Online Birth Classes Special!

New Lower Prices on the Co-Creative Birthing Circle!!!

In order to make quality holistic online childbirth education available and affordable to more expecting parents we have new lower prices on all our Co-Creative Birth Circles!

Whoohoo!

Mama's and Papa's to-be this is over 50% off the valued price on both the Birthing Circle and the Deluxe Circle.

The Deluxe Circle includes the comprehensive Birthing Circle and extras, PLUS personalized Phone Consultations with Kara Spencer and an extraordinary package of Birth Books and Gifts sent directly to you by mail.

Check it out and enroll today to co-create your optimal birth experience!!!

Co-Creative Birth Circle Specials - Enrollment Page

Birth Arts Doula Workshop in Maui, Hawaii

I am thrilled to be traveling to Hawaii next week to teach a Birth Arts International Doula Training in Kahului, Maui!

There are still a couple more spaces left in Birth Arts Doula Training on Maui for February 8th, 9th, and 10th. This is an intensive three-day workshop including optional doula certification distance-learning work.

This is a wonderful opportunity to study to be a holistic trained labor support companion, providing nurturing care and encouragement to mothers, babies, and families as a birth doula. On your off time, enjoy tropical Maui!

More info about Birth Arts Doula Training in Maui here: http://www.maiahealingarts.com/birth-arts-doula-maui/ 

More info about Birth Arts International here: http://www.birtharts.com/

For inquiries or to register contact Kara at kara@birtharts.com or 541-520-0681 

Hands of Love Book & DVD

Dr. Carol Phillips is the author of the book Hands of Love: Seven Steps to the Miracle of Birth and the companion DVD Hands of Love: Witnessing the Miracle of Birth. She is a Chiropractor who specializes in Perinatal and Pediatric Chiropractic, CranioSacral Therapy, and Birth Doula Care. She and her daughter, also a CranioSacral Therapist and Doula, are featured in the DVD demonstrating and educating about the benefits of prenatal chiropractic and craniosacral therapy for balancing the health of the mother and baby.

The Hands of Love book and DVD are wonderful educational tools for chiropractors, craniosacral therapists, bodyworkers, doulas, midwives, childbirth educators, and perinatal health care providers. This DVD would be great for showing to expecting parents in childbirth classes or pregnancy wellness classes by bodyworkers and chiropractors. The video educates parents about the benefits of holistic prenatal bodywork, natural conscious labor and birth, and birth doula care.

As a craniosacral therapist, doula, and childbirth educator myself, I learned a lot from this video. I loved the 3-dimensional animations of the uterus, ligaments, and pelvis, as well as the animations of the baby's cranial molding. Dr. Carol Phillips teaches techniques for relaxing the pelvis and uterus for labor through effective vocal toning and conscious visualization.

Hands of Love demonstrates how restrictions and distortions in the pregnant women's body can cause muscoloskeletal dicomfort and pain, as well as emotional imbalance. When the baby is confined in the womb due to restrictions of the uterine ligaments, sacrum, or pelvis, then the mother will feel discomfort too - either physically, emotionally, or both. Dr. Phillips demonstrates how chiropractic care and craniosacral therapy can naturally ease physically discomfort, as well as make more room for baby to grow and move and play in the healthy balanced womb, and create a sense of healthy balance. Craniosacral therapy is wonderful for pregnant and laboring women to facilitate the dynamic balance of the uterus and it is wonderful that this book and dvd are educating pregnant families about the powerful benefits of this work.

The book is filled with color photographs and personal stories of mother's experiences of birth as well as Carol's many interesting experiences as a birth attendant. I love how Dr. Phillips uses her extensive health and childbirth background to emphasize and educate parents and providers on how the women's body is physically designed for biodynamic birth and how to work with movement, relaxation, and patience to promote healthy birth for mom and baby.

There is so much information in this book and DVD. I recommend it for all seeking information on holistic prenatal care and natural childbirth, as well as easing the pains and discomforts of pregnancy, preventing breech and posterior babies, and encouraging natural labor and birth. For more information on Dr. Carol Phillips see the New Dawn Publishing homepage.

Dolphin Birthing Pods

After my time spent on the island of Maui recently, studying Sacred Birthing, I have been interested in learning more about the dolphins and their connection to birth. After watching many videos of dolphins giving birth online, I am struck with how quickly and strongly the dolphin mothers swim through the water as they birth their dolphin babies. The laboring dolphin fully undulates their spine while swimming in circles and spirals through the water.

