Pregnancy Special: Purchase Confident Birthing, Breastfeeding Essentials and Infant Care together and receive 4 Prenatal Yoga classes free! (that’s $50 saved!)

All three workshops must be purchased between Tuesday, May 7 and Tuesday, May 14. Your 4 free Prenatal Yoga classes will be gifted to your account on May 15.

New Mama Special: Purchase Wear Your Little One, Infant Massage and Baby Talk; Baby Signing together and receive 4 Mommy & Me Yoga classes free! (that’s $50 saved!)

All three workshops must be purchased between Tuesday, May 7 and Tuesday, May 14. Your 4 free Mommy & Me Yoga classes will be gifted to your account on May 15.

Shining Light gift cards make a great Mother’s Day gift too! They are available in any amount.Please click here to purchase a gift card.

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

I am also looking forward to later in May when we have our own DFB classes here at Shining Light. More information on that coming soon!

Details on this weekend’s workshop:

Attend the one-day Dancing For Birth™ Level 1 training to gain skills to integrate into your work with expectant and new families, or the two-day Levels 1 and 2 training become certified to teach Dancing For Birth™ classes to prenatal and postpartum mamas. Earn 14 CEUs (from DONA, NCBTMB, and accepted by Lamaze, CAPPA, ICEA and more) This Weekend – April 27-28, Pittsburgh, PA. We offer a no-payment-now plan.
More Details: http://tinyurl.com/DFBworkshopPittsburgh

For more information please contact Stephanie Larson:
info@DancingForBirth.com
toll free (866) 643-4824
www.facebook.com/DancingForBirth
www.twitter.com/DancingForBirth

Alright, so this one looks a bit funny, especially with my long scarves (rebozos) on their heads. I call it “lookin’ like a pirate”, because well, you do look like a pirate. I did have one couple mention, recently, that it made them feel like they were at Pennsic… but that’s a whole other story out of my past.

How to:

• Take a scarf, of appropriate length place at eyebrow level in a straight line. Hold there.
• Wrap scarf around the back of the head to the nape of the neck.
• Tie it really rather tightly.
• Voila! You look like a pirate!

Why?

• This is most commonly used to help relieve tension headaches.
• It helps alleviate tension – tension causes pain, or pain causes tension – thus the application of the scarf on the head helps you feel better. This refers to the Fear-Tension-Pain cycle as suggested by Dr. Grantly Dick-Read.
• It also has a calming effect. With autistic kiddos (like my Asperger’s son) we use pressure techniques to help calm and settle them. This is but one of many pressure techniques. If it works for them, it will work for you.

When?

• Anytime! Early labor, active labor, pushing, even during a c-section.

Note:

• Both mom and dad can get stressed and feel tension during labor and birth. Feel free to use this for both of you. I’ve had dads tell me they like this so much, they don’t want to take it off!

Arrr Matey!

Gurmukh says, that as pregnant women, we ought not to watch scary movies, or subject ourselves to fearful or stressful situations. She spoke of this from the yogic perspective. Anna speaks of it from the physiologic perspective.

It’s about conscious conception, conscious pregnancy and conscious birthing.

Anna Verwaal was one of the speakers at my Prenatal Yoga Teacher training at Golden Bridge Yoga. I am so blessed to have been able to learn from her directly.

This idea that our emotional state shapes our babies is a component of epigenetics. We have the ability to affect our babies very positively throughout our pregnancies. Practicing our yoga, in it’s complete, holistic sense, can have an enormous positive impact on our babies. It did with my pregnancies. Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training at 32 weeks pregnant with Elaine helped shape her in a very different way then her brother, Owen.

In this TEDx Talk, Anna discusses how the womb environment and our births shape our lives. This is everything from what we eat and drink, to the stresses we are under when we are pregnant.  Please watch Anna’s TEDx Talk. I think you’ll learn from her too.

Sat Nam.

