Yoga for Birth and Beyond

Yoga Before Birth With Julia Willoughby

Yoga for Birth and Beyond is designed for mums-to-be in Pearce ACT. Owned and managed by Julia Willoughby, an experienced pre and postnatal massage therapist and yoga teacher for over 20 years, this platform aims to create a beautiful experience for women before, during and after childbirth.

Julia began working with pregnant women while completing her three-year massage training in San Diego. This helped her understand all the changes a woman goes through — physical, mental and emotional — during that special time in her life.

Upon arriving in Australia, Julia started to teach massage at the Nature Care College in Sydney while continuing her work with pregnant women. Since Australia had no existing training platform for pregnancy massage therapists at the time, Julia designed a course and taught it for 10 years. 

When she moved to Canberra, she underwent training at the IYTA to become a yoga instructor and started teaching in 1999. She realised that she could use her knowledge to assist women better if she was a childbirth educator, and so she gained qualifications to be one. 

Combining yoga with her knowledge about childbirth has enabled Julia to help thousands of women prepare for the arrival of their babies. After becoming a Birthing from Within Mentor, Julia shifted her focus from natural birth to preparing mums-to-be for a unique birthing experience.

Her Dru Yoga training helped broaden her understanding of the spiritual practice and its immeasurable effect on one’s body, mind and spirit. By combining Dru with Hatha yoga, she is able to provide women with a richer experience. Julia also trains yoga teachers under the Diploma of Pre and Post Natal Yoga of IYTA.

Perhaps it was Julia’s personal life challenges that helped her understand on a deeper level the importance of receiving loving support during pregnancy. Her classes connect women, provide them postnatal support and teach their partners how to be loving and supportive during labour.

Aside from providing invaluable help to others, Julia loves to take long walks in nature, dance, sing, swim and spend quality time with her husband and two daughters, as well as her special group of female friends. 

What Women Think of Julia

“These pre-natal and post-natal yoga classes encompass so much more than just the yoga itself. In addition to physical energy and strength, I have discovered a support network, an excellent source of information and reading material, friendships and a positive environment that inspires women to confidently birth and parent their children in their own way.” - Anne

“Julia’s class aims to celebrate pregnancy but also highlights how important preparing your body and mind for birth is. I would highly recommend this class to any pregnant woman who wants to find calm in her pregnancy and in her labour” - Sally (osteopath)

“I had a very short 4 hour labour which was easy to manage with some of the strategies we learnt with you” - Steph

“Thanks for providing such a great class to first time mums like me.  If it hadn’t been for the yoga I would have entered the birth scared and freaked out!” - Ginny

“I want to say a big thank you, I thought your classes were fabulous and loved attending them each week.  The stretching, breathing and relaxation components were fantastic.  I also loved hearing your stories at the beginning of each class.  I think yoga helped me both physically and mentally and would recommend it to anyone.  You do an amazing job” - Katherine

Book an appointment to learn more about the benefits of prenatal yoga and Julia.