A baby-yoga instructor, who used the principles to grapple with her own personal tragedy, will offer free classes Saturday, Jan. 12 at La Jolla Sports Club.
Nandini Narayanan has practiced yoga since she was a little girl. Because she was born in India, Narayanan said she thought of practicing yoga and the coinciding spiritual principles as being a “way of life.”
So when Narayanan decided to use these tools to help her with a traumatic life experience ” the premature birth of her son, Shiv ” to her it was only natural. Of course he would be OK.
But the doctors saw a “double bubble” in her ultrasound, which meant that Shiv’s stomach was pinched off from his lower intestine, giving him only a 50 percent chance of survival.
After nearly four weeks of bed rest, Shiv was born three months early. He was a micro-preemie, Narayanan said. He would stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for months, the doctors told the couple. Then he would need physical therapy and surgery.
While in the hospital on bed rest, Narayanan said she told the nurses that this baby would practice yoga as soon as he could. She searched everywhere for a class and found the book “Itsy Bitsy Yoga” written by Helen Garabedian.
“For eight to nine weeks, we didn’t know if Shiv was going to survive,” Narayanan said. “It is a powerless feeling to have to leave your baby in an incubator.”
Narayanan said she and her husband named their baby Shiv Kailash after Lord Shiva ” the Hindu lord of dance ” and Kailash, a sacred mountain in the Himalayas where it is said that Shiva resides. And it was on a festival day for Shiva that Narayanan said she found out she was pregnant.
“In Hindu tradition, a baby is given a birth star based on the date and time of his birth,” Narayanan said. “Shiv miraculously was born under Lord Shiva’s star. That’s when we knew that … the stars were aligned for him and he would be OK.”
When the physical therapists came to Narayanan’s home, they asked her what she was doing with Shiv. It’s yoga, she said. They were amazed at Shiv’s progress and at the extra efforts she put forth.
“The therapists are baffled ” that he’s on target now as if he’s not a preemie,” she said.
Then Narayanan decided to start her own Itsy Bitsy Yoga class. Although she practiced yoga her entire life, she trained under Garabedian and began teaching Itsy Bitsy Yoga classes last year at the La Jolla Sports Club.
“It’s a valuable time to spend with a baby,” she said. “It’s emotionally bonding and fun.”
Meanwhile, Shiv kept improving and Narayanan widened her goal “” to draw other premature babies and their families into her yoga classes eventually.
Narayanan said she wants to use her experience to help others and use yoga as a “bridge to other babies or preemies, to say, ‘Hey, look, here’s something you can do that will help your situation.'”
As Shiv runs around her, a physical therapy target goal he has met, Narayanan said she expects her son to be discharged from the physical therapy program soon. She believes that yoga has everything to do with his progress.
Right now, the Itsy Bitsy Yoga class that Narayanan teaches has about six moms and seven babies, she said. There are three levels with two current classes: one for newborn babies to 10-month-olds; the other a toddler class for 10-month-old babies to 21-month-old babies. The tyke class, which teaches kids to age 4, will be added soon, she said.
To share her yoga passion with the community, Narayanan will host two free Itsy Bitsy Yoga classes on Saturday, Jan. 12 at La Jolla Sports Club, 7825 Fay Avenue, Suite 160. The baby class will be held from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. The tots class will be from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
For more information, visit www.lajollasportsclub.com.