Other posts you might like:

• Integrating Yoga and Lamaze (a multi-part series)
• Elaine’s Birth Story
• Owen’s Birth Story

You all have been asking for it, so here it is – Deena’s ever  fabulous birth plan template! This is a bit longer than I usually suggest. Your birth plan should be one page, chronological, bullet points. It should cover the most important points to you. These are *my* important points. So, if you are OK with routine IV fluids, take that line out!

Have some flexibility too. Know your 3-5 non-negotiable, key points, and defend those. Know where you can (and should!) compromise. Understand why your doctor/midwife is requesting certain medical interventions, before you say “no”.

Use your BRAINS questions!

Remember your birth plan is a communication tool. You communicate with your partner first; then your doctor/midwife at a prenatal visit; then with your nursing staff and doctor/nurse when you get to the hospital or birth center.

The Template:

My name:                    Husband/Partner’s name:
Who else will be in the birthing room? Grandma? Doula?
My doctor/midwife:
Pediatrician:

Our intention is to have a natural labor with minimal medical intervention

I understand that certain tests, medications and procedures may become medically necessary during labor, birth or postpartum. Please ensure that I have full informed consent before administering any tests, medications or procedures. Please ensure that either my husband (partner) is present during the explanation of all benefits and risks of said intervention, so that we may make collaborative decisions. I understand I have the right of informed refusal

 Special notes:

• Example: I’m deaf in my left ear, please speak to me on my right side
• Example: My husband is diabetic.

 During labor

• I prefer to have the lights low, the temperature comfortable and the environment quiet.
• Please limit extraneous staff – no medical students, etc.
• I intend to move around freely (walking, bathroom, birthing ball, etc.) and change positions.
• I intend to wear my contact lenses or glasses. (as needed)
• I intend to eat and drink as I see fit.
• I prefer no routine IV fluids. I am comfortable with a hep-loc.
• I prefer to have intermittent fetal monitoring. If that is unavailable, please offer me wireless monitoring
• If my labor needs to be augmented for any reason, please offer natural methods first (nipple stimulation, walking, etc) before suggesting medication.

Pain relief

• Please do not offer me pain relief medications. I will ask for them if I need them.
• If I ask, please offer me all of my choices, not just the epidural.

 Pushing

• I intend to push as my body needs me to. Please no routine ‘directed pushing’.
• I intend to try pushing in multiple positions.
• Please use warm compresses and massage to help me avoid tearing.
• I prefer to tear rather than to have an episiotomy.

Immediately after birth for the baby

• Please delay clamping or cutting the umbilical cord until after it has stopped pulsing and delivering blood to the baby (2-5 minutes). Alternately: We intend to donate or bank our cord blood. Please collect it for such purposes.
• My husband/partner would like to cut the umbilical cord.
• Baby is to be placed immediately on my chest or belly.
• I will breastfeed before any tests, procedures or medications are given to baby.
• After our first breastfeeding, tests, procedures and medications may be done, with baby still in my arms.
• My husband/partner will then have skin to skin time with our baby.

If a C-section becomes necessary

• The drape to be lowered so I can see my baby immediately.
• The newborn tests and procedures to be delayed until after we’ve breastfed for the first time.
• To breastfeed as soon as possible – even in the OR.
• My husband/partner to hold the baby as soon as possible.

Additional Postpartum for Baby

• I plan to breastfeed exclusively.
• No formula or pacifiers.
• I prefer to meet with a lactation consultant as soon as possible.
• Please delay the newborn bath till baby is 24 hours old.
• I intend for baby and my husband to stay in my room all the time.
• Boy – Circumcision (not at all? In hospital? In the pediatrician’s office later?)

Complications for Baby

• My husband and I to accompany baby to the NICU.
• To breastfeed or provide pumped breastmilk/colostrum.
• To hold baby whenever possible.

As always, I am happy to review your birth plan and offer suggestions.

Sat Nam.

Additional Blog posts which may interest you:

• The Dual Purpose Birth Plan
• Attachment to your Ideal Birth
• Does your attitude towards the hospital staff affect how they treat you?

