http://www.asteriamovement.co.uk/

Asteria Movement, Leeds (2026)

18/01/2026

I still feel a little embarrassed to admit that birth with my eldest child didn't feel good.

I had a huge sense of failure and guilt around the cascade of intervention we found ourselves on.

I wanted to birth within the system, but I had thought with a few tweaks to my environment, if I had released enough fear, if I had practiced enough, if I backed my choices with enough information then I would be in the zone and that zone would feel like flow. And it didn't.

On reflection, I prepared with wrong goal in mind. I can see in hindsight that I was holding these two almost paradoxical ideas if birth being risky and uncontrollable, and safe if you can control yourself.

Unconsciously, I was stuck in a narrative that my birth was solely my responsibility. That it would be a test of my dedication and skill. I was focused on crossing a threshold of good girl, to good mother. And I thought I knew what that looked like.

This is my story, and I'm sharing it from a point where I can see how birth unpeeled another layer of my stuff. But I'm sharing it because I don't think it's only my story, or only my stuff.

It's so easy, with all of our passion and fierce, protective love to get lost in ideology. And so trust in someone else authority above our own; institutions above intuition, yet question ourselves before systems. To fall back into myths of what it means to be a good girl or good mother.

All the noise adds to the pressure and when we are in the this vulnerable state of undoing and unknowing we can so easily take it all on and create fixed expectations.

It was those expectations, not the actual birth itself, that threw me and led me to believe I had failed before I had really began.

I didn't fail. I was lost, and alone in the depths of the birth portal, disconnected and without a guide. It was a brutal beginning, but the one that brought me here.

Do you or did you feel pressure around birth looking a certain way? Do you have expectations about what it should feel like? Let me know below.

If you want to explore this further, comment 'stories' and I'll send you 11 journaling prompts to uncover the good birth myth held in your body 🌹

14/01/2026

One thing I don't love about my work in the perinatal space, is the pressure to have a perfect birth. Usually depicted as a calm, quiet, gentle, physiological birth, outside of a typical hospital. There is often an inference that this type of birth is superior or even the only real or valid type of birth.

It's frankly bu****it. It creates undue pressure and expectations. They can create fear when entering the birth portal because the intensity is unexpected. It makes the perfect birth into something you win or achieve with the right amount of effort, mindset shift and manifestation. This leads many women to feel like they have failed when their birth or experience doesn't meet this ideal.

Don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly support and believe in physiological birth, that it desperately needs to better understood and supported. And that medicalising birth when it's unnecessary is causing harm.

And three things.

1. A gentle birthing environment does not necessarily make for a gentle birth. The biological reality of birth encompasses a full spectrum of emotion and experience. It is raw humanity. And that can be ugly, messy and noisy. Physiological birth doesn't mean calm, easy or or****ic.

2. People choose interventions and medical support for a variety of reasons. In some cases, they genuinely are medically necessary. Intervention can be an informed choice, guided by intuition and instinct. It can be a sign of deep attunement to yourself and your baby and part of your process of surrendering to the flow of birth. This is no less real or valid.

3. There are so many factors that shape the way birth unfolds. Birth isn't something you dictate. Preparation stacks the cards in your favour. It helps you understand yourself, trust your intuition and attune to your baby. It supports you to make informed decisions and advocate for yourself. To respond to however your birth unfolds from a place of groundedness and sovereignty. But it can't bring the stuff that isn't yours, into your control. Birth isn't just you. It's you, your baby and the systems we operate in.

All birth is powerful. All birth is transformative. All birth is a portal. You can't fail it.

24/12/2025

Well I'm not sure about you, but December has been unexpectedly WILD over here and all of a sudden we're already heading to the close. As my 5 year old has taken to saying, time really does fly.

So just a little note to say thank you for being here and for all your support over the last year 🌹

I've enjoyed doing this content challenge over December because I love my work and I love sharing it, and I really believe we can and we will change the system. And, sometimes I need a deadline. I've also unexpectedly learnt a lot about myself, and this paradoxical world of social media we find ourselves in. Thank you for your support, encouragement and problem solving 🤪

I'm taking a little time off to spend some time with my loved ones, the trees, the moon, the river. It's time for me to slow down, to nourish and nurture. And process all that 2025 has brought.

