Childbirth can be one of the most empowering, life-changing experiences in a woman’s life. It is also a time filled with questions and concerns.

Join independent childbirth educator, doula and mother of 6, Brandy Astwood for this informative 6 week class for mothers and their birth partners.

During this 12 hr course we will explore…

• Beliefs and practices of pregnancy and childbirth
• The best place for YOU to birth ..Home, Birth Center, Hospital ?
• Emotions pregnancy and labor
• Physiology of birth
• Informed choice and interventions
• The role of pain in labor
• Comfort measures for labor
• Relaxation techniques
• Early newborn care
• Breastfeeding and the early postpartum period

This six week course is based on the Lamaze Philosophy of Birth:

• Birth is normal, natural and healthy.
• The experience of birth profoundly affects women and their families.
• Women’s inner wisdom guides them through birth.
• Women’s confidence and ability to give birth is either enhanced or diminished by the care provider and place of birth.
• Women have the right to give birth free from routine medical interventions.
• Birth can safely take place in homes, birth centers and hospitals.
• Childbirth education empowers women to make informed choices in health care, to assume responsibility for their health and to trust their inner wisdom.

Lamaze Philosophy of Pregnancy

• Pregnancy is a normal, natural life event.
• Women’s bodies are perfectly designed to nourish and nurture their babies through pregnancy.
• The months of pregnancy are necessary for babies to develop and grow, for women’s bodies to prepare for birth and for women to become mothers.
• Pregnancy provides an opportunity for mothers and fathers to begin forming lifelong bonds with their babies.
• A good support system, a healthy lifestyle and the ability to cope with the stresses of life promote a healthy pregnancy, a healthy birth and a healthy baby.
• The health-care system and care provider can increase or decrease a woman’s confidence in the normality of pregnancy and in her ability to have a healthy baby.
• Education empowers women to gain confidence in their bodies, trust their inner wisdom and to make informed decisions about pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and parenting.

While this class is created around the Lamaze philosophy, as an independent, childbirth educator I also draw from other childbirth methods such as HypnoBirthing, Calm Birth and Bradly to offer you a truly holistic model of childbirth education.

An informational binder will be provided for the length of the class filled with local resources, Web resources, diagrams, drawings and articles, as well as a special reduced rate for doula services.

–Elizabeth Noble

Our teacher, Mary Hackworth is an RN and former Lamaze instructor.

While the focus of these classes is not pregnancy, each class is small and modifications for your changing body are easy to incorporate.

MotherlodeHolistic.com for more details.

Topics to be covered…

Breastfeeding
Elimination Communication
Co-sleeping
Avoiding a C-section
Risks and benefits of medications for birth
Yoga for Pregnancy
Nutrition
Comfort measures
Weight loss after baby while breastfeeding
Your rights as a birthing woman
VBACs
& more

<3 ice packs on lower back make sure you have wrapped in a pillow case or towel

<3 cool cloth to wipe mamas face

<3 ice water to sip….remember you need to keep hydrated ! This help you avoid the IV if you choose.

<3 a Tupperware rolling pin frozen or filled with cold water for back massages

♥ clean house (early labor)
♥ pack your bag (early labor)
♥ Bake (early labor)
♥ Walk
♥ Pelvic rocking
♥ slow dancing with partner
♥ sitting on birth ball and swaying
♥ lift up the abdomen
♥ Squates
♥ Lunges if baby is posterior

♥ visualization
♥ affirmations
♥ focusing on the breath
♥ non-focused awareness (paying attention to everything you see, hear, feel, smell without focusing on any of them)
♥ hypnosis; HypnoBirthing, HypnoBabies
♥ prayer

Calm ~ Connect ~ Communicate
Parent Educations in the Art of Nurturing Touch for Infants & Children

FREE INFO CLASS
July 7th: 5:30pm UpCountry Community Center
Infant Massage is very beneficial for easing pain associated with colic, gas, constipation, and teething. The relaxing nature of massage also helps reduce stress, helping baby and you sleep better. Other benefits include: strengthening the immune, hormonal, circulatory, nervous, and digestive systems, as well as teaching the infant about healthy touch. Through infant massage parent and child form a stronger bond and learn to communicate better.

Brandy Astwood, owner of MyBirthConnection.com , will provide a demonstration of massage strokes appropriate for use with infants. This class will also cover the benefits of infant massage, some non-verbal cues of infant distress, and the types of oils that should and should not be used for infant massage.

BABY SPA DAY
July 21st: 9:30am.
UpCountry Community Center.
Cost: $25pp

Come relax and spoil you precious child with a Baby Spa Party. Imagine a dimly lit room lightly scented with soothing lavender, warm oil and time to fully enjoy and savor your precious one; learning how to increase communication and enhance bonding.

In this relaxing 2 hr workshop, caregivers will learn to recognize their infant*s individual communication cues, as well as simple, easy to use techniques in infant massage to sooth and comfort common babyhood issues such as colic, teething, colds and more

A Benefits of Infant Massage
Relaxes both child and mother
• Promotes bonding and attachment between mother and child, including eye-to-eye contact and skin-to-skin contact
• Facilitates weight gain in premature infants
• Reduces stress hormone levels
• Reduces pain
• Improves muscle tone
• Helps the infant (and the mother!) sleep
• Relieves constipation, colic, and gas

REGISTER BY CALLING:
209-304-8495
or visit:
www.MyBirthConnection.com

Brandy Astwood, CHT, HBCE, CD, CIMT
Director of Motherlode Holistic Connection ~ A Community Wellness Center
Clinical Hypnotherapist / Birth Options Advocate / Holistic Childbirth Educator
Birth & Postpartum Doula / Certified Infant Massage Teacher/ Mommy Mentor

MotherlodeHolistic.com

MyBirthConnection.com

BanishTheBadMoodMama.com

IM_workshop.pdf