This is an older blog entry. Being online since 2000 means we’ve collected heaps of posts. Keep in mind that Birthing Better online birthing classes used to be known as The Pink Kit, The Pink Kit Method for Birthing Better or Birthing Better for The Pink Kit Method. Families loved The Pink Kit name because they could say: ‘We had a Pink Kit birth’ or ‘We have a Pink Kit baby’. Their friends and family would ask: ‘What is a Pink Kit birth?’ And the family would respond: ‘We birthed better’. Duh. Make it simple for people to find us.
Aunoushka is a childbirth educator/midwife in the home town of The Pink Kit. For the past 18 months she, in conjunction with our local hospital decided that all couples attending the hospital ante-natal classes would be loaned a Pink Kit Package.
It’s been very interesting for Aunoushka to present six very short Pink Kit samplers and try to encourage families to self learn from this resource and use their Pink Kit childbirth skills in whatever birth they have.
Because she’s also a midwife many times she’ll be in hospital when one of the couples is in labour. Frankly, she’s been a bit disappointed so far.
- The midwives aren’t encouraging the couples to use the skills.
- The couples aren’t self-initiating their use.
- In fact, she finds that only 30% even bother to go through the multi-media Pink Kit package
Needless to say, she has found this very frustrating. She and her husband loved The Pink Kit, learned the skills together and used the skills during the birth of their daughter. She’s pregnant again and they are already refreshing their skills.
When she first started this trial she really didn’t know what to expect. She agrees that couples are not coming early enough. To get the best results you should really start learning about 24 weeks.
Starting at 24 weeks gives you time to space out a bit, learn slowly and thoroughly. When left to the 32 weeks that most couples start attending the classes, it’s just too late. They feel overwhelmed by having to learn a simple set of skills and they haven’t been told my their birth provider that the skills are essential.
Just recently she discovered a bit more success and felt it had to do with a shift in her attitude, in how she was presenting the brief samplers and the tone in her voice when she explained how essential the skills are.
Recently she’s also had a number of couples attend who are coming from the two midwives who collected our statistics. Because those midwives are pushing couples into doing the work, they come to class already invested in self-learning.
What’s the end result? She feels that within another year or two The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better® will become a household name in our local area.
That’s neat. Now we just have to get out into the bigger world.
Here are all the Birthing Better online birth classes. Scroll down each page and find the table of contents for each course.
Birthing Better skills are housed in Common Knowledge Trust