MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — You’ve probably heard of regular yoga and hot yoga, but have you heard of the yoga designed just for expecting mothers? Not only does Blooma keep them healthy during pregnancy months, but it can help create an easier delivery.

“This is my first time here, and my first munchkin. It’s a girl,” WCCO This Morning reporter Holly Wagner said. She and her husband Brandon are expecting their first child in March.

Expecting mothers like Holly are making an effort to stay fit and healthy during and after pregnancy with a class developed specifically for prenatal yoga.

“I’m finding out first time around that your body changes a lot. And you find out that you have different needs,” Wagner said.

“There’s so much fear and there’s so much that we are not teaching in this culture about the importance of feeling supported and loved, and that’s what happens in a prenatal yoga class,” Sarah Longacre said. She is the owner of Blooma in the 50th & France neighborhood.

Participants in the Blooma Birth Doula stretch, hold, and build strength in ways that feel good and safe for mom and baby.

“Pregnancy is really demanding on your body.  It’s nice to just slow it down and move your muscles slower than you normally do,” said Longacre.

“It gives you the strength and it gives you the breathing and all those things you really need on the big day to get through it,” expecting mother Jennifer Kramer said.

“I’m really nervous about it.  I get a lot of anxiety about what birth is going to be like. I think yoga can help with that process and bring some calm into the delivery room on the big day,” Wagner said. “It’s good to know you’re not the only one on the pregnancy planet.”

Aside from fitness, it’s a community of mothers talking about the highs and lows of pregnancy.

“Sometimes we talk about the challenge of staying married and being in a relationship,” Longacre said. “We talk about fears in birth and the first moments of meeting your baby.”

Prenatal yoga also gives mommies a break, even if just for an hour.

“You’re so busy running around with work and the kids and the house.  This is one hour I can come and be pregnant and think about it,” Kramer said.

“Lastly, you get to say hello to your baby.  I think that so many moms with other children rarely get to put their hands on their belly and say, ‘Hi, sweetheart!’”

Blooma also offers postnatal and kids’ yoga classes. They even have a BYOB class — that’s “bring your own baby.”

They also offer childbirth classes and wellness, like massage.