Pregnancy, birth, and new parenthood is a life-changing journey. By supporting you in pregnancy, mentoring you with Birthing from Within® prenatal classes, and caring for you through birth and postpartum as your doula, Ellie Colver will nurture you through the entire adventure. Our relationship will help you to prepare thoroughly for birth and parenting, draw from your own experiences and increase your confidence as a mother or father.
Showing posts with label resources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resources. Show all posts
Sunday, January 8, 2012
January Newsletter
Read the Birthing from Within Lethbridge January Newsletter for lots of great info about our classes and doula support, plus community events and discounts for pregnant women and families.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Pregnancy & Birth Information