We’ve sold The Pink Kit online since 2000 and the skills have been around since the early 1970s. Passing on the skills one person to another cuts out all the criticism because we share the same human body and can feel the same changes in our own as in others as we learn and practice the skills.
Once we created a public resource we knew there would be people who were critical of it. But what are they critical of? Not the skills. Even though people don’t like the clothes the families are wearing, can’t figure out the DVD is in segments (although they are color coded and at every segment people are told so) and don’t have the patience (BOO #3) to go through and learn everyone agrees that the skills are incredibly valuable. They just wish they were presented in the manner they want!
Let’s look at BOO #3
BOOs: We didn’t have the patience to go through all the resources.
We interpret the criticisms in several ways:
- What we could have done better back then when the resource was originally made.
- What people want us to do if we’re ever able to re-do the whole thing.
- What is their choice in overcoming their own criticism.
BOO #3 falls under the latter. This is not actually a criticism, it says something about the people’s lives. Everyone is busy. Each person has various levels of patience. What’s any person’s individual goal about their coming birth experience?
There are pregnant women who read everything yet don’t have the patience to learn skills. There are people who swear they are too busy but once their baby is born must create space and time to care for it. There are people who equate old fashioned clothing with no need to look beyond that to the depth of the skills. Others actually believe that ‘information’ is the same as being ‘skilled’.
How much time does it take to learn The Pink Kit skills? Well, you don’t have to go through all the resources in one sit down! The resource is not designed to be ‘easy’ it’s designed to give you all the birth/coaching skills families evolved over many years. This is why the Pink Kit is set up as is … visuals, audio and written material that you can pick and choose from.
Families will share with you that ideally you should start learning from 24 weeks onward but some found The Pink Kit 2 weeks to 2 days before they gave birth. Even under this pressure, families learned sufficient skills to make a difference in their birth experience.
If you start at 24 weeks then you can easily take 5-10min/day or every other day or every few days to pick and choose what skill to learn. Even though there are 40 ebooks (chapters) the longest is 44 pages. This is not hard! And many of them you’ll have no interest in. If you’re having a baby in hospital you’re not going to read the ebooks on home birth or transferring. If you’ve had a birth and want to investigate why you managed well yet hated the experience then you’ll want to read The Negative/Positive Voice. It’s up to you to pick and choose what skills to learn.
Practicing is simple. Do most of the practicing throughout the day. One father learned about the importance of keeping the sacrum mobile (triangular bone at end of spine). He knew is wife had tight butt muscles so whenever she passed him he lightly tapped her bum and that reminded her to relax. Another father knew that his wife shut down when she didn’t feel well so he used a Pink Kit resource to practice ‘what do you want to do now?’ … the question every woman having a niggling labor needs to be asked so she doesn’t go into labor tired. He did this several times during the pregnancy when his wife was withdrawn (yes, they had agreed to this). Doing so profoundly changed her. She was better able to communicate rather than shut down and shut him out.
Patience is a matter of personal choice. You don’t have to be patient to go through any of The Pink Kit. You just need to do it. Pick 5 minutes and do any of it. Listen to the audios in the car. Read the ebooks on the toilet. Watch 5 minutes of each segment. The whole DVD is 1 hour 57 minutes. Skip over the talk and just go to each skill.
Learn birth and coaching skills so you can use them to work through your baby’s birth journey.
YEHs: The skills are used in every type of birth.
This was the GOAL of all Pink Kit families! Their baby’s birth means a great deal to them. Every family wants the best birth but what does that mean?
Actually what people mean is that they want to have the best experience of giving birth. This is NOT just an outcome issue. Most birthing women want desperately not to lose control. Women don’t like coming away from their birth feeling traumatized.
Pink Kit families use skills to remain always pro-active. They ‘do’ the birth even under very challenging circumstances. Skills give them the edge. There is not one moment of The Birth when you don’t breathe or your body isn’t in some posture or position or that your mind has suddenly gone blank. You have the ability to breathe using a great breathing pattern once you’ve learned the skills. You can always go through your body and soften any tensions. No one has to know you’re doing this. You do this for YOU and you do this to stay in relationship with your baby’s journey from inside to outside your body. This is a big transition and skills give you the ability to ‘do’ the work while making this transition.
When people think that skills can be used in any birth, that is true. You are giving birth to your baby so you can use skills throughout that journey. The journey either starts as you go into labor or it starts when you get in the car to go to hospital for a Caesarean birth. When you determine when The Birth starts then use your skills. Many families start using their skills a day or two before as the excitement of The Birth builds. Your choice will not be when to start but whether you use your skills.
Here’s one thing Pink Kit families say: ‘Use your skills from the start. Don’t wait until the work is hard’. This echoes anyone doing any task. You start driving once behind the wheel. Think of any activity or task. Once you start you continue until the end. The Birth is the same. If we gave birth 100 times in our life we’d understand this.