Your Birth, Your Way™
Lovely Hearts Birth is committed to helping birthing families prepare for an informed, confident and conscious birth.
My custom childbirth class offers non-biased, evidence-based perinatal information, support, encouragement, guidance, referrals, and education. There is no one right way to labor. Birth is sacred. Birth is a normal process and hope to inspire confidence in the couples that I teach. It is my goal to teach the full spectrum of options a woman has when preparing for her birth, and then to support her unconditionally.
All are welcome!
Birthing people with their partners, same-sex couples, and single parents who are preparing for hospital, birth center, or home births, receiving care from midwives or obstetricians, and who have single or multiple pregnancies.
This class draws from many different birth philosophies: Informed Birth, Birth Without Fear, HypnoBirthing, Lamaze, and Bradley Technique. The most important way to approach your birth is with confidence and relaxation. You achieve this by knowing what possible things to expect, developing the skills to move through your labor, and by feeling prepared to work through whatever your journey turns out to be.
Some of the topics we will cover:
Healthy Pregnancy
- Anatomy of pregnancy
Nutrition & Exercise
Choosing a provider
Choosing a birth place
Ultrasounds and visits with your provider
Doulas
Who will be at your birth?
Birthing Person’s Rights
Labor & Birth
- When labor starts – what to expect
- Comfort measures during labor (in and out-of-home settings)
- Early labor vs. active labor
- When to call the midwife or go to the hospital
- Laboring and birthing positions
- Baby positions
- Typical hospital procedures – IVs, fetal heart monitors, epidurals
- Natural birth vs. managed birth
- Inductions
Birth, Postpartum and Newborn choices
- Antibiotics, Pitocin and other interventions
- Skin to skin
- Delayed cord clamping
- Breastfeeding choices
- Tears, episiotomies and sutures demystified
- Newborn screening tests
Postpartum Care for Mama
- Herbs and medications – safe and not safe
- Breast care and pumping info
- Care after a vaginal birth
- Care after a caesarean
- Depression, Coping strategies
- Self care & gentle exercise
- Going back to work
- Family and friends – Meal trains & support networks
Newborn Care
- Choosing a pediatrician
- Vaccine choices
- Cord care
- Common newborn issues – what’s normal?
- Breastfeeding support & resources
- Diapering 101
- Babywearing
- Sleeping safely with baby