Children’s Birth Art Gifts

Mar11

I’m not the only birth artist in the house! Last month, while I worked on my own sculptures, Zander worked and worked and created one of the best gifts I’ve ever received:

This is the Goddess of Everything, he told me: “See that pink stone in her belly, mom? That is the ENTIRE UNIVERSE.” She has a lot of detail. A snake on one shoulder, a bird on the other, a moonstone, and hearts. I love her! The boys then went on to create more gifts for me over the course of a couple of days. I love them all, but the one above is something pretty special!

: Protection Goddess (by Zander)

: Birth Goddess (by Lann)

: Goddess of Time (by Zander)

: Tree Goddess (by Zander as gift for a friend)

: Nursing Goddess (by Lann)

: Goddess of Love (by Zander. You may assume he “borrowed” the heart hands from me, but NO, it is me who got the idea from him!)

Be Wild

Mar1

I’m in the process of finally setting up my etsy store to sell some of my one-of-kind polymer clay birth sculptures. As I do so, I’ve been “hearting” away on all the other stores I like there and I re-came across Mamacita Beadworks, home of two of what used to be my favorite necklaces.

Meet Mamacita and Rosalita…

Aren’t they grand? From these lovelies, my sons learned the word, “sassy.” I told them, I love these because they are such sassy mamas and when I wear them I feel strong and sassy too! However, as I’ve written about before, I have a very deep “jewelry memory,” in that I often use jewelry to mark significant moments in my life, to communicate certain messages, and to remind myself of things or serve as touchstones. Because of this, sad occasions may also become inextricably linked to jewelry as well. These two were my favorite necklaces before miscarriage. After miscarriage, they made me feel like a naïve, pathetic fool. I could hardly stand looking at them. And so, gorgeous, sassy Mamacita and Rosalita and all of my beautiful glass belly necklaces that I used to love so much got put away in the bottom of my jewelry box and I’ve not worn them for about three years. But then…thanks to Etsy, something changed yesterday because in the Mamacita Beadworks I saw THIS…

This pendant is one that I think of as my “be wild” pendant, because on the back is engraved, “the call of the wild is not a difficult song” and that makes me think of a Women Who Run with the Wolves quote: “Be wild, that is how to clear the river” (see prior post). I had no idea that this pendant was made by the same artist as Mamacita and Rosalita, because I didn’t buy this one from Etsy, I bought this pendant from the MANA booth at the ICAN conference in St. Louis when I was pregnant with Alaina. (Obviously, I’m attracted to certain artists without having any clue that they’re one and the same.) So, suddenly I felt this before miscarriage and after miscarriage jewelry memory link that felt significant.

Today, I put on Rosalita and Be Wild. And, I feel a little sassy…

Birth art journey: mamapriestess

Feb27

This month during my computer-off retreat I felt the itch to add to my birth art journey collection. I haven’t made a new addition to it since Alaina’s dental work in September. Since she is so very interested in rituals and likes participating in women’s circles and wearing my special jewelry and setting up altars (this month two words added to her vocabulary were “altar” and “sacred bundle.” Adorable!), I created a mamapriestess sculpture as the next in my series:

It felt perfect to me, which was great, because I’ve been experimenting with (single) priestess sculptures since my priestess ordination in July and I had a lot of bum starts like this unfortunate try:

Couldn’t figure out yet HOW to do a standing figure after so many creations of seated figures. This one quickly ended up in my closet as did this one:

Not only not very attractive and leaning over, but ended up with burned hands and a broken skirt piece too!)

My next attempt was this one:

Ah! Getting better! Then, this one:

I created a mini version of her intending to include it in a “sacred bundle” at a festival, but I didn’t end up using her for that after all:

Larger priestess and mini priestess and tooth decay sadness mama sculptures.

