Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Maria Savvenas. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Maria , thanks for joining us today. Have you ever experienced a times when your entire field felt like it was taking a U-Turn?

I have a background in lots of movement modalities: dance, group fitness, personal training, and yoga. When I certified in these modalities, there would usually be a paragraph in the textbook, a workshop, or a day specifically devoted to pregnancy, childbirth, and recovery. I indulged in the information offered, but it never really felt like a deep dive into the heart of what this experience would entail for many people, or even what it could entail. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to do with a pregnant person in a class I was teaching. I wasn’t even sure what to do with my own body when I went through the experience myself. The movement, wellness, and modern medical paradigm left me wanting. I, and so many others, slipped through the cracks. My experience could have been much, much better.

The prenatal yoga was good, but it wasn’t exactly what I’d needed. Hip openers are great, but it’s only one small piece to the puzzle. A breath practice helped, but it didn’t address breathing issues that disrupted the pressure in my core system. Meditation and the understanding of subtle bodies was amazing, but it skipped over the denseness of the body I needed to embrace for the experience. The help I sought simply shot arrows outwards in lots of different directions.
A bullseye with multiple misses, conventional fitness and yoga and the modern medical paradigm aren’t specialized specifically towards the breadth of pregnancy, childbirth, and recovery.

So, what do families need today? You need to train your body specifically for the task at hand. You need to learn to regulate your nervous system specifically for childbirth. You balance your body so the baby can navigate into the optimal position for birth. You land in and locate your inner Empress/Emperor. You acknowledge the flood of emotions that accompany pregnancy, the strong sensations of this physiological process, and you learn to listen to the language of your body. You watch the growth. You feel the increasing loads, how bodies change profoundly. How hard it becomes to roll over. How you can no longer lay on your belly or even on your back, comfortably. And you specifically learn the techniques for managing the changes and become up-to-date with core and pelvic floor literacy. This is the change. For me, movement teachers have been leading the way.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I want to begin with a little story. With my first child, I endured a labor of “wait and see” by a midwife who seemed disengaged. The 3 days of labor were cut short by a transfer to the hospital. After a cascade of interventions, birth happened via emergency c-section because of the baby’s asynclitism. I had only dilated halfway because her head hit my cervix crooked, with her head tilted sideways. It was not her fault. I had a functional pattern that tipped my pelvis up on the left and down on the right. And babies navigate the space they’re given. Gail Tully, the founder of Spinning Babies, has a saying for the pelvic floor: “not too tight, not too loose, and not too twisty.” My pelvic floor was twisty, at the very least. When I told Gail I had only dilated to a 5 and still experienced strong urges to push, she reassured me that indeed my body needed to be balanced.

So, I dove into biomechanics. With knowledge of biomechanics, I learned what having a biomechanical advantage is. We interact with gravity all our lives. There’s a way to align our bodies with gravity and manage loads and forces and the pressure system of our core. That’s one aspect of biomechanics.

Here’s the thing, though. After the c-section, the surgeon revealed that the umbilical cord wasn’t attached to the placenta, as it should have been. The cord was attached to a membrane. Even if I had balanced my body into its best state of biomechanical advantage, the baby’s descent into the birth canal could have been fatal because the cord could have detached. I am thankful for modern medicine. Surgery went swiftly and well. But I am even more in awe of the mystery of birth.

Embracing the mystery of humanity, I offer a heart-centered movement approach and look at a person’s overall functional patterns. We uncover patterns that don’t work and replace them with more optimal patterns. I also dive into my client’s astrological charts for the cosmic seeds which influence their embodiment. We process the stories that may be impeding their path. I use biomechanics, somatic awareness, and wisdom legacies to dive into a person’s central living process.

I had two births, one a C-section and the other a Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC). I’m certified as a Body Ready Method® Active Pro for my work with perinatal clients and as a Restore Your Core® teacher for my work with those dealing with core and pelvic floor dysfunction. I abide by my love of classic yoga with a RYT 200. I lead group fitness as an AFAA Group Fitness Instructor, and I have a Master of Arts in Literature and Creative Writing. I’ve studied astrology since I was 13 and took astrology classes at the peak of the lockdowns.

I teach public classes, private sessions, and I lead workshops and am open to leading retreats. I love to collaborate with other body nerds.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

People pleasing. It’s so easy for me to fall into that pattern. In fact, it takes more effort for me to set boundaries than practically any other challenging thing in my life. People pleasing at a birth can look like hypervigilance. I was more worried about everyone else than I was about advocating for myself. I labored for three days the first time. Whatever my midwife said, I obeyed. Don’t do that. Don’t be overly considerate. If someone asks you to perform lunges and you’re exhausted, listen to yourself. Take cues from your body. If you’re getting the nudge that something happening shouldn’t be, please heed that voice. It can take years, but it’s worthwhile learning how to take up space. You need your body, for birth and for every act you participate in. Take up space, even if it disappoints others.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

It’s important to see the world as it is, and not as a construct of our mental world view. I can’t change much with my opinion, and believe me, I have a lot of strong opinions. But I can empower myself with my own movement, accept my emotions, and tell my stories. And I can empower my clients, likewise.

Doing this kind of work and building this kind of awareness can seem too great of a burden sometimes. I mean, in a lot of ways, meaningful, yet practical birth work is niche right now. Also, people in the medical profession are doing their best to help families. But they are under tremendous pressure by the insurance companies. Policies that aren’t evidence based remain in hospitals. Some practitioners have stubborn confirmation and cognitive biases that prevent them from treating families with utmost compassion, dignity, and respect. Some practitioners believe life or death situations require them to make difficult choices, and therefore they must decide what to do on your behalf without even consulting you. There’s this prevalent practice of omitting informed consent from their care, so you aren’t actually informed of treatments available to you, their risks and alternatives. If you’ve had a C-section, that may automatically disqualify you from a birth center. But keep moving forward. All it takes is one empowered birth to make changes that last and go against anyone’s expectations. My doctor didn’t believe I was going to have a VBAC. I labored all night without him, and when clinic hours began that morning he walked into the room, saw me pushing, and the look on his face was palpable. Indeed, this birth really was happening, on my terms. I held the birth I wanted in my heart, and took the exact steps I needed to make that desire happen. So can you.

I hope, with the right care, you’ll feel empowered to embody your intoxication with life, because you feel deeply held in the way your body carries you. I hope, with the right care, you absorb the knowledge you’re thirsty for, in a way that helps your mind expand before it has the chance to contract. And lastly, I hope, with the right care, you will experience how your bodies intersect – the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. It’s important to embrace your own heart and find your best team.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mariasavvenas.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariasavvenas/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariasavvenas/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mariasavvenas?t=Nu2GM8lpTp1hLY3bw-vVAg&s=03

Image Credits
Brandy Keltner
Elizabeth Alderson
Packy Savvenas
Loyal Auterson