About Om Mama

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Our Mission

The mission of OmMama, LLC, is to provide exceptional pre- and post-natal yoga and childbirth education classes for women and families in their childbearing years, and to offer topnotch, comprehensive training for the teachers who serve them.

We believe that childbirth is a transformative event in women's lives that affects families, communities, and the larger culture. All women should have access to respectful, compassionate prenatal and postpartum services and support that promote the best possible outcomes for mothers and babies.

Instructors

Leslie Lytle
Founder/Director

Leslie Lytle first began working in complementary health care in 1982, when she took a part-time job as a massage practitioner at the University of Texas at Austin. Financing her way through college, the job quickly became the cornerstone of a career in movement and bodywork. Her coursework shifted to anatomy and physiology, balanced by dance and movement classes. After moving to Richmond Virginia, she co-founded Movement Resources, Inc., Richmond’s first group massage therapy and movement re-education practice in 1986. Her passion for pregnancy and birth began in 1992, when she completed a certification in perinatal massage, and deepened with the natural birth of her son in 1996. As Coordinator of Somatic Therapies and Education at the Mind Body Medicine Center at Retreat Hospital, she developed innovative pilot programs that incorporated massage therapy into in-patient settings, including an in-patient postpartum massage program. In 1999, she trained as a doula through the Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators, and has been privileged to attend numerous births. Leslie directed the prenatal/postnatal yoga program at Yoga Source, in Richmond, Virginia from 2001 to 2008. A Certified Laban Movement Analyst and Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT200) with Yoga Alliance, she holds a bachelor's degree in Movement Studies and a master’s in Sociology, where her area of interest was women's experience of the body and health.

In her classes and in her teaching, Leslie combines a background in Iyengar-style yoga and vipassana meditation with imagery, poetry, and a deep understanding of the experience of pregnancy and birth. She has studied with and continues to learn from teachers such as Roger Cole, Donna Farhi, Gabriel Halpern, Elise Browning Miller, and Eric Small. She has completed advanced training in Prenatal Yoga with Janice Clarfield and Colette Crawford, instructor training in Prenatal/Postpartum Exercise with Elizabeth Noble, and is certified as a Pre/Postnatal Health and Fitness Instructor with Dancing Thru Pregnancy® Inc. Leslie brings to her yoga classes a love of movement, an eye for alignment, and a deep respect for the body's inherent wisdom.

Candy Beers, MS, DTR

Candy Beers began her study of movement and the body/mind connection through modern dance. Her love for the creative process of dance and developmental psychology led her to complete a Master's degree in Dance/Movement Therapy through Pratt Institute in New York City. While at Pratt, Candy studied Laban Movement Analysis, Kestenberg Movement Profile, and Authentic Movement. She is certified in Pilates through Powerhouse Pilates and is a student of Kundalini and Iyengar yoga. Candy is a certified youth fitness instructor and is working towards her certification in Itsy Bitsy Yoga®. She brings to her work an understanding of movement development and its connection to nurturing the whole child.

Melissa Calkins, M.Ed.

Melissa Calkins tried yoga out of curiosity in 1998 and committed to the practice when she discovered its power to improve her well-being and bring peace to her life. She completed the Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training with Leslie Lytle in 2005 and went on to practice prenatal yoga throughout her own pregnancies, postnatal yoga after her births, and Itsy Bitsy Yoga with her two daughters. She will complete her yoga certification through Sun and Moon Yoga Studio in Northern Virginia in 2009. With a profound respect for pregnancy and birth, Melissa draws upon her own experience to encourage students to find their voices as new mothers. She studied Womens Studies in college and uses this academic foundation to work toward baby-friendly and mother-friendly initiatives. Melissa is active in a local support group for parents and is an advocate for informed choices in childbirth, breastfeeding support, and attachment parenting. In addition to teaching prenatal yoga, Melissa provides administrative office support to OmMama.

Mary Toombs, RN, LCCE

Mary Toombs has over sixteen years experience working in the obstetrical field, including eight years working with high-risk antepartum and postpartum women and newborns at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, and eight years in Labor and Delivery, also at MCV. Her passion for supporting pregnant women and their families led her to complete training as a birth and postpartum doula through DONA International. A Certified Lamaze Childbirth Educator, Mary has taught prepared childbirth education classes at both MCV and Bon Secours for twelve years. In her spare time, she enjoys camping and hiking with her husband and spending time with her children and two grandchildren.

Maura Varley-Twyman, MPH, MSW

Maura Varley is Masters prepared in Public Health and Social Work from Boston University. As a certified Fellow of Lamaze International, Maura has had the opportunity to train new Lamaze Childbirth educators through VCU and Duke University. She relocated from the San Francisco Bay Area in 2001 where she was employed as the Director of Health Education at Kaiser Permanente. In that capacity, she supervised the coodination of over fifty health education programs. Upon arrival in Richmond, Maura established Birth, Bonding & Beyond, a perinatal health education consulting business. Through this company, Maura developed a series of on-going childbirth education programs, including both expectant fatherhood and newborn care curriculumns. In the past six years Maura has been hired as a consultant by three major hospital systems to help inprove their prenatal education program. Maura’s most significant accomplishment. . . . her four beautiful children ages 2, 4, 6 and 9.