GentleBirth coming to Indy!

Yesterday was a special day!  Nine years ago yesterday, I started my doula journey with the birth of my oldest daughter.  I blogged about that last year here.  This year, yesterday marks the beginning of something new.  I officially completed my certification to be a GentleBirth instructor!  

I am so excited about this new opportunity and this new option in childbirth education that I am privileged to bring to Indiana.  I’ve not come across anything quite like it.  It’s based in the latest brain science. Incorporating mindfulness, hypnosis, sports psychology, and CBT, it applies that all to birth!  All you athletes out there, this will be familiar.  The brain training skills GentleBirth moms are learning are real, science based, and incredibly powerful in such a positive way.  This is not a program where you have to be “crunchy” to get. 

GenteBirth teaches women that birth is exciting!  That it doesn’t need to be feared for endured.  Their baby that they’ve carried for months is about to be in their arms and that’s a wonderful thing!  We’ve always looked forward to the baby but often we think of the birth as something to get through.  This program gives women the tools to change their thought patterns and change their brains in relation to birth.  How incredible is that?! 

GentleBirth gives women the information and skills they need to navigate a less than perfect system with protocols and rules that don’t necessarily benefit the laboring woman.  It doesn’t set them up to be antagonistic but rather to be collaborative and encourages women to choose good providers (or change) and good places of birth (or switch) and work with those people to have a positive experience.  

While GentleBirth certainly gives women the tools they need to have a positive, all natural birth, it also gives them the flexibility to change their plan when it’s necessary for their and their baby’s health and well being.  There is no “failed” GentleBirth.  Every birth can be a GentleBirth.  The focus is on controlling the controllable and acknowledging that are things about birth that are unpredictable. 

When I was looking for a childbirth education program, this last bit was incredibly important to me.  No woman should feel shame if their birth plan goes sideways.  It was important to me to find a program that gave families the tools they needed for a natural birth but also the decision making and communication skills they needed to feel good about their decisions.  I found that in GentleBirth!

Yes, I’m excited. I’m sure you can tell ;).  I’ll be announcing class dates as soon as I get locations finalized.  If you are outside the Indianapolis area and interested in hosting a workshop, please contact me here!  In the mean time, download the app for a 7 day free trail.

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