Here is their story:

My partner and I took the partner prenatal yoga class with Deena back in September of 2011, just before Shining Light became its own.  That December we had a beautiful, natural delivery at The Midwife Center that blessed us with our first daughter.  Three months later I became pregnant with our second daughter and just a few weeks ago I delivered her myself in the front seat of our car heading to The Midwife Center.

I wanted to let Deena know how beneficial her class was to the experience I had with my labors.  Not only did my partner, Ryan, and I leave there feeling an overwhelming sense of love and care for each other, but it was the first time that I felt capable and strong enough to successfully have a natural delivery – the way I had envisioned my delivery since before I got pregnant.

During labor with my first daughter, Phoenix, I was experiencing extreme lower-back pain because she was “sunny-side” up.  I used the lunges, the “dances,” and the breaths we learned in the class to cope with each contraction.  Along with that the connection I had with Ryan made it so much more special.  One of the best memories I have from that first labor was just looking him in the eyes during the intense contractions and thinking of the wonderful family we were building.  Love really did make labor easier for me.  And after fifteen hours of breaths and lunges, Phoenix was finally born.

Thirteen months later we were blessed with our second daughter.  Her pregnancy was a breeze and the delivery even more smooth and still beautiful – though not quite idyllic.  After only an hour and a half of labor, I personally delivered my daughter, Soren, in the front seat of our car.  It was once again the strength in breaths that I learned from your class that bore me through the immediately intense contractions I experience with Soren’s labor.  Although it wasn’t the perfect place and it was unattended, Ryan and I were confident and calm enough to work through the step properly and there was something so surreal about truly having such an organic and natural labor.  Catching my daughter myself was invigorating and I feel like such a woman for doing so.

So thank you for your time, your love, and your passion, Deena.  You’ve made a difference in our pregnancies and labors, and I hope for the best future for you and your business.

~ Heather, Ryan, Phoenix, and Soren

• We had 47 adults and 8 babies in attendance.
• We raised $529 for our new scholarship fund. This amounts to 2 Confident Birthing classes, 2 Breastfeeding Essentials classes and 2 Infant Care classes to be given to a couple in need!

If you are interested in donating to our scholarship fund, please email or call. Ditto that if you want to apply for a scholarship space.

Enjoy the photos!

(want more? Checkout the Facebook Page)

One Night Only: Special benefit screening of acclaimed documentary film, BIRTH STORY: INA MAY GASKIN AND THE FARM MIDWIVES in Pittsburgh,PA.

• Friday, February 8
• 7:30 pm
• Suggested donation $10
• Click here to purchase your ticket in advance.
• Tickets will also be available at the door.
• This event is graciously sponsored by Black Cat Tattoos

Deena Blumenfeld and Ina May Gaskin

Shining Light Prenatal Education is pleased to announce a special pre-release screening of “BIRTH STORY: INA MAY GASKIN AND THE FARM MIDWIVES” to Benefit their new scholarship fund. The scholarship fund will allow for pregnant women and their partners, to take free or reduced price classes: Confident Birthing, Breastfeeding Essentials or Infant Care.

BIRTH STORY captures a spirited group of women who taught themselves how to deliver babies on a 1970s hippie commune, rescued modern midwifery from extinction, and changed the way a generation thought about childbirth. Today, as nearly 1/3 of all U.S. babies are born via C-section, they labor on, fighting to preserve their knowledge and pushing, once again, for the rebirth of birth. With incredible access to the midwivesʼ archival video collection, the film not only captures the unique sisterhood at The Farm Clinic, but shows childbirth the way most people have never seen it–unadorned, unabashed, and awe-inspiring.

Ina May Gaskin, CPM, has been called “the most famous midwife in the world,” is the founder and director of The Farm Midwifery Center in Tennessee, and is the author of four books, including the wildly popular Spiritual Midwifery.  BIRTH STORY premiered at the 2012 LA Film Festival and won the prestigious Audience Award.

 ” A disarming example of documentary filmmaking that stakes out an opinion with plain-spoken, commonsensical wisdom” (Variety, Aug 6, 2012) 

 “…An incredible story…heart-stopping.” (Matt Holzman, KCRW)

 To purchase your advance ticket, please click here.

