Ep170: The Yoga of Birth - Nadia Rafaat
Nadia Rafaat is a yoga and meditation teacher, doula, and former journalist with a special interest in female empowerment and female spirituality.
Available on Youtube, iTunes, SoundCloud & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.
Nadia recounts her difficult childhood, early career in gymnastics, and multi-year rebellious phase of class A drug use in London.
Nadia recalls how attending her first yoga class radically changed her life direction, and how bringing her spiritual practices of meditation and pranayama into her own pregnancy journeys unlocked profoundly transformative effects.
Having trained extensively as a doula and in pregnancy yoga, Nadia dives deep into the world of pregnancy and birth, criticising the mainstream medicalising model and offering an alternative, more intuitive approach.
Nadia also shares the powerful spiritual potential of giving birth, including her own spiritual experiences during labour, and shares her perspective on female empowerment and spirituality.
Topics include:
00:00 - Intro
01:10 - Childhood and gymnastics career
04:47 - A difficult upbringing and the beginnings of spirituality
07:38 - Rebellious phase and drug use
11:39 - Class A’s vs psychedelics
14:17 - First yoga class and a change in life direction
16:30 - An unplanned pregnancy and life uncertainty
19:44 - Going into labour at a meditation retreat
24:40 - Birth and attachment mothering
29:25 - Second pregnancy and pushing for a home birth
35:36 - Training in pregnancy yoga with Francoise Freedman and ongoing studies
38:18 - Nadia’s meditation training
45:24 - Yogic meditation experiences
47:54 - Mindfulness for mothers
49:01 - Third pregnancy and attentiveness to the mind
53:09 - Insight into suffering during labour
54:53 - History of childbirth from domestic to medical
01:01:32 - An intuitive birthing countercurrent
01:07:47 - Agendas behind the C-section trend
01:17:11 - The spiritual dimensions of giving birth
01:21:53 - Bringing birth back home
01:24:12 - The yoga of pregnancy
01:31:01 - Pratyahara during labour
01:34:15 - Female empowerment and spirituality
01:41:56 - Yoga on a woman’s terms
01:46:07 - Nadia’s work
To find out more about Nadia Rafaat, visit:
Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James