This reminds me of human mothers who move restlessly during unmedicated labors, spiraling there hips and rocking their pelvises back and forth. Mothers are very rarely passive to lie down during birth unless strapped to machines and tubes, or numbed with pain medications. It is instinctual natural wisdom for the mother to move actively during labor, for in able to move the baby, the mother moves her body.

While the dolphin baby is born tail first, and human children are usually head first (vertex), both dolphin and human babies spiral out of the birth canal. This primal motion of birth, the spiral, connects both the human and dolphin mammals.  Dolphins are also one of the few other mammals in which a female companion is present as a midwife.

The dolphin midwife assists the infant dolphin in coming to the surface for its first breath soon after birth. The dolphin midwife also assists in creating the birth circle around the mother and infant with other dolphins who create a pod. This birth pod protects the mother and baby dolphin, as mother-baby bonding is pivitol to the survival of dolphin babies. The birth circle also greets the infant dolphin with sonar to stimulate it's full ignition of consciousness and neurological stimulation.  

Many people have done research into human's having dolphin-assisted waterbirths in the ocean, and one of the benefits that is known about is the dolphins use of sonar on the laboring woman and infant to create healthy, peaceful birth, with extremely aware and conscious babies. This connection between dolphins and humans is just beginning to be understood.

Unfortunately, dolphin infants have only a 50% survival rate. Dolphins are very succeptible to environmental pollution, human disruption in their environment, and domesticated dolphins have a harder time successfully breeding. I have mixed feelings about dolphins in captivity, however it is very rare to find live footage of the births of wild dolphins. The videos of dolphins in captivity do not show the extent of the birthing pods of midwives. However they show that domesticated dolphins will also seek out the nurturing and care of their trainers while in labor.

Here are a few videos of dolphins giving birth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X8-aWCU0do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USe7kG1UaoE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBIhu84bLdA

I believe we have much to learn from our dolphin relations about birth, bonding, and healing.  

Birth Arts Doula Workshops

Birth Arts International is a holistic doula training organization currently offering workshops in the US and Europe, as well as distance learning doula education globally. Birth Arts Doulas are holistically trained, in the art and science of assisting women in pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. The birth doula program integrates evidence-based maternity care with the wisdom of traditional midwifery and women's healing arts.

Learn about optimal health for pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum, as well as the practical skills, techniques, and hands-on-care of being a labor support doula. Learn about updated research and practices in modern maternity care and midwifery. Practice bodywork, rebozo, and massage for labor support.

The workshops combine intensive experiential practice with a distance learning component and birth attendance for certification. Birth Arts Doula Trainings are comprehensive, extensive, inclusive, and empowering. Contact Kara Spencer for more information on upcoming trainings in the USA: kara@birtharts.com. Contact Demetria Clark for international trainings and distance learning: demetria@birtharts.com. www.birtharts.com

UPCOMING BIRTH ARTS WORKSHOPS:

2007 

October 19, 20, 21 - Birth Arts International Doula Training
Harbin Hot Springs & Retreat Center, Middletown, CA
Registration: kara@birtharts.com - 541-520-0681
http://www.maiahealingarts.com/harbin-hot-springs-ca-oct-07/

November 3, 4 - Birth Arts International Doula Training
New Paltz, NY
Registration: helena@birtharts.com - 802-235-1512

November 30, December 1, 2 - Birth Arts International Doula Training
Sacred Waters Birth Center, Eugene, OR
Registration: kara@birtharts.com - 541-520-0681
http://www.maiahealingarts.com/birth-arts-eugene-oregon/ 

2008 

January 25, 26, 27 - Birth Arts International Doula Training
Basel, Switzerland
Registration: demetria@birtharts.com
Phone: 41 (0)65081884 from Europe
Phone: 866-303-4372 from US and Canada

January 25, 26, 27 - Birth Arts International Doula Training
The Educated Mama, Sanford, FL
Registration: patricia@birtharts.com - 541-556-8415

February 8, 9, 10 - Birth Arts International Doula Training
Kihei, Maui, Hawaii
Registration: kara@birtharts.com - 541-520-0681

Upcoming Birth Arts Workshop in Northern California, near San Francisco, Bay Area, and Sacramento at Harbin Hot Springs. Now registering for workshops in California, Oregon, Hawaii, New York, Florida, and Switzerland. New trainings are being scheduled all the time. Distance learning students are now training as Birth Arts Doulas in South Africa, Europe, and North America.

Birth Arts Doula Education programs are open to all whom are interested in learning to be a labor assistant or birth doula. Birth Arts is open to women, men, health care professionals, students, and all whom show the motivation and passion to support and nurture women, babies, and families throughout the childbearing year.