childbirth education
Private classes or group (subject to current demand & location availability).
Private classes are generally four to six 2-hour sessions (10+ hours of content), with the mother and father of the baby. Private classes are held in at my office or the client’s home. Additional birth support people who are planning to be present at the birth may be permitted upon request, (i.e. mother of the pregnant woman), with the understanding that they are there to support the couple and understand the greater context and physiology of birth and how they may support the couple during the birth of their child. To this end, Emma’s primary focus will remain on the interest, questions, and concerns of the mother and father of the baby.
Group classes consist of six 2-2.5-hour sessions. The content is the same as a private series, but leaves a little more wiggle room for each couple to ask personalized questions. Location will be determined based on the locations of participating clients and availability of facilities, but will likely generally be offered at my office in the Langley Township..
Course includes a 20+ page folder of relevant information curated specifically for this course. Content for both group and private is essentially the same, with variation due to live interaction and questions. Content outline is the same for group and private.
Birth & beyond
An exploration into physiologic birth.
- The hormonal blueprint of labour
- The altered brainwave states (also known as “the zone”)
- The cardinal movements of birth
- Birth biomechanics + anatomy of the female pelvis
- The holistic stages of labour
- Pain and birth
- Comfort measures and practical labour support
- The role of the father
- Creating your ideal birth space and birth plan
- Breastfeeding basics
- The pillars of postpartum recovery
- Maternal physiology of labour and birth
- Vertical birth – rethinking positions for birth
- Baby care basics
We cover topics including:
That is entirely up to you...Most couples who seek out childbirth education are first-time parents, or maybe having their second baby and felt underprepared in their first birth experience, but any couple expecting a baby is welcome if you feel it's right for you. .
Are childbirth education classes necessary to having a good birth outcome or the birth experience you want? No, definitely not. Many women have not known much of what to expect or what contributes to an easeful birth and still had a great experience.
But for those who
feel like birth is an unknown, (hint: it is!)
like their only frame of reference is a woman screaming in stirrups in a hospital bed in a movie or a history of caesareans in your family
or if you felt caught off guard and encountered the unexpected in your first birth and want to approach it differently the second time around
it might be helpful and empowering to learn how the female body is designed to birth a baby.
When you begin to understand what physiologic birth looks like we can let go a lot of the fear of the unknown. Most of the time, birth just works. And when it “doesn’t”, it’s probably because the body was doing something else intelligent under the given circumstances.
Who is childbirth education for?
Do I really need it?
Knowledge is power, especially in a society that has forgotten what normal birth looks like.