The birth world is changing……faster than we could have imagined.
Those of us working in this birth world often feel astounded by obstetrical trends that seem to go against a woman´s intuition of whats best for her and her baby. The polarized world is every day more fundamentalist and angry at what they conceive of as the other side, leaving women caught in the middle, feeling somehow at fault for not doing birth “the right way”.
And although women are manipulated at a very vulnerable time in their lives, by a commercialized and medicalized system that benefits from her being fearful and disempowered, not all women are victims of abuse. Many prefer cesareans and epidurals, bottle feeding and separate sleeping arrangements for reasons that are valid to them, though they may be perplexing to us.
Conventional childbirth education is also changing. New paradigms are calling out to be integrated into the way we help couples feel prepared. The essence of what we do is more about awakening our students to a deeper sense of knowing what decisions feel right for them and then modeling ways to communicate and negotiate these priorities with healthcare providers. We are no longer just information givers. We are facilitators of a new consciousness. And the perfect space to broaden our internal worldview , is the one we create during our time together in the course.The basis for many preparation courses is well founded but because we live in a technological world with different learning styles and little available time for meaningful life lessons, many modern couples forgo childbirth classes. The method I share in my workshop remedies this in great part because we make it more about life, than about birth, more about your child´s voice than your doctors words, more about connection than about disaccord. It brings a space of quiet reflection into the classroom.
With a renewed passion for our work, and with more resources than ever before, we can creatively design our classes to include methodologies such as focusing, sensory awareness, neuro linguistic programming, mindfulness, yoga and hipnosis. Add to that what science is telling us about the fetal world, the microbiome, the endocrine system, epigenetics and perinatal neuroscience, and we have no excuse but to fill our students hearts with the wonder of what they are experiencing at this amazing time in their lives. However, if our BASE of basic knowledge and teaching skills are not updated because we believe they don’t need to be, we fail at the start.
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