Holistic Childbirth Classes (Asheville, NC)
This is a five-part series of classes that cover a range of topics important to pregnancy, labor and birth, and newborn care. The classes are intended for parents who are interested in exploring natural birth through a variety of media, from birth art to discussions about physiology and labor to videos of beautiful natural births.
Class One
- Introductions
- Questionnaire
- Fetal Development
- Nutrition
- Intro to Herbs and Homeopathy
- Comfort Measures for Common Pregnancy Complaints
- Video: My Body, My Baby, My Birth
- Group B Strep
- Psychological/Emotional Changes of Pregnancy
- Nonviolent Communication
- Birth Art
Class Two
- Video: Birth Day
- Baby’s position and Optimal Fetal Positioning
- Terminology of Labor
- Labor and Birth: The Physical Journey
- Visualization exercise: An opening flower
Class Three
- Video: Birth as We Know It
- The importance of nutrition and hydration
- Relaxation techniques
- Early labor: emotional experience and coping techniques
- Ice exercise: Outside awareness
- Active labor: emotional experience and coping techniques
- Positions for active labor
- Ice exercise: Inner awareness
- Transition: The Wild Woman Time
- Ice exercise: Going to the center of the sensation
- Pushing: emotional experience, positions, and how to work with your pushing uterus
- What to expect as the baby moves down
- Birth and placenta
Class Four
- Hormones and the Birth Experience
- Common Hospital Procedures- descriptions, pros and cons
- Unusual Labor Experiences: Precipitous (fast) Labor, Prodromal Labor and Posterior Labor
- Nonviolent Communication in the Hospital
- Hospital Role Play- Scenarios and Choices
- Creating a Birth Plan
Class Five
- Immediate Postpartum: Baby
- Baby over the next few weeks
- Perineal Healing
- Bleeding and Lochia
- Breasts and Breasfeeding
- Sleep and Activity
- Visitors
- Postpartum Moods
- Birth Art: Birth Power Symbol
- Final Meditation: The Amazing Expanding Pelvis