I became enraptured with the tiny priestesses though and made this one also, who is still one my favorite sculptures (I call her the Womb of Creation):

Each figure in what I think of as my original birth art series has a special meaning to me. It is a 3-D journal of my life with my daughter. Each figure either had a message for me or was created to express a message or a lesson or to incorporate some aspect of my identity or to capture a memory. Here was the full series this summer:

After making the newest mamapriestess to add to the birth art journey series, I was on a roll and I created this version which I like even better:

And, I made a mini-mamapriestess as well:

Then, I started making other mini mamas and their babies:

And, I made a custom sculpture for Journey of Young Women:

Before mailing, I included her figures in a little grouping of minis on the altar for our women’s circle ritual this month:

The same week that my picture of my first custom sculpture order taken on my kitchen counter in front of a humble cake pan lid took off on Facebook (seriously, it had around 250 likes and over 130 shares, which is pretty close to “viral” in terms of birth art I think 😉 ), I also had two photos entered in a Goddess art contest in which this one won a prize…These figures are very near and dear to my heart and really represent my own journey through pregnancy, birth, and motherhood is a way that feels very meaningful to me, so I appreciated the feedback from the contest hostess on the photo also:

I love this one, Molly. It’s so perfect in its simplicity. The cast of shadows from the bright sunshine is lovely! The detail and uniqueness of each of the Goddesses Gathered is amazing! I find myself looking at each one wondering which is me! Such a special little altar for the Goddess. I can imagine myself focusing all my prayers in the center…. knowing that they will either slip through the crevice as dream seeds planted in the richness of the dark unknown, or being lifted upward to be gathered by the air, the wind and the very spirit of life and infinite possibility. Thank you for sharing. Blessings.

And this photo was a runner-up in the art contest 🙂

The “famous” cake pan lid photo!

In new experiments this week, I tried making some very tiny sculptures to use as pendants, with one continuing the “mamapriestess” motif…

Even tinier than that are these two I just finished late last night:

And, if I do say so myself, I made a pretty cool sculpture using a rock I found in the woods:

And, since my mamapriestess sculpture was about her in the first place, at her insistence, I gave the first little mini-mini mamapriestess to Alaina to wear as a necklace:

Finally, lest anyone think all I do is waltz through the forest photographing my art in the sunshine and feeling all Goddess-esque and Earth-mama divine, this is really what is sometimes like behind the scenes:

Crabby and wanting to go back inside (note my hand holding her back from stepping on me).

Scratchy knocking-stuff-down cat and toddler with pig ball “helping” me set up my little sculptures!

She also is very, very, very eager to help me put the pigment on (note the table and her arm!)

While this birth art journey has very much been intertwined with my pregnancy-after-loss journey, my preparation for birth, incorporating the lessons of birth, and expressing the phases and feelings of life with my new baby-turned-bigger-baby-turned-toddler as well as my life as a woman, I realized that it was high time I add another figure to my series that includes all of my kids!

They’re all bigger than this in proportion to me, obviously, but these aren’t meant to be perfect representations (I also don’t just have a smooth, faceless head!)

I also finished a bunch more sculptures late last night (my oldest said they look like a rainbow :)):

“In giving birth to our babies, we may find that we give birth to new possibilities within ourselves.”

—Everyday Blessings

Multimedia Review: Pregnancy Health Yoga

Feb18

Pregnancy Health Yoga: Your Essential Guide for Bump, Birth and Beyond (Amazon affiliate link included)

Multimedia Review: Pregnancy Health Yoga (book/DVD set)
by Tara Lee and Mary Atwood
ISBN: 978-1-84899-081-4
http://www.taraleeyoga.com/shoponline.php

Yoga has played an important role in all of my pregnancies and births. I began practicing yoga daily in 2001 and it was only natural to continue that practice throughout my first pregnancy. I was surprised in realize in hindsight that I’d also used yoga throughout my first labor—spending a lot of time in a modified version of child’s pose and on hands and knees, and also in a supported version of downward facing dog. Later, as a birth educator, I discovered those same poses could be combined in a series of “birthing room yoga” poses. I loved the knowledge that my body had spontaneously used these poses during my own birth experience—it was an affirmation for me that deep birthing wisdom resides in our bodies and will emerge if we have the freedom around us to let it emerge, no books, classes, and “preparation” really necessary, just space, breath, and freedom of movement.

So, naturally I was very excited to receive a copy of the new book and DVD set Pregnancy Health Yoga: Your Essential Guide for Bump, Birth and Beyond. The book is particularly lovely, containing clear, colorful, ample photographs, not only of step-by-step pose instructions, but also close-up photos of flowers. Another special touch is a set of affirmations introducing each section. The affirmations are appropriate for pregnancy, labor, birth, and many can be applied into the rest of life as well (i.e. “Breathing deeply, I let go of tension with each exhalation”). The book and the DVD both do and excellent job connecting yoga to the birth process, something that I do not always find present in prenatal yoga resources (many of which seem to be simply designed as modifications to traditional yoga and completely ignore the connection between prenatal yoga practice and birthing itself). There are ample mentions of the baby and how your yoga practice benefits the baby as well as many integrated connections between the movement of your body and breath in yoga and in the dance of birth.

