Childbirth Classes

Birthing From Within^®:
Extraordinary Childbirth Classes to Prepare for Labor & Beyond

What is your deepest question?

What is it that you need to know to give birth?

This approach to childbirth is unlike any other. Based on Birthing From Within: An Extra-ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation, the landmark book that rocked the birth world, Birthing From Within classes offer something that most classes don’t. We go beyond simply teaching obstetrical information and into the realm of self-discovery.

Served up as delicious gourmet sessions to nourish your heart as much as your mind, these classes provide you with both knowledge and inspiration. Letting go of the need to make a “birth plan” and the idea of “getting it right,” you’ll find out with it means to prepare for the unfathomable mystery of birth. You’ll learn how to navigate your way through its labyrinth, find your own inner strength and power, and re-emerge as a newly initiated parent.

“We have a secret in our culture, and it’s not that birth is painful. It’s that women are strong.”
—Laura Stavoe Har

Some unique things you’ll discover in our classes include:

• Answers to your questions—classes are kept small to allow for individual attention
• A warm, nurturing space to explore and transform your fears, worries, and concerns
• Proven pain-coping techniques to help you cope with the intensity and hard work of labor as well as the space to practice and master them
• Beliefs you have about birth and about yourself and the space to let go of the ones that don’t serve you
• Ways to avoid birth trauma if and when you have to do “the next best thing”
• Creative, holistic ways to understand and map dilation and the “stages of labor” and what they actually mean for you
• How to create a safe, sacred birth space no matter where you give birth
• How to ask questions to get the information you need
• How to tame and even embrace your “birth tigers”—unwanted surprises that may arise during or after labor
• How to figure out when it’s wisest to use pain medication and when it’s unnecessary
• How to push your baby out through listening to your body
• How to have a Cesarean birth in awareness if one is needed
• How to cultivate a positive, solution-focused mindset
• How to understand birth as a profound rite of passage and special rituals to celebrate this journey
• An ongoing, intimate community of support

All of our classes include a special session just for fathers and birth partners led by psychotherapist, father, and Birthing From Within mentor Chris Malanga.

We’ll also cover:

• What to do in early labor
• The feedback loop of labor hormones
• Natural methods to “turn” your baby to an optimal position
• Different positions for labor
• Natural pain relief and comfort measures
• Natural ways to speed labor up
• What sights and sounds to expect during birth
• Newborn care
• How to prepare for and support postpartum recovery
• Breastfeeding basics and what to eat while nursing
• How to baby-proof your relationship

Information is presented through fun, playful, hands-on exercises such as dialogue and discussion, visualization, storytelling, role play, films, rituals, and artmaking. Classes are comprehensive, compassionate, creative, honest, and inspiring!

You’ll discover things about yourself that no medical book could ever teach you.

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Class size:

Limited space available. Classes are intentionally kept small to ensure time and space for individual attention and to create an intimate class community. Register early!

Contact us to register

To find out more about Birthing From Within, click here.

To find out more about us, click here.