We have to admit it. We’re a small New Zealand charitable Trust with very little money creating a massive multimedia resource on the good will of many who have helped us.
Sure, we’ve been criticized by heaps of people who say ‘if you don’t hire professionals then you get what you pay for’.
Funny that statement. Many a professional woman realized that when contractions started her name tag came off. The Pink Kit is in a funny field … not a very professional one. Pregnancy and giving birth precede professionalism, cut across all differences and have existed for as long as humans have … beside all the other species who get pregnant and give birth.
What’s different about humans is simple … our Mind. We share a common body but don’t we CERTAINLY do not share common beliefs, languages, religions, viewpoints and opinions. And here is where pregnancy and childbirth have been pulled into our differences when they need to highlight our commonality.
Our New Zealand Trust focused exclusively on our commonality because all the families who initially evolved the skills in the early 1970s were just like you today … different yet sharing this incredible commonality. It was simpler to focus on what we shared than including like-minded people (or like experienced people) and excluding everyone else.
So, we’ll continue to sooth the complaints about The Pink Kit by explaining that the imperfections are minor compared to the skills.
BOO #4 There’s no order
It’s so interesting that some people (not everyone) feels more comfortable learning from a defined order. To a large extent this comes from attending school for years. There’s an expectation that the ‘teacher’ (The Pink Kit) is going to give the ‘student’ a clear and concise order. After learning the student is expected to pass a test or write a paper to prove they have understood that order.
While school was our whole world when we were young, you’re now an adult and very little what you learn now has that concise order. The simplest analogy is learning to drive a car. We use that again and again and again. You do not learn to steer before you learn to use the gas pedal, look in the mirrors or around you, braking etc. As an adult you are mature enough to learn a set of skills independently that come together.
Our Trust intentionally has created a multimedia resource because our body must be shown in a 3-D way. The Internal Work can be explained with audio but not visually … what would you see? The breathing, touch, communication skills and others can be easily read. BTW … the longest ebook on Disc 2 is about 44 pages. Most are under 20.
Preparing your body (The DVD) takes place during pregnancy. Learning skills you’ll use during The Birth also occurs during pregnancy (ebooks, The Internal Work). Listening to how those skills come together is on the Birth Journey.
We’ve been asked why we don’t show a woman in labor using these skills? What are you going to see? A birthing woman using skills doesn’t hold up a sign saying: ‘I’m using Directed Breathing now’. Not every skill is used at every moment but a number of the skills are often used together … just like driving.
Women will often say: ‘I used the Directed Breathing at every moment and The Pelvic Clock. As the contraction started I set up my breathing pattern. As the pain increased I softened inside. As the pain peaked I hated it but could still focus on staying open. As the pain subsided I made certain my sacrum was mobile. I evaluated whether I was still in the best position and whether the contraction felt effective. When the pain left I went through all this again to take advantage of the time between and to get ready for my body to effectively open during the next contraction. I didn’t waste one contraction’.
Fathers will often say; ‘The skills didn’t make much sense as we were learning them. I mean they made sense but I couldn’t see how to use them. That became clear as the birth proceeded. I could see and hear if my wife was coping. I had the skills to help right away rather than not knowing what to do. I could see the tension in her body or whether she was opening. i could hear the peaks of every contractions or when they flattened off. I could ask her whether she was in the best position. I could use touch relaxation to cue her to soften inside. I followed along with every phase of every contraction and knew I could always help’.
Now if a couple has a non-laboring Caesarean they still enjoy learning the skills and just use them on the way to hospital, while being prepped and during surgery. This is NOT rocket science. It’s giving birth skillfully and with engagement to your baby’s birth journey.
So pick and choose how to learn the skills. Browse through everything first and fast and don’t worry. Yes, there is a test at the end … The Birth. You don’t have to be perfect. You have to perfect your skills and choose to use them because you’re giving birth.
YEH #4 The skills are based on our shared human body (men and women alike)
This says it all. The Pink Kit is just about and exclusively focusing on preparing our human body during pregnancy to give birth. For men … how to get a 3-D object out of a container.
You won’t find any repetition of all the information you can get in every other resource. The Pink Kit is skills.