For those celebrating, wishing you a sweet and joyful festive season with plenty of rest. See you on the other side ❤️

👋🏻Hi I’m Sophie, a perinatal yoga teacher, embodiment facilitator and doula in training. I’ve been sharing the heart of my work for the last 24 days and I’m excited to keep going into 2026.

If you're looking for my general Embodied Hatha, Ta**ra and other non birthy stuff, find me

23/12/2025

Give me another few minutes and I'll tell you why feeling our feelings is important.

🌹 Emotions are messengers, they give us vital information - what we like, our boundaries, our values, our needs and desires.

🌹 Feelings can be signals from our intuition, tuning in helps us make decisions that are right for us.

🌹 When we feel our feelings we are attuning to ourselves. We get to know and understand ourselves then we can witness and hold ourselves through our experience.

🌹 We can only attune to, and hold in others, what he can attune to and hold in ourselves. This means we may find it hard to recognise and be with emotions in our children (or anyone else) that we can't feel in ourselves.

🌹 Emotions are meant to be felt, it's how their charge moves. Otherwise they can get 'stuck' in our systems which disconnects us from our current experience, aka reality. When we feel our feelings, we get to experience more of life.

✨ Please take care of yourselves. If a feeling or sensation has a charge of F no, repulsion, strong discomfort, numbness or feels unsafe in any way that can be your body's wisdom saying not this, not now - listen to that. Don't force anything, there's nothing gained from going outside of your zone of connection. If this happens, you can see if there is another sensation that feels safe to explore or if you feel activated, orient outside of your body. This could be noticing the weight of your body, pressing into your feet and feeling any physical support or noticing sights and sounds around you.

🌿 Over the festive season, pause and take a moment to feel your feelings. This is good anytime but especially if someone is asking something of you or giving an opinion - see if you can let it land and tune in before you respond. Let me know how you get on in the comments below.

👋🏻Hi I’m Sophie, perinatal yoga & embodiment facilitator and doula in training, I’m spending the next 24 days sharing the heart of my work so you can understand what I do and why it matters.

If you're looking for my general Embodied Hatha, Ta**ra and non birthy stuff, find me

20/12/2025

One thing I remind my clients of again and again is small moments are potent. It doesn't need to be a full hour long yoga class, 20 minutes journaling or a big morning routine. It can be these small moments in the dark, the transition before sleeping or rising. Whilst you wait for the kettle or the bus. The moments between meetings or whilst you feed a baby.

The pause is the practice. It might be just one breath, one mantra, one movement.

A microdose of connection. A sip of life force. A homecoming.

Come back to these moments as often as you remember, throughout your day and notice how you feel.

And when you can, and if you want to, do more, you can and that's great too. But keep the small moments. They are quick and accessible portals to self and the most effective way I know to integrate your practice into daily life. Because it's the moments off the mat where the work really happens ❤️

👋🏻Hi I’m Sophie, a perinatal yoga teacher, embodiment facilitator and doula in training, and I’m spending the next 24 days sharing the heart of my work so you can understand what I do and why it matters.

If you're looking for my general Embodied Hatha, Ta**ra and other non birthy stuff, find me

19/12/2025

As an embodiment and movement facilitator for pregnancy & postpartum, I want to know about your body-mind-heart, your relationship with yourself and motherhood.

Wherever you might be in your journey, I want to know how you feel, what you feel and where. I want to know what you are experiencing, what you're holding, and what you want it to be. I want to know what practices and tools you already have, how you want to work and what support you need. But my hope is our conversation also gives you a felt sense of what my work is, clearer understanding of an embodied approach and the terrain we might journey together.

1. What happens in your body when you think about birth?

2. What would/did you want your birth story to feel like?

3. How connected do you feel to your body?

4. What's your relationship with movement like?

5. What's your relationship with intuition and instinct?

6. Do you have a relationship with something that feels sacred or spiritual or some kind of growth practice?

7. Where or when, do you feel most ease in your bodymind? Where/when would you like to feel more ease and flow?

8. Are there any patterns in your bodymind you have noticed and would like to work with?

9. How would you like your post-partum to feel?

10. How do you want to be felt as mother?

They also make great journaling prompts.

