Birthready ▶ Pregnancy Support ▶ Active Birth & Parenting Classes
Active Birth & Parenting Classes

Are you Birthready?

Discover a wide range of learning tools and life style practices to prepare for a safer and more satisfying birth and parenting experience. Strengthen skills for birth and life as parents.

It’s exciting to see how much people change from fear to courage, stress to calm and doubt to confidence.  Classes are interactive, integrative and relatable to your personal journey into parenthood.  

Session 1 Birth:  Explore natures design for birth and how to work with all stages of labour.  Understand today’s birth culture, interventions and how to communicate well with your birth team for informed decision making with consent.  Practice active birth techniques for pain management and calm birthing – such as  relaxation, breathing, mindfulness, hypnosis and body awareness.  Deepen trust and teamwork with your birth partner.

INVESTMENT – $340 for 3 hr labour and birth class in person (3 couples only)

  • These classes offer an independent point of view, evidence based information and personal stories.
  • Includes Birthready workbook for ongoing activities, education and templates for birth plan preparation.
  • Location – Birthready Ringwood.

Session 2 Parenting:  Start confidentely as a parent with fundamental tools to understand and care for your baby’s needs.  Learn: the fundamentals for breastfeeding; baby’s communication and learning styles; how to soothe and settle your baby; prepare for life changes and how to nurture a healthy relationship with your partner/supports.

INVESTMENT – $340 for 3 hr parenting class, in person (3 couples only)

After a very long labour I ended up having a uncomplicated natural birth with minimal tearing. the skills we learned at the workshop most definitely assisted with this. While at times I doubted myself and found myself overwhelmed with the pain we managed to use some of the techniques we learned, and more importantly I was able to trust my body and its ability to birth my baby.

Darren was also an amazing support throughout the whole process. He had gained invaluable skills from the workshop to support me in the best possible way. We were left with a sense of accomplishment and pride and joy.

I just wanted to thank you for passing on your knowledge, wisdom and encouragement with great warmth and enthusiasm during those two days – invaluable and I am so grateful we signed up.

Karin and Darren

What you will learn:-

Labour and birth class:

  1. A deep understanding of your body’s design for natural labour and birth.
  2. Awareness of your maternity care options, including models of care, places of birth and how they may influence the birth process.
  3. Tools to calm and relax your mind and body to help your labour progress normally using more of your senses; movement, breath,  active birth positions, sounds, smells, hypnosis, intuition, massage, touch, presence!
  4. Helpful skills to enhance your partners ability to trust their own intuition and provide comforting, pain relief techniques
  5. Understanding how to navigate the medical model of care and communicate effectively with your birthing team.
  6. Understand how to manage a change of birth plan and the emotions that may arise from this.

Parenting class:

  1. Understand what happens immediately after birth for the mother and the baby.  Ie delivering the placenta, family bonding and attachment, delayed chord clamping, newborn instincts.
  2. Education and tools to care for your baby:  breastfeeding, settling and sleep.
  3. Getting to know your baby’s efforts to communicates and adapt to life and how to help meet their needs.
  4. Understand the mother, baby and partners needs in the first weeks of life – physical, emotional and practical.
  5. Strengthen your partner relationship as you explore how to support each other, manage stress, conflict, lifestyle changes, workload and responsibilities as you transition into life as parent.
  6. Explore ways to communicate, connect and deepen intimacy with your partner in your new role as parents.

Just wanted to let you know that I birthed my baby boy on Tuesday morning – drug free and found the hips squeezing exercise absolutely amazing during labour. Thanks for showing it to us in class.

Vera

Birth Stories

Welcome Kiddo – a powerful birth by induction

(Written by the birthing mother) Part One: Waiting Thursday 19 July 2018 It’s the middle of winter, and now four days past my due date. The cat is underneath the doona, curled up next to my huge swollen belly, purring as I feel that swooshing live fish flop of the...

Reflections of doula support

Reflections on a couples journey from pregnancy to parenting. ***** 1. What are you proud of with regards to your birth preparation and birth experience? I’m proud of myself for taking the initiative to do the work for a natural birth. I had not even considered that...

A dads birth story, shared from the heart

Discussing, understanding and documenting what sort of birth Jess and I wanted was critical in helping me prepare for potential unknowns. Imagining the birth process from start to finish also helped- and actually practicing things like active birth exercises in our...

Birthing with bi-polar and epilepsy

Dear Erika, At the beginning of 2009 we spoke to my psychiatrist about the possibility of me having a child. After he outlined all the complications due to my bi-polar, epilepsy and medications I had as good as accepted I’d never be a mother. When I discovered in...

An empowering induction birth

Erika was called and arrived at a critical point; Alex and her support team were exhausted and the institution was starting to move closer and closer to taking complete control of the birth. After months of research and excited planning for the complete unknown of the...

The internal journey of a long labour

The birth of Marlene After a long labour Marlene was born naturally at 1.45am on the 7th of March at Angliss Family Birth Centre, Upper Ferntree Gully. I was surrounded by a magnificent birthing team that supported me throughout the labour, which comprised of my...

Homebirth after a caesarean

I gave birth to our little boy at home, with no interventions, no drugs, no stress. I laboured the way that felt right for me, and birthed in the position that came naturally. My husband caught his own son, and it is an experience that we will never forget in a...

Two births – a marathon and a sprint

My contractions were getting stronger. Erika rang the hospital and then drove me in her car. I chose the back seat. About half way to the hospital my waters broke (fortunately I was sitting on a towel). When I told her, Erika said just what I needed to hear: that’s...

Proactive birth preparation with hypnosis

I'm so proud of the steps we took, including hiring our wonderful doula Erika, and the preparation we put in which helped create the most intense, incredible, memorable, rewarding and magical 24 hours of our lives. Our Birth Story Going into this, we didn't even know...

A great home birth experience

Effie - "When I found out I was pregnant, my biggest fear was having to go into hospital to give birth. Hospitals gave me fierce anxiety as my pastexperiences of them had always been negative. I wasn'tconvinced that hospital was my only option, so I took to Dr Google...

Creative childbirth education with a toddler

“Erika helped prepare us for the birth of our son in a very short period of time, and with our 3 year old ‘helping out’ with costumes too!! This delightful couple were happy to have their daughter join in on some birth preparations massage techniques I was showing the...

Miranda’s vaginal birth after a caesarean

Not only were Erika's teachings and advice a useful tool during labour and birth, I was able to apply a lot of them to my life in general (as well as the relationship with my husband and son), and it allowed me to enjoy my little family and appreciate what I had all...

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Skills for birth and life