The included DVD is a restorative, simple, gentle yoga series of about 20 minutes. It includes a closing meditation and the content is basic and easy to follow. It helps pull together the information from the book into actual practice. The lines are clean, the narrator is pleasing, and the pregnant model is comfortable to follow. Many prenatal yoga DVDs include a large amount of modifications based on trimester being demonstrated by multiple models during the practice session, which I find distracting. This DVD is different in that all the poses are appropriate for all trimesters and when a very few modifications or adjustments are offered, they are smoothly incorporated into the flow of the existing pose, rather than being demonstrated by someone else.

My only critique of both the book and DVD is that they feel a bit choppy—the book primarily presents poses alone, rather than as a series of exercises, meaning the reader has to then create their own series of poses to practice from scratch, rather than having a prepared series of poses to practice routinely (there is a step-by-step photo exploration of a sun salutation that is an exception). The DVD helps provide an example series of poses though the manner in which the DVD is filmed contributes to a similar feel (i.e. rather than see the model move from one pose into another, the camera fades out and then back in on her already in the next position, so the sense of continuity between poses is impacted).

Pregnancy Health Yoga: Your Essential Guide for Bump, Birth and Beyond is a beautiful, helpful companion for pregnant women as well as for those who work with them. As well as chapters about breathwork and visualization, creating space, strength and stamina, and relaxation, the book includes a useful section about working with common ailments and conditions (including backache, leg cramps, and symphysis pubis dysfunction), exercises specifically for labor and birth, and also section about getting back into shape postpartum.

“Yoga can create space where there was compression, can make open what was closed and can make soft our hard and abrasive edges. The process of pregnancy itself opens and expands our hearts and our capacity to love.” –Pregnancy Health Yoga

Related articles:

Incorporating Prenatal Yoga into Childbirth Education Classes

Moon Salutation Yoga Series for Blessingway or Women’s Gathering

Birthing Room Yoga Handout

Centering for Birth

Birthing Affirmations

How Do Women Really Learn About Birth?

Book Review: Mindful Motherhood

—

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this product for review purposes.

The Amethyst Network: Fundraising Campaign & Day of Hope

Feb14

We have big plans for The Amethyst Network to serve families impacted by miscarriage across the country. To help achieve our goals, we’ve launched a Indiegogo fundraising campaign (featuring some great perks for donors, such as a print from The Mandala Journey!). Check it out and make a contribution!

As one of the members of the TAN board explains:

We got off to a slow start. For our own reasons, it didn’t take off as we had envisioned. We kept in touch but we were all quite overwhelmed with other things. Then this fall we had a renewed energy. I know for my part, the time felt right again. There was a drive coming from somewhere else to revive and renew the Amethyst Network. We refocused our energy. We refined our goals. And with new energy, the Amethyst Network is moving forward in amazing ways.

We hope that this will become a place of support, of hope, and of healing for women experiencing miscarriage and pregnancy loss. We hope that this will become a place for people to share their stories of miscarriage and pregnancy loss. We hope you will find solace and support here.

And that is the story of the Amethyst Network.

Another new project is our upcoming Day of Hope and Healing on February 25. Amethyst is the February birthstone—several members of the board, including me, have miscarriage anniversaries in February and the inspiration for TAN’s name also came from Amethyst, the still-missed baby sister of one of the founding members–so February feels like the perfect time to host a special event. Here is an explanation of the day:

Although we do participate in and support the wave of light on October 15, and the other infant loss awareness and remembrance days in October, we wanted to have a day of our own to focus on living in the present and looking forward, in addition to the days for looking back.

February 25 is Amethyst’s birthday, and so we felt like this was the perfect day to choose for our Day of Hope and Healing.

Many of us are familiar with the stages of grief, but we feel that grieving is one of the stages of healing. In other words, whether you are in the depth of fresh grief, or whether it has been years since your loss, we invite you to join us on this day to acknowledge the journey that we all are on.

