirely accidental, that little happening set me on a path of personal practice that led eventually to teaching. Imbued with qualities of joyfulness and compassion, my classes focus on supporting women’s wellness, fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum rejuvenation for Mums, bubs and tots.
In both Yoga and Ayurveda, I’ve found there exists an embodied invitation to deepen our connection with the world within us and the world around us - and I look forward to sharing more with you on the mat.
Karla Brodie
Karla is an experienced and qualified yoga teacher. She is inspired to share the practice and philosophy of yoga in a simple, joyful, self-renewing way. Her practical and intuitive approach leads students toward a deeper experiential understanding of breath, balanced posture and integrated movement.
Karla specializes in restorative yoga, a deeply nourishing and balancing practice for the whole body and in particular the nervous system. She effectively works with students unwinding from high stress, fatigue and hyperventilation.
The foundation of Karla’s teaching is within the human developmental movement patterns. Embodying these self-renewing patterns restores effortless breathing, ease, fluidity and cohesion in movement. Karla’s teachings, interwoven with the traditional and eternally relevant eight limbs of yoga, offer a holistic approach to the practice of yoga.
Haidee Stairmand
Haidee brings a pragmatic approach to her teaching and offers students a clear, approachable and understandable way to develop their Yoga through self-sensing, and awareness.
She is passionate about making yoga accessible for all, enabling an individualistic approach.
She has a unique ability to connect to others in a simple but profound way and sees Yoga as a holistic therapeutic modality that encompasses traditional and contemporary approaches to the Practice.
What Our Graduates Say (read more here)
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