MINDFULNESS-BASED CHILDBIRTH AND PARENTING: 7 WEEK COURSE
Why would you invest so much of your time into childbirth education? Because this is not a typical course with the purpose of reaching a particular goal ending with childbirth. These skills will support you for a lifetime and anything that has the power to transform takes time. During this workshop you will learn:
Access deep physical and mental relaxation
Engage the mind and body to work with pain during labor
Increase confidence and courage for the experience of labor
Practice prenatal yoga for strength and flexibility led by Vaza Yoga
Develop skills for managing stress in pregnancy, parenting and daily life
Enhance partner communication skills
You will also learn about childbirth, breastfeeding and your new baby, as well as develop skills on how to communicate with your birth providers, from a midwife with over a decade of experience in this field.
THE MIND IN LABOR: 3 day intensive
The Mind in Labor is a three-day class experience that draws from the MBCP Curriculum. It is comprised of one night and two full weekend day classes. The foundations of MBCP and the practical components of mindfulness are explored with a focus on working with pain, fear and uncertainty in childbirth. During this workshop you will learn to:
Engage the mind to work with pain during labor
Practice prenatal yoga for strength and flexibility, led by Vaza Yoga
Begin to develop skills for managing stress in pregnancy, parenting and daily life
Access physical and mental relaxation
Practice hands-on techniques for working with discomfort during pregnancy and labor
How do I choose?
Both courses work with pain, fear and uncertainty in childbirth, but the Mind in Labor workshop does not go as far in depth into the labor process or have as much time to develop mindfulness skills as the MBCP Class series will.
The Mind in Labor intensive, a two-and-a-half-day training, draws from the MBCP curriculum. The intensive covers the mind-body relationship in pregnancy and birth by introducing the practical components of MBCP (mindfulness meditation, yoga, partner support) as well as covering the theoretical framework of how the mind and body deal with physical and psychological experiences, including how to work with pain in labor. We have subtitled the MIL "Working with Fear, Pain and Uncertainty in Childbirth" to let participants know that these aspects of the mind are what we will be addressing, but the MBCP is a deeper look at working with the same content simply because it is a longer class. Deciding between MIL vs MBCP sometimes comes down to logistics (time, location, or where you are in your pregnancy) vs the desire to go deeper into mindfulness practice, skill-building and development of community that inevitably occur with the 7 class curriculum. If you have taken MBCP before in a prior pregnancy the MIL can be a wonderful refresher in a subsequent pregnancy.