NOT-TOOGENTLE PRENATAL YOGA

NEELU SHRUTI Love Child Yoga, 1 Horatio St.; lovechildyoga.com Neelu Shruti, whom author (and client) Jia Tolentino describes as “a deeply chill and progressive woman,” left her job as an architect to open the West Village studio Love Child Yoga in 2015. Along with preand postnatal yoga, Love Child offers childbirth classes (Shruti is a trained doula), lactation consulting, and “Baby & Me” yoga classes for new parents. While Tolentino says she initially “balked at the price” of a full membership ($180 monthly for unlimited yoga and expectantparent-support classes), she says it was a “lifeline” during her pregnancy. Compared with other prenatal yoga classes, which Tolentino found too gentle, Shruti’s “hit a sweet spot—therapeutic but challenging, a slow but rewarding burn.” Even over Zoom, Tolentino says Shruti is “really good at tailoring each session to the bodies and needs of whoever shows up.”