Prenatal International Summary

Updated October 21, 2022 | 3 minute read

Prenatal International improves the lives of pregnant, birthing, and postpartum people by providing training, education, and resource support to underserved communities.

Many places in the world face extremely high maternal and infant mortality rates, epidemic levels of perinatal depression, and cesarean rates well above the guidelines set by the World Health Organization. Focusing on women’s mental and physical health before, during and after childbirth will have profound effects on the birthing person and on the children they are bringing into the world.

Prenatal International provides training and support in underserved communities worldwide. These trainings help reduce negative birth outcomes caused by a lack of childbirth education, poor availability or proximity to healthcare resources, discrimination, high stress, lack of exercise, or unhealthy lifestyles. The training and support provided by Prenatal International is also designed to provide career opportunities to people in these communities so that pregnant, postpartum, and birthing people receive services provided by people who share similar culture, history, and community.

Uganda Prenatal Yoga

Prenatal International offers live and online training and resources including:

  • Certified Prenatal Yoga training
  • Certified Doula training 
  • Women’s yoga workshops
  • Continuing Education Workshops (CEUs)
  • Online Community Resource Center
  • Other workshops and materials related to perinatal health and wellbeing

Extensive Research Supports Efficacy of Prenatal Yoga Training

Movement, specifically prenatal yoga, doula support and mindfulness training and practice, have proven to be among the most effective ways to achieve emotional and physical health during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. The benefits of these practices, especially in communities where people have high stress and poor healthcare resources, are numerous.

Research shows that when yoga programs are introduced, particularly in developing countries, the results are:

  • Decreased rates of mortality for both babies and mothers
  • Reduction of hypertension-related complications
  • Decreased depression
  • Increased self-efficacy
  • Increased strength and flexibility
  • Decreased pregnancy related discomforts such as back pain, pelvic pain, headaches, and nausea
  • Improved fetal outcomes
  • Increased comfort and reduced pain in labor
  • Decreased cortisol and other stress hormones and increased immunity
  • Improved sleep
  • Decreased length of labor
  • Decreased need for labor induction
  • Decrease in gestational diabetes
  • Decreased need for cesarean birth
  • Decreased risk of preterm labor
  • Decreased risk of Intrauterine Growth Restriction in babies

There is substantial research in the field of Epigenetics linking the effects of stress and trauma in late pregnancy and the early postpartum periods with negative impacts on children’s emotional and physical development and mental health. Since yoga and doula services have well documented positive influences on stress reduction and teach life skills for dealing with stress and trauma we can have major impacts on reducing generational trauma and increasing positive gene expression that can impact multiple generations.

    Prenatal International builds bridges between communities, opening up participants to prenatal, birth, and postpartum practices which they might never be exposed to inside of their cultural bubbles.

    By offering trainings to people who might never be able to afford or have access to these trainings, the impact is two-fold: First, we are providing a pathway for people who most need the services to have access to quality education, instruction, and services. This will  improve the quality of life, pregnancy and childbirth experiences for themselves and future generations. Second, we are creating career opportunities in communities that very much need these services.

    Prenatal International trains ambassadors who are residents and have a connection to the communities where the trainings are being held. These ambassadors share a cultural and historical connection to these communities and work alongside ambassadors from other regions. Lead trainers will give students a well-rounded experience while also creating a feeling of safety and trust by having people who look like them represented in the faculty.

      Prenatal International’s founders are recognized experts in this field and have delivered these services, globally, for twenty five years.

      Jennifer MorePrenatal International was founded by Jennifer More, who has trained thousands of prenatal yoga teachers, doulas, and childbirth professionals in hundreds of prenatal yoga trainings, women’s workshops and doula trainings all over the world. In her career, Jennifer has been acutely aware of the discrepancies in perinatal health care and has worked towards making a difference in the places she traveled to.

      Jennifer along with her longtime business partner and husband, Jake More, wanted to make a larger impact so they started offering scholarships to BIPOC students who want to work in communities most impacted by these issues. Through this offering they trained many students in the U.S. and other areas, and provided scholarships to people who were facing high maternal mortality rates and negative birth outcomes. Jennifer and Jake wanted to have an even greater impact than they could with a for-profit business, only providing services to those who could afford them as well as a handful of scholarship recipients. They decided to move into the nonprofit world where this work can make a much larger impact, globally. From this, Prenatal International was born.

        We are dedicated to teaching in an inclusive and trauma-informed way. In accordance with this we would like to acknowledge the use of the words: mother, she, her, and woman. We will be alternating between using these terms and terms such as: birthing people, they, and pregnant people. Our goal is to provide service to everyone regardless of age, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical abilities, or race.

        More Information

        Please follow the links below for a detailed overview of our business, program services, organizational structure, history, or supporting research