Comprehensive Childbirth Preparation Skills For All Births
Comprehensive Childbirth Preparation Skills For All Births
Start around 24 weeks pregnant
Go through ONE LESSON EACH WEEK. This will take you to 36 weeks pregnant.When you start around 24 weeks you have time to learn, practice comfortably, integrate the skills and feel totally confident by the time your birth unfolds. From 36 weeks pregnant onward to The Birth just keep reviewing and integrating your birth and birth-coaching skills
Are you closer to birth than 24 weeks pregnant? No worries. Just pick and choose what you want to learn. ANY SKILL YOU USE IS BETTER THAN NONE!
Consider The Birth as your Olympic activity or your Mt. Everest climb. Won’t you practice necessary skills everyday for 16 weeks? You won’t leave becoming skilled to the last minute. We KNOW our baby’s birth is the most important activity we will ever do and that’s why Birthing Better families become skilled.
Pregnancy, childbirth and you
Lesson One
24 weeks pregnant
READ: Our commonality is so much more fundamental than our individuality during pregnancy and birth. If you’re pregnant, you’re in an exclusive group and both you and your partner are moving from ‘becoming’ to ‘being’ a parent. One hundred percent of pregnant women will give birth. Explore how both work together. PICK AND CHOOSE WHAT INTERESTS YOU. As mother and father you might want/need to learn separate skills at first. That’s normal.
- PDF: Before pregnancy – 12 pages
- PDF: Mother-to-be – 7 pages
- PDF: Father-to-be – 14 pages
- PDF: First Pregnancy – 7 pages
- PDF: Childbirth – 28 pages
- PDF: Positive Birth – 15 pages
- PDF: After the Birth – 6 pages
Type of birth
Lesson Two
25 weeks pregnant
READ: Are you making a Birth Plan about your coming birth? Read the eBook that fits your want or image of the birth you believe you will have. Then read the eBook about the birth you absolutely dread or can’t imagine having. In other words, learn how to use your Birthing Better skills no matter what type of birth unfolds for your baby. The eBook on TABS is important to read. You want to reduce or prevent birth trauma to yourself or baby and if your birth is traumatic you don’t want to be traumatized.
- PDF: Labor to Vaginal Birth – 19 pages
- PDF: Labor to Unplanned Caesarean – 16 pages
- PDF: Planned VBAC- 23 pages
- PDF: VBAC to Caesarean- 8 pages
- PDF: Elective or Planned Caesarean- 11 pages
- PDF: TABS … trauma after birth syndrome- 19 pages
Place of birth
Lesson Three
26 weeks pregnant
READ: The best time to start is from 24 weeks onward so you can learn in a relaxed manner. If you’re 40+ weeks you’re just more motivated so pick and choose what skills to learn right now. Read the eBook about where you want to birth and then read the eBook about where you don’t want to birth. If you’re birthing out of hospital please read the eBook on transferring to hospital. YOU absolutely have to learn why and how to use your skills when faced with that challenge. Your baby’s birth is worth your effort and your baby deserves your total envolvement.
- PDF: Hospital Birth – 29 pages
- PDF: Home Birth – 22 pages
- PDF: Birth Center Birth – 8 pages
- PDF: Unassisted/Free Birthing – 9 pages
- PDF: Transfer to Hospital – 11 pages
Twos and threes
Lesson Four
27 weeks pregnant
READ: There are heaps of twos and threes. Here are eBooks about Two Birth Plans, 3 Birth roles, 3 Births, Two Types of Birthing Behaviors and Two Make a Team. If you’re pregnant with one baby … that’s another two. Pregnant with twins … that’s a three. Have a partner? That’s a two. Choice? Often an either/or. Change? A this or that. Even during The Birth you either choose to use a skill or skills or you choose not to. Doesn’t mean choosing to use skills is easy. Often choosing what skill, when and how to use it during The Birth requires a deep commitment to filling Time with being skilled rather than being passive.
- PDF: Teamwork – 23 pages
- PDF: Two Birth Plans – 11 pages
- PDF: Three Birth Roles – 10 pages
- PDF: Three Birth Stories – 25 pages
- PDF: Two Birthing Behaviors – 10 pages
Body skills 1
Lesson Five
28 weeks pregnant
WATCH and READ: A short lesson about the overview of your pregnant and birthing body. By the time you’ve completed the three Body skill lessons you’ll know heaps more and you’ll feel that knowledge in your bodies … both you as a pregnant woman and partner. Birthing Better skills are all amazing. Expect to be Wowed and have fun. The original Pink Kit book (Birthing Better was known as Birthing Better with The Pink Kit Method) and video segments are color-coded. There’s heaps more information and birth stories in the original book.
