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Hello Carie,

Several things to mention on this. Some of it will be redundant as I expect you know it already. But here what is written stays for a long time (eternal?) and is read by many others so that has to be kept in mind with reply. I'll effort to be orderly in my response.

- The student has been medically advised. And she should be following the directives of her practitioner of choice; be that Andrew Weil, Marcus Welby, or a Shaman from Siberia. Ergo I'd not do anything with such a student without clearance. It is a risk management issue for both the yoga teacher and the yoga student (in this case). I will presume such a clearance for the rest of my response here.

- We, as yoga teachers, are not diagnosticians or medical practitioners. Therefore we focus on what the student is feeling or experiencing in their body. If the student is experiencing high blood pressure (hypertension) then we give her the tools to reinforce her body dealing with that. If the student is experiencing pregnancy, then we give her tools for that. In the yoga context, pregnancy mandates a a quiet nurturing (yin) approach. Supported asana, meditation that brings light into the body, foods that are yin when eaten, and avoiding tv, computer, microwave, cell phone, fluorescent lighting, crowds, noise, violence and overstimulation will all be very helpful for both pregnancy and hypertensive situations.

- At this stage of pregnancy the work is on preparation for opening. So supta baddha konasana on a bolster with a belt around the feet would be both calming and opening. Also a gentle salamba sarvangasana on bolsters would be lovely (for both pregnancy and hypertensive issues). Of course these have to be properly administered and the alignment of the student must be just so. If you are familiar with cross bolster work you can set her up with that as well and this will allow for some gentle opening in the rib cage which may assist both breath and delivery.

- Pranayama should be simple breath awareness. Other pranayama may be "okay", but in a situation where risk is heightened for two, then we must, as always, err on the side of caution (as Rona points out above). In addition, since the kidneys are just under the diaphragm, keeping the diaphragm from becoming hard is paramount. For some students some pranayama makes this difficult to do.

- Shavasana focus is on the circulatory system and bringing the mind into the breath, the breath into the system then exhaling to relax the system that moves blood in the student's body.

- Finally, a mention about one element of the first article cited. While the point about avoiding a strenuous practice (asana) in completely "on" I do not find it appropriate (ever) to place an idea in the mind of the student unless that idea is "you can be well". The mind is very, very powerful. Thus we cannot afford to place labels or tell students that based on research they have a very good chance of developing disease. I know you will support your student in a pragmatic and energetically mindful way - but as I said, others are reading.

I hope this is of some help Carie. If you have other needs around this please feel free to PM me (or others).

gordon