If you want to explore the stories your body holds around pregnancy & birth, comment STORIES and I'll send you my free Embodied Pregnancy Journal 🌹

👋🏻Hi I’m Sophie, a perinatal yoga teacher, embodiment facilitator and doula in training, and I’m spending the next 24 days sharing the heart of my work so you can understand what I do and why it matters.

If you're looking for my general Embodied Hatha, Ta**ra and other non birthy stuff, find me

onlineyoga

15/12/2025

These tools have helped so many women and birthing parents because we all deserve all the support we can get in pregnancy.

Having a variety of different ways to support you with all the props helps you to sink into your body, find your shape and opens up a much wider variety of possibilities.

I love to bring along a selection from my altar to all my classes and private sessions. If we're online you'll see them set up in a corner. Currently in my kitbag is this ouroboros with a dried rose, a poppy seed head and some beeswax. All powerful symbols of transformation, the cyclical nature of life and death, and the sweetness of it all. I like the cauldron type shape of it, for me it symbolises all the in-between spaces.

Scent is a powerful anchor and can be very supportive. I use essential oils all the time. In a diffuser, to make rollers and all sorts of lotions and potions. I don't go anywhere without some form of aromatherapy. I use Neals Yard because the quality is excellent, they're organic and I like their ethics.

I always have a deck of cards with me as well, these can be a useful way to connect with the seasons and cycles of our lives and tap into the psyche. I like to choose a relevant card for each session. I use them as self-inquiry rather than divination.

I have a little lending library with various birthy and breastfeeding books in there. If there's something you want to look at or borrow, let me know and I'll bring it along for you.

But the most important thing I bring is my practice. I offer from what feels integrated and alive in me. As well as my ongoing study, it's essential I have a personal practice so I can bring my full presence as well as my tools & knowledge.

I'm currently offering 1:1 pregnancy and postpartum yoga, embodiment and ritual. Get in touch to explore if this is for you ✨

👋🏻Hi I’m Sophie, a perinatal yoga teacher, embodiment facilitator and doula in training, and I’m spending the next 24 days sharing the heart of my work so you can understand what I do and why it matters.

If you're looking for my general Embodied Hatha, Ta**ra and other non birthy stuff, find me

14/12/2025

I created this little corner of the internet because Pregnancy, birth and postpartum are experienced on all levels of our being; body, mind, heart and soul.

And so we need preparation and support that reflects that. That can meet us in our wholeness and wide ranging needs. In all of our paradox and mutiplexity. That sees our depth and breadth. Our difference and our points of connection

That meets us where we are, on all our levels. So that we can integrate all the parts of ourselves and step through the portals of transformation with knowledge, power and sovereignty.

That brings all of the juice and none of the dogma ✨

👋🏻Hi I’m Sophie, a perinatal yoga teacher, embodiment facilitator and doula in training, and I’m spending the next 24 days sharing the heart of my work so you can understand what I do and why it matters.

If you're looking for my general Embodied Hatha, Ta**ra and other non birthy stuff, find me

12/12/2025

These are the things I hold as true in my work.

They speak to the power and vastness of birth and motherhood and our need to be prepared, supported and tended through the transition.

That the body is a portal. Pregnancy, birth and parenting are experiences firmly rooted in the body, they are pathways to who you are. This can be a sacred path if you want it to be.

And, there isn't any one right way that works for everyone, but people will try and sell you one. Finding your way means attuning to yourself, getting clear about your beliefs and values, understanding your body's signals and trusting your inner knowing.

👋🏻Hi I’m Sophie, a perinatal yoga teacher, embodiment facilitator and doula in training, and I’m spending the next 24 days sharing the heart of my work so you can understand what I do and why it matters.

If you're looking for my general Embodied Hatha, Ta**ra and other non birthy stuff, find me

Asteria Movement

18/01/2026

14/01/2026

24/12/2025

23/12/2025

20/12/2025

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12/12/2025

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