Since everyone is in a different part of their journey, we are not asking everyone to do the same thing. Instead we invite you to participate in whatever way meets your needs at this time. Here are a few suggestions that we thought of, and please visit our pinterest page for some visual inspiration. We welcome additional ideas.

Plant flowers or a tree
Light a candle
Make a luminary
Make prayer flags
Buy a piece of jewelry or art that reminds you of your little one
Make a cake to celebrate or remember your little ones birth, loss, or memory
Read stories of other Amethyst Babies, or of Garnet Babies
Submit your story of loss or hope to TAN to be shared with the stories there
Submit your little one’s name to the Forget Me Not Garden at TAN
Write a letter to your little one, and then burn it and let the smoke carry it to him or her
Make a donation to TAN in memory of your little one
Blog about your little one, TAN, or the Day of Hope and Healing
Call a radio show and dedicate a song to your little one
Begin the process of becoming a TAN loss doula so that you can help others

Moods of Motherhood book (free on Kindle!)

Jan23

Just this Tuesday, I referenced Lucy Pearce’s blog Dreaming Aloud. She has another deep and beautiful blog called The Happy Womb and she wrote a wonderful book called Moon Time, which I reviewed a while back and continue to refer to monthly. She also has a theory I adore about being Creative Rainbow Women (and Mamas). Anyway, Lucy’s new book The Moods of Motherhood is free on Kindle today! I snapped it up right away and so should you! 🙂

Family Mandala Project

Jan18

As I’ve mentioned a couple of times, my family participates in a work-party co-op with four other families who live within the same 20 mile stretch of highway. We alternate houses every other weekend and work on each other’s household projects (for example, tomorrow we are building interior walls at a straw bale house as well as plastering the inside of the exterior, bale walls. Earlier this month, the men put underpinning on the bottom of a family’s mobile home to weather proof it for the winter, while the women made soup and muffins, finished our family mandala project, and had a birthday party—including rocking homemade Creeper pinatas—for one of the kids inside). Each family gets about 5 turns at their own house per year and goes to another family’s house about 20 times. While we’re not perfect, I really feel like this work party has been one of richest blessings of the past year for our family collectively. I hope to write more about it for an article someday, because we’ve created something pretty rewarding that seems fairly unique. At the beginning of December, we decided to invite the members of our work party co-op over for a winter solstice/New Year family ritual. We wanted to have a family project to do together and Mark and I came up with the idea of creating a family crest or mandala. My dad made a wooden circle for each family and each family designed their own “family symbol” to put in the center. Then, at our next work party we each added our family symbol to every other family’s circle—so, the end result was each family’s personal symbol in the middle, flanked by the mini-version symbol of each other family…

Perhaps a picture will illustrate this better…

See what I mean now? 🙂

For my own family’s symbol, it was important to me to communicate that we each have our own paths (labyrinth) and our own unique gifts (tiny personal symbol each), but that together we make a beautiful whole. We had some debate with the kids about what personal symbol to include for them. It was important to me that it be something they genuinely wanted to include and not my idealized conception of what it should look like (i.e. a peaceful waterfall or something!). Lann, of course, wanted a Creeper head and Zander opted for a “Wolfgang” head. Wolfgang is Z’s kind of alter ego/imaginary friend/invented character. Wolfgang is awesome. He doesn’t feature as prominently in Zander’s narratives as he used to, but he was really important for a while there. My favorite Wolfgang story is this: “When Wolfgang rides an airplane, he stands on the wings. And, when he jumps off, he lands standing up on a skateboard. Rolling in lava…” So, that little brown devilish looking face is supposed to kind of capture Wolfgang. The rainbow is for Alaina, the gem is for Mark, the footprints are for Noah, and the seated mountain pose goddess is for me. The four other work party family’s mandalas surround ours (on on theirs, ours surrounds theirs).

After we got home from the work party, I decided to embellish the white space around ours:

When we came up with this idea, I originally envisioned them eventually hanging over the front door of each family…

It doesn’t actually work for each family to do that, but it did for us…

After we hung it up, as I looked at it I said, “hey, this as a whole is our work party symbol!” Each family is unique and beautiful on their own, but when we join together, we create something bigger and more lovely than we could on our own. That basic truth is what underlies the whole functioning of work party and it is cool to see it symbolically represented above the door. I look forward to having these families come over during the year and add more of their handprints to our walls…

Celebrating Pregnancy & Birth Through Art

Dec18

This article is adapted from my notes for past birth art workshop presentations. It is part of a story for the Winter 2013 edition of the Friends of Missouri Midwives newsletter.