Wow, can you believe it? It’s time to celebrate our one year anniversary! In our first year, we’ve served 506 pregnant and new moms and their families.  We’ve built relationships with our students, other birth professionals and other local businesses. Lawrenceville has been warm and welcoming to us.

For 2013 we’ve launched our new Packages: SPARK your Fertility; NOURISH your Pregnancy; GROW your Family; NUTRURE your Baby; ILLUMINATE you Path to Parenthood and NAVIGATE your Journey. We’ve also added some new classes and community groups to the schedule.

To celebrate our anniversary, we are having a party! We’d love it if you’d join us.  Please, bring friends. The more, the merrier!

The Details:

• Sunday, January 27
• 1:00 – 4:00 pm
• Free!
• Open to all. Babies and children welcome!

The Events:

• Open House – meet instructors, check out our classes, etc
• Give-aways from: A Mother’s Boutique; Green Cheeks Diaper Service; Tiny Toes Portraits; Babies R Us; Blessed Arrivals Doulas; Shining Light Prenatal Education; And More!
• Maternity and Baby Clothing Swap. Bring the maternity clothes you no longer need, and the baby clothes your child has outgrown. We’ll set them up in the back room, and folks can take what they need. Whatever is left over will be donated to Genesis Center, a facility for pregnant women and new mothers in poverty.
• Light refreshments provided
• Oh yeah, and since Deena’s birthday is in January, there’ll be cake!

We are also running an Anniversary Special, available Jan 21 – 31, 2013 only.

• Buy any Package get a $30 gift certificate for you or a friend to use on any other class, workshop, package or private session here at Shining Light!
• Buy Illuminate get a $50 gift certificate for you or a friend to use on any other class, workshop, package or private session here at Shining Light!
• Packages must be purchased between Jan 21 and Jan 31, 2013 to qualify!

Bring yourselves, your babies and your friends. We look forward to seeing you all here!

Sat Nam!

Barb was a regular at our Prenatal Yoga classes.  She and Rob also came to Infant Care class.  I’m honored that she’s sharing her birth story with all of us.  Happy reading!

I woke up in the morning on November 23 (my due date) feeling great with no plans to do Black Friday shopping. Since Rob’s brother was visiting, we decided to all go the gym together – Rob, his brother, his dad, and me. I went on the elliptical for an hour, a little bit slower pace since I had been feeling pretty stretched out the past few weeks. Plus, since it was beautiful out on Thanksgiving afternoon and when we were all full of turkey or tofurky; we had already taken a long walk through Frick Park.

After the gym, we conned Rob into getting a haircut by telling him that Dan had an appointment, when all along the plan was to convince Rob to take his place… which he did, and it looked awesome. Baby Spagiare now finally could make his entrance since his papa would look good in the baby photos!

We all went to dinner, and I ordered my Chinese sizzling platter 7/10 spiciness to try to help the little munchkin along, but really it wasn’t as spicy as I wanted it to be and was more like a 4/10. After dinner, we went to go see James Bond Sky Fall in the Waterfront, but alas, it was sold out just before we got there. So we went to get a cappuccino instead. Rob’s friends were in town, so he went to hang out with them, and I went to hang out with my friends who had done some mega Black Friday shopping since 2am.

I was thinking I was a little uncomfortable starting around 10pm or 11pm, but I figured it was just my plain old Braxton Hicks contractions acting up. So at 12:30am, I figured it was time to head home. Just before going home, my friend asked “So are you getting contractions ever?” and I responded “Yeah, all the time” and was thinking “Jeez, tonight they really are all the time…”

When I got home, I was getting more uncomfortable and starting to have little contractions more often and laid down with our two dogs for a nap in front of the TV. At 1:30am, I woke back up and thought, “Man, this is really getting uncomfortable! Shit, am I in labor??? If I have one more of these, it has got to be labor!” And then another one came… I tried to lie down and sleep but from 2am-3am, I was too uncomfortable to sleep, not in mega pain but just too much discomfort to fall asleep.

