Claire & Lolly

woman to woman

We are delighted to come together to share our many years of experience, wisdom and depth of knowledge to support as many women as we can during this precious stage of their lives. Being pregnant is an extraordinary time, a time of transformation which can feel overwhelming at times, and we are here to support you. Lolly was Claire's teacher for each of her pregnancies and guided her through three very positive births. Lolly then set Claire on her path to teaching, and John Stirk has been Claire's main yoga teacher for over 20 years. We are thrilled to pass this knowledge on to current and future generations of women.

Claire Whitman

Founder, Yoga Teacher 

Claire discovered the benefits of yoga in 1993, whilst pregnant with her first child she attended weekly pregnancy classes with Lolly. She had a positive, natural birth and was inspired to look deeper into the practice of yoga. Her next two babies were born at home, again she attended Lolly's classes and birth preparation workshops. Empowered by the knowledge and confidence she gained throughout her pregnancies, and determined to pass this on, she trained to teach pregnancy and postnatal yoga. She feels huge gratitude to have trained with Janet Balaskas and Lolly Stirk, pioneers of Active Birth and Perinatal Yoga. She also trained as a doula with Michel Odent, and Well Woman Yoga Therapy with Uma  Dinsmore-Tuli. More recently Claire has completed Intelligent Yoga Teacher Training ( IYTT 300hr ) to deepen her knowledge of anatomy. Claire currently teaches regular live pregnancy and general yoga classes at Triyoga Chelsea and The Life Centre Notting Hill, and can be contacted below for private classes.

Lolly Stirk

Birth Preparation & Yoga Teacher

Lolly is a pioneer of pregnancy & postnatal yoga, her career has spanned over four decades and has been dedicated to creating the ideal practice for pregnancy, labour, birth and beyond. She began her study of yoga in 1970. Some of her teachers include, B K S Iyengar, Vanda Scaravelli, Sandra Sabbatini and her husband John Stirk continues to inspire her. She trained as an NCT teacher, has qualified in Hypnobirthing with Kathryn Graves, and attended hundreds of births in the capacity of Doula. As a founding member of the Active Birth movement in 1980, she campaigned for the rights of woman to move freely during the births of their babies, contributing to a global movement towards natural births which resulted in changes in policy, establishing birth centres in many major hospitals. Lolly is also a founder member and elder of YogaBirth and is part of the training faculty.