What
You Already Know
Just
as your body has known how to maintain your pregnancy and grow your baby without
you telling it day by day or week by week which organ to develop or which limbs
to grow, your body innately knows how to give birth.
The process of giving birth is controlled by our ‘lower’ (or
‘animal’) brain – it is our intellectual or ‘higher’ brain that often
gets in the way of birthing normally.
Preparing for birth is not about learning all the stages of labor, what
procedures
are available to birthing women, specific breathing patterns, or medical lingo.
True preparation includes discovering what you need on all levels –
emotional, physical, psychical, social, spiritual - to let go, trust your instinct, and
be open to the process. The goal of
my classes is to facilitate trust in your body and your self, and help you
access your inner wisdom.
There
is No Set Agenda
Each class is different. At
the beginning of the series, I ask each participant to list what they want to learn or gain from the classes.
While I have some topics and exercises that I feel are necessary and
useful for pregnant women and their partners to engage in, each person
contributes their needs and questions to our ‘lesson plan’.
Birth
Art
We will use art as a tool for self-exploration.
Art is a fun and useful way to discover the internal thoughts and
messages that you have about birth. You
don’t have to be an artist to create powerful and meaningful images - some of
the best birth art consists of abstract shapes, muddled colors, and stick
figures! The images that you create will come from within, and will
help you understand your innate knowledge about yourself, your hidden feelings
about giving birth and parenting, and uncover your desires and fears.
Develop
a Pain-Coping Practice
You already have natural ways of dealing with stress and pain in your
daily life. We will explore many
different pain-coping processes, identifying the skills that you already have and
developing new ones that are effective for you.
To determine which methods help you most, you will hold ice for
pretend ‘contractions’. The
sensations of ice are not as painful as labor contractions, but have similar
qualities (radiation, achiness, burning, movement) which will allow you to see
which methods work for you and which do not.
You will test your endurance, determination, and your body’s natural
ability to cope - from this you will develop a pain-coping mindset that will see
you through your birth, and throughout the rest of your life.
Movement
As a proponent of active birth (staying upright, moving around, and changing
positions frequently as much as possible during labor), I incorporate a number
of movement techniques in class. We
will try various yoga positions, movements for optimal fetal positioning, belly
dancing, and vertical positions for pushing.
Prepare
for Anything
Birth is a profound mystery. No
one can tell in advance what kind of birth you will have.
Some women birth easily, some not so easily, and a few have great
obstacles to birthing normally. In this class we will discuss how and why birth sometimes
doesn’t happen as you envisioned, how to prepare for unexpected things that
might
happen, how to remain centered in the midst of stress, and how to give birth in
awareness, in the best way you can, regardless of the events or outcome.
Strengthen
Your Relationships
One of the things most requested from couples is time to relate to each
other and their baby during the hectic time of pregnancy.
In this class, you will spend time learning how to relax with each other
– techniques you can take home with you!
We will do visualization exercises to nurture the strong connection
between parents and their babies, and to help women and their partners find
their own ways to work together in labor and beyond. Exercises and dialogue will provide the catalyst for couples to explore
their feelings more deeply as they prepare to enter the journey of parenting.
Connect
with Others
In the past, women would share their knowledge and thoughts about birth
with each other in the course of their daily lives. Women (and their partners) weren’t meant to go through pregnancy,
birth and parenting in isolation. Well,
we don’t have the same opportunities for sharing in our daily lives, so
nowadays women and their partners go to childbirth classes! True learning is not gained so much by me lecturing to you,
as it is from hearing the thoughts and ideas of others and sharing yours.
Class size is limited to seven women and their partners so there is plenty
of time for discussion of the topics you are interested in knowing about.
Many strong connections are made in these classes, and provide a great
opportunity for forming on-going friendships.
What
to Bring to Class
Bring yourself, your birth partner, an open mind, your fears, your
hopes, a desire to learn more about yourself, and a willingness to discover your
truths. You will be provided with your own Keepsake
Journal to write notes, draw in, and document your journey together.
*Birthing
from Within, the title of the 1998 book by Pam England, approaches birth as
a profound rite of passage, not a medical event.
Focus is on self-discovery of what each individual needs to know to
birth, on developing a pain-coping mindset, and on using fun interactive
exercises to learn.