- Video: Explanation of color-coded video segments that tie to The Pink Kit eBook – 1:18
- PDF: Original Pink Kit eBook – 88 pages
- PDF: Overview of your birthing body structure – 16 pages
Body skills 2
Lesson Six
29 weeks pregnant
WATCH and READ: Your bony pelvis is a tube that your baby has to move through but it’s not a fixed tube. You’ll learn all the bony pelvis skills that can give your baby more room and space. What’s so neat about Birthing Better skills is that fathers and mothers developed these skills and we share a common human body. Do the skills on your birth-coaching partner first! Most people have no or little experience of moving the bones in their pelvis. Birth is when that knowledge is so important. It’s the only Time when a very big object has to come down, through and out of our body.
- Video: Discover your Bony Pelvis –16:17
- Video: Work with your Bony Pelvis –35:14
- PDF: Bony Structure –44 pages
Body skills 3
Lesson Seven
30 weeks pregnant
WATCH and READ: Now you get to know about your soft pelvis. Who thinks about that? And where is it? You’re about to learn a whole new set of skills that will make so much sense although you may have to practice these skills a wee bit more than others because soft tissue is not a part of our body we focus on. You’ll discover the subtle but recognizable ways that you can soften the soft tissue inside your pelvis. Doing so permits your pelvic bones to move as well as assists cervical dilation.
- Video: Work with your Soft Tissue – 16:42
- PDF: Self Pelvis – 41 pages
Positions and postures
Lesson Eight
31 weeks pregnant
WATCH and READ: We are always in some posture or position. Your baby has to adjust to every change you make this is why it’s so very important that you learn how your baby may respond to each position and posture. Giving birth is a working relationship between you and your baby. Choose the best positions for your baby. Many of the birth positions shown on the wall charts may not keep you ‘open’. Others might compromise your baby’s ability to come down and out.
- Video: Body Positions – 11:51
- PDF: Body Positions and Postures – 22 pages
The final passage
Lesson Nine
32 weeks pregnant
LISTEN: The last part of your body your baby has to come through is our most private part. The good news is that 5 mins/day from 32 weeks onward can prevent and reduce potential delay or trauma to you or your baby. If you’re faithful in using this skill you’ll absolutely KNOW you’ve done your home work well. Every woman who has done The Internal Work consistently says ‘It’s the most important skill’. Second stage definitely is shorter and you reduce or prevent birth trauma to your body or baby.
- Audio: The Internal Work Mp3 – 80 min
Breathing, Communication and Touch
Lesson Ten
33 weeks pregnant
WATCH and READ: Three great Birthing Better skill-sets. If you’ve learned breathing skills for birth take some time to compare what you’ll learn. Communication is much more complex than you even think or know. And as for Touch … not what you think and one of the Life skills you’ll use heaps with each other and sick kids.
- Video: Work with your Breath – 6:20
- Video: Right Touch –10:07
- Video: Massage – 1:16
- PDF: Sustainable, Adaptable and Usable Breathing – 30 pages
- PDF: Directed Breathing –15 pages
- PDF: Right Touch –31 pages
- PDF: Verbal and Non-verbal Communication –44 pages
- PDF: Positive and Negative Voice –21 pages
Tension and Relaxation
Lesson Eleven
34 weeks pregnant
WATCH and READ: Honestly we’ve been given such weird information about how tension impacts birth … if it does! Learn about the four types of tension we all have. You’ll have more control. Did you know that the word ‘relaxation’ is actually a word most of us don’t like but we have a great word instead that works like a gem. Don’t worry about relaxing your shoulders. your baby doesn’t come out your shoulders. All your efforts need to be softening inside your pelvis.
- Video: Manage Tension 5:01
- Video: Four Types of Tension – 2:09
- PDF: Tension – 17 pages
- PDF: Relaxation – 16 pages
Progression in labor
Lesson Twelve
35 weeks pregnant
LISTEN and READ: The two most common causes for more medical care during birth are: delay in 1st and 2nd stage and women not coping with the natural occurring pain. Learn all the skills to keep your labor moving along. No woman wants to be in labor forever. Reduce or prevent delays. Learn to cope and manage well.
- Audio: Birth is Not Just a Noun Mp3 – 80min
- PDF: Progressing of Labor – 21 pages
- PDF: 5 Phases and Bell Shape Curve of Contractions – 63 pages
- PDF: Staying in the NOW – 18 pages
- PDF: Practice as Though Your Birth Depends on it – 18 pages
Pain by any other name
Lesson Thirteen
36 weeks pregnant
LISTEN and READ: Call it a ‘rush, surge, wave, intense’. If you feel pain during birth you want the skills to cope and manage. It’s simple. You find birth not terribly painful … great. You can stay on top of birth pain when you use your Birthing Better skills because they adjust and adapt to your individual circumstances.
- Audio: Childbirth Pain Mp3 – 2:38
- Audio: Childbirth Pain Tips Mp3 – 5:15
- Audio: Fathers as Great Birth-Coach Mp3 – 8:39
- PDF: The Hows and Whys of Pain – 22 pages
- PDF: Working with Pain – 12 pages