Celebrating Pregnancy & Birth Through Art

by Molly Remer, MSW, ICCE, CCCE

http://talkbirth.me

See other posts and pictures about birth art here.

Birth art is one of my favorite birthy subtopics and I used art during my pregnancies, postpartum, and continuing in life today. I love exploring birth art with women and I’ve presented on the subject at multiple conferences, as well as hosted a “birth art booth” at our local MamaFest event this past fall. Art can play an important role in self-discovery and preparation for birth and parenting. Art used during pregnancy and following birth can be powerful tool of validation, celebration, exploration, and insight.

Why is art during pregnancy is useful?

Art during pregnancy is primarily as a tool to tap into “right brain” consciousness and express unexplored gifts, primal wisdom, or release hidden fears. Creating birth art can help both women and men explore your feelings, memories, beliefs, and perceptions surrounding birth outside of the confines of the spoken or written word. The purpose of birth art is to explore what you find within as you create your art and not the final product—as Pam England describes, birth art is as raw, honest, spontaneous, and personal as birth itself.

Art during pregnancy can be used for:

Birth preparation.
Exploration of fears.
Celebration of feelings & experiences.
Fun!
Visualization.
Focal point.
Exploration of the unknown.
Self-discovery & insight.
Healing.
Revealing unconscious patterns/ideas.
Celebration of the power of the female form.
Celebration of new life.
Representing hopes/dreams.
Communicating hard to verbalize ideas/feelings.
Exploring “right brain” methods of understanding the birth journey.
Explaining concepts in new ways.
Symbolic/spiritual insights.
Revealing hidden birth wisdom.
Expressing creative gifts.
Mementos

Types of art exploration in pregnancy:

Sculpture—variety of mediums (fiber, clay, pottery…)
Painting
Drawing
Photos
Jewelry
Belly casting
Body art (such as henna)
Collage
Mandalas
Decorating objects—prayer box, wreath
Quilting

Birth Art Examples:

: My pushing the baby out birth art sculpture

: Several sculptures hanging out in the woods.

Postpartum nursing mama sculpture

Postpartum pushing the baby out sculpture

Labyrinth of pregnancy pre-birth sculpture.

Early birth art—incorporating the pregnant identity back into my life

Very, very early birth art sculptures–these were my first ever pregnant goddess sculptures of polymer clay. I’ve come a long way since then!

What my birth art series of polymer clay goddesses eventually evolved into!

Womb labyrinth–postpartum art after second son’s birth.

Needle felted wool birth art sculpture from first pregnancy.

Blessingway birth art gifts–photo by my friend, painting by my now sister-in-law

Birth altar of blessingway birth art gifts during blessingway

Birth art altar post-blessingway, all set up in my birth nest corner, reading for the birth of my daughter.

Fabric labyrinth by my friend as a blessingway gift.

Batik Goddess of Willendorf by another friend as a blessingway gift.

Painting by my now sister-in-law as a blessingway gift.

Baby and placenta by another friend as a blessingway gift.

Front of my birth altar prepared for my daughter’s birth.

Polymer clay labyrinth, plus goddess sculpture

Different type of polymer clay labyrinth,

Drawing during my last pregnancy (labyrinth of birth)

Henna on friend’s belly at her blessingway ceremony.

Birth art plaster goddess painted to match my belly cast from second pregnancy.

Belly cast from my second pregnancy.

Belly cast from my daughter.

Birth altar opened up.

Birth art sculpture about incorporating the pregnant woman identity.

Joy of pregnancy mandala drawing from last pregnancy.

Labyrinth of pregnancy after loss drawing.

Birth art sculpture depicting pushing the baby out. Roar, mama, roar!

Miscarriage memories–baby in my heart sculpture

Gift for a pregnant friend.

Mini Priestess sculpture–the womb of creation.

Art helps work through dental trauma also!

Three generations sculpture for my mom.

