Training during pregnancy, or waiting until after the birth: who each one suits
By Vanessa Chugani · Updated November 2026
Choose training during pregnancy if your energy is steady and your calendar still has predictable free blocks, since sessions can be arranged around you. Choose waiting until postpartum if you're newly caring for a baby: the settled stretches of time and attention training needs rarely exist in those early months, so wait until they return.
Reiki training runs across several live sessions, a manual and an attunement at each level, never a single afternoon and never a recording. Whether that fits better during pregnancy or only after the baby arrives depends mostly on two things: how much steady time you have, and how much attention a new skill can get alongside everything else. Pregnancy sometimes leaves a surprisingly open stretch, especially once early tiredness passes. The newborn months rarely do. Neither choice is about whether Reiki is right for you: it's about when you have enough of yourself free to learn it properly, in person in Canggu or live online, at whatever pace the level takes.
| Attending Reiki training while pregnant | Waiting until postpartum to start training | |
|---|---|---|
| Timing control | No fixed calendar: a hard week moves the session rather than losing it, and whatever free time pregnancy allows still counts. | Same flexibility, but you choose to begin once your own routine and sleep have settled into something steadier. |
| Energy for learning | Second-trimester energy often returns and gives a stretch of real focus; first-trimester fatigue may mean rescheduling a session. | Early sleep deprivation eases over the following months, and the focus a live session and manual study need comes back too. |
| What each level asks | Live attunements plus a manual to work through across several sessions, not a single afternoon. | Exactly the same shape, started once caring for a newborn is no longer the main task of your day. |
| Symbols | Level 1 already includes the symbols, so there's a practice to build from the first session. | Same content either way: no pressure to finish anything before a due date. |
| If you just want to receive Reiki | Pregnancy Reiki sessions, adapted by trimester, exist separately from training if rest is what you actually need. | Pregnancy Reiki sessions stay available after the birth too; training isn't the only route to that support. |
| Group size and format | Groups of up to six, often one to one, in Canggu or live online: unaffected by pregnancy stage. | Same format and group size once you begin, whenever that turns out to be. |
Which one suits you
Training suits someone who wants it finished before the baby arrives, someone whose pregnancy still leaves predictable blocks of time and steady enough energy to sit through several live sessions and work through the manual in between. There's no fixed calendar, so a difficult week can move the schedule rather than end it. Waiting suits a new mother in the thick of early motherhood: the first months with a newborn rarely offer the settled stretches that learning a craft needs, and trying to start Level 1 on no sleep helps no one. If that's where you are, there's no cost to waiting until a rhythm returns. Either way, Reiki itself stays available in the meantime through a pregnancy or ordinary session: rest and support for a nervous system that's been asked to do a lot, not a race to finish before or after anyone arrives.
Related questions
Can I do Level 1 while pregnant?
Level 1 includes the symbols and runs across however many live sessions it takes, in Canggu or online, arranged around your own schedule. There's no fixed calendar, so if energy or appointments need to shift during pregnancy, the pace adjusts with you rather than the other way round.
Is pregnancy Reiki training different from a pregnancy Reiki session?
Yes. Pregnancy Reiki sessions are for receiving Reiki while pregnant, adapted by trimester, and are a one-to-one service. Training is learning to practise it yourself, Level 1 through Master Teacher. They're separate things and can be booked separately.
How soon after giving birth can I start training?
There's no set date. Training begins when you have it, not a hospital discharge date. The honest guide is whether you have settled stretches of time and attention free, which for most new mothers takes longer than people expect.