At 3am, Rob came home. I went downstairs and asked him, “How drunk are you?” to which he luckily responded, “Not very.” So I told him, “Good, because I am starting to get pretty uncomfortable.” And he gave me a funny look and was wondering if I was in labor, and I guess I was. I told him to try to get some sleep since I knew that I wouldn’t, and at least one of us would be a little awake to drive in the morning. He went to bed, and I hung out downstairs with the pups.

I decided that I should get those last 7 patient notes done that I had been slacking on, because I knew that there would be no way I would want to do those later. Talk about procrastination, but I guess I work best under pressure. It was funny, because as I was typing, I’d have to pause every few minutes to breathe through a contraction.

After all my notes were done, I took a nice hot shower. I shaved my legs for the first time in forever, because what the hell else did I have to do in the shower for half an hour. Haha! I tried to go back to bed but that failed, so then I went downstairs again to watch “Moonrise Kingdom”. That was a pretty good distraction, and a pretty funny movie. About half way through though, the contractions were getting pretty strong, and I decided to wake Rob up, sort of to suffer with me and sort of because I just needed someone to be with me. That was around 8am.

At 8:45am-ish, the contractions were really getting painful, stronger,and coming frequently. We called my parents around 9am, and my sister-in-law (who was at my parents for Thanksgiving and is also pregnant herself) recommended downloading a contraction iPhone app. I was trying to push the button myself every time I had a contraction just to make sure they were actually lasting for 1 min and coming every 5 min, because it didn’t feel like they were actually lasting that long but definitely really frequent. I started to want to throw the iPhone across the room, because who the hell on earth wants to hit a button every time they are starting and ending having severe pain?!?!? So Rob hit the button a few times for me, and they were lasting 1 1/2 min and coming at least every 5 min, so we stopped timing after just a few contractions.

We decided to call the midwife at 9:45am, since that had been about an hour of pretty intense labor. Through the contractions, I was mostly just doing deep breathing, walking around the house, and leaning up against walls and the big bouncy ball. Kathy called back but I was having a contraction, so Rob answered the phone. Then he put me on.

She asked if my water had broken yet, and I told her that I was seeming to leak more fluid than usual since yesterday morning, but no big gush. She was concerned that if it had broken that I was at 24 hours and needed for sure to be in labor or else would have to be induced. I told her, “Believe me, I am in labor”… and then I had another contraction. We agreed to meet at the Midwife Center at 10:30am for her to check me and see if my water actually had broken or not.

So we grabbed our bags and off we went. Of course there was snow on the ground and it was freezing, so Rob had to defrost and scrape the ice off the car. Rob was driving like a madman, and I told him that there was no need to. He saw how much pain I was in, so I think he just wanted to get to the Midwife Center fast. We got there just around 10:30am. Luckily no Squirrel Hill Tunnel traffic.

When we got there, Kathy took me upstairs and did an exam and saw my membranes were still intact and I was 5cm! Woohoo! So I was staying. I went in the jacuzzi which was pretty nice. The contractions got stronger, and I just tried to keep taking slow breaths through them and closed my eyes.

It was funny, because whenever opened my eyes, there was someone else in the room in a different place- either Rob had moved, Shannon appeared, and at some point the nurse in training Danielle appeared, and Shannon introduced us. In between contractions, I actually had no pain at all, but during them, my back was really starting to hurt. A lot of pain, but I knew that it would be over soon, so somehow it wasn’t horrific. Rob and I passed the time trying to come up with middle names for a boy, because we still hadn’t decided! When it was down to the wire, we finally agreed on Viktor. The girl’s first and middle name had been picked forever ago.

Funny that we could have totally normal conversations between the contractions.

The baby was wiggling around like crazy in between all the contractions too, “Go Ninja Baby!” This continued all the way until the last few contractions, I hadn’t expected that. Even when Danielle and Shannon were checking the doppler, they kept having to shift it around because the baby kept shifting around. I got out of the jacuzzi once to pee and then went straight back in.