Mother’s day present made by my husband

Gaurdian of the womb sculpture

Toddlers can do birth art too! Love the placenta in a bowl and the baby attached to the mama with cord (yes, I know the two are mutually exclusive, but I love it anyway!)

Earlier picture of my whole birth art series.

This photo was a beautiful gift from my friend Karen.

Polymer clay birth art pendant experiement

Elemental goddess sculptures

Birth art gallery way in my hallway at home

Mother’s Day present from 2011. My favorite ring of all time 🙂

My at the time five year old getting in on my sculpture good times!

Womb labyrinth from postpartum with my second son.

My own logo counts as birth art, right?!

Needle felted birth art sculpture from my first pregnancy.

Circles of women (and art)…

Awesome crocheted birth goddess by my mom.

Collaborative birth doll from my blessingway.

Birth art by my friend who calls herself a “non-artist”–but, it doesn’t matter because birth art is for everyone!

Two Suggested Exercises for Birth Professionals or Parents:

Based on Pam England’s LabOrinth article, I enjoy showing parents how to draw a birth labyrinth (several examples can be seen in the gallery above). Drawing a labyrinth with an explanation of how this type of image can be used to explain/explore the progress of labor as opposed to medical models such as cervical dilation charts or labor progress “bell curves,” can be a very eye-opening exercise for parents. The resulting image is a powerful visual of “normal birth,” instead of “clock watching” birth. I’ve made two posters than I use when I teach birth classes. The first shows a rough Friedman’s curve and a cervical dilation chart—these images are part of a deeply ingrained cultural view of birth and it is hard to shake these associations. This linear birth structure may be how we view labor from the outside, but it is not how we experience it from the inside, the labyrinth is a more appropriate birthing image as it feels from within and this is why…

No shortcuts—have to keep going til the end.
Speed varies.
Can’t get off the path (no falling off the curve).
Can get through blindfolded.
One step at a time will get you through—one foot in front of the other (one contraction at a time).
Can’t get lost. If you get out of the lines, you get lost—try to take shortcuts, get lost. Have to continue on your path.
Can crawl if you need to (or run!).
Circular (nonlinear)
No right way to finish.
Contemplative
Meditative
Journey
Everyone gets to the same place eventually—can go own speed, some fast, some slow
Do not need instruction to complete (no birth plan)
No timeline
No need to study.
Can rest if you need to.

My other favorite group birth art project is to painting small pregnant goddess figurines (I make big batches of these in a mold using plaster). My most recent experience in doing so was at Rolla Birth Network’s MamaFest event:

: Plaster figures being molded and prepared!

: Birth art booth!

: In the birth art sanctuary painting goddesses.

: Happy mama with finished art

: Doula and pregnant mama working on their projects

This experience reaffirmed for me that birth art is about process not product. And, also that I don’t have to personally do anything to have the process be a meaningful one to participants. As an example of what I mean: at MamaFest, a very young mother came into the birth art sanctuary. I gave her my one minute spiel about the purpose of birth art and she painted her figures alone in the room for about 20 minutes. When she emerged, she showed her figures to me and explained what all the symbols and colors meant. Then, with tears in her eyes, she hugged me and said thank you and left. This was a mother I’d never met before and I’ve never seen again. And yet, we shared a special moment through birth art.

Molly Remer is the Friends of Missouri Midwives newsletter editor. She enjoys blogging about birth, motherhood, and women’s issues at http://talkbirth.me.

Book Review: Fathers-To-Be Handbook: A Road Map for the Transition to Fatherhood

Dec10

Fathers-To-Be Handbook: A Road Map for the Transition to Fatherhood
By Patrick Houser
Creative Life Systems, 2007
Softcover, 160 pages, $16.95.
ISBN: 978-0-615-23338-3
www.fatherstobe.org

Reviewed by Molly Remer
http://talkbirth.me

I am delighted to see another contribution to a growing body of birth and fatherhood literature written for men. Unlike many fathering books I’ve reviewed, the Fathers-To-Be Handbook was actually written by a man! This man-to-man, father-to-father perspective is a valuable strength of the book.

Patrick Houser is the father of two boys, both born at home with a midwife. His second son, born in 1980 in Missouri, was the first documented water birth in the U.S. The author has been based in the U.K. for a number of years now and is the co-founder of a wonderful organization called Fathers-To-Be, offering resources and education for expectant fathers as well as to the childbirth professionals who work with them.

Fathers-To-Be Handbook is a quick read and is a small-size paperback; like a “pocket guide.” It is definitely meant to accompany other reading and classes. It does not have an index, but does have a helpful resources section.

The first several chapters of the book are about the experience of fathering—about becoming a father, your personal history with your own father (“fathering school”—what was your teacher like?), the importance of fathers, and the journey through pregnancy. The final four chapters address preparing for birth, giving good support, empowered birth, and fathering the newborn. The handbook is very supportive of midwifery, homebirth, and doulas. It also encourages fathers to have a male support person nearby the birthing room (or perhaps available for support by phone).

As the author states in an article included at the end of the handbook, “Humanity cannot invent a drug that can work better than a mother’s body can manufacture or a knife that is sharper than her instinctual nature.” I deeply enjoyed an addition to birth literature that both honors the father’s experience and is rooted in a positive, healthy, celebratory approach towards birth and the inherent capabilities of a woman’s body.

—

Disclosures: I received a complimentary copy of the book for review purposes.

Amazon affiliate link included in image and book title.

Review first published at Citizens for Midwifery.

Continuing Birth Education (Free Webinar Round Up)

Nov26

I have a good friend who has become very interested in training as a doula. I love sharing information and resources with excited women new to the birth work field! It is rejuvenating and reminds me my own enthusiasm for women and birth. When I shared this same sentiment on Facebook a fan commented with this lovely observation: “Birth is an ever-evolving subject, and there are as many different ways to do it as there are fingerprints!! How could anyone get bored in the birth work field?? I love it!! It keeps me in the Presence of Now and reminds me of the Sacredness of Life…” 🙂

Anyway, I’ve been collecting books like crazy to lend to my friend (just a word: never ask me for a book about anything unless you are ready to be overwhelmed with options!) and doing so reminded me of some free webinars that have crossed my desk(top) recently as well as some other, older continuing education resources for birth professionals or aspiring birth professionals. I always go to books first and to written information. Love it. Can’t get enough words! But…many people learn better through other mediums. Here are some non-book, free possibilities for self-education in birth work:

Lamaze has an offering called, Push for Your Baby Nurse and Educator Webinar: Arming Women with the Tools to Push for the Safest, Healthiest Birth Possible
Injoy is offering a free webinar: Secrets of a Postpartum Doula: Newborn Care and Soothing Techniques…
And, Maternity Prep is offering a webinar based on The Greatest Pregnancy Ever: The Keys to the Mother-Baby Bond

Edited to add another free webinar from ICEA (with paid contact hour option) that I just learned about:

Prenatal Fitness Webinar

Join us online

Thursday, December 13, from 9-10 pm EST for this new educational offering

worth 1.0 ICEA Continuing Education Credit!!

Click Here to Register

This offering is free for all participants to audit.

The continuing education credit may be purchased after viewing the webinar for $35.00 by clicking here!

Once the credit hour is purchased, print out your receipt for confirmation of your hour earned!

A reader also commented to share that she is enrolled in a free Coursera course on contraception (she also took one that looks great about community change in public health!). There are a variety of interesting looking courses available from well-known institutions in the Coursera offerings under Health & Society and Medical Ethics.

And, for those who do well with auditory learning, I have some podcast recommendations that are available on an ongoing basis:

La Leche League International offers a series of free podcasts, my favorites being:

And, the Motherlove blog has some awesome resources too, including:

Podcast: Preparing for a VBAC, with the president of the International Cesarean Awareness Network
Podcast: Birth on TV and in the movies
Podcast: How can you avoid getting “pushed” into a birth you don’t want?
Podcast: Biological Nurturing and Laid Back Breastfeeding, with Suzanne Colson

(I recommend “laidback breastfeeding” to mothers ALL the time! It can be very helpful in getting breastfeeding off to a good start after birth.)

And, finally there are some great free classes and certificate programs available from Global Health eLearning Center. Many are designed for global audiences and are not specifically geared toward doulas (or even midwives, but more of health workers in general). I particularly enjoyed this class: Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy

Enjoy! And, if you have favorite recommendations to add, please let me know! (free, please)

Due to reader request, a book recommendation post will soon follow! Past book recommendations can be seen in this post, as well as a postpartum list, and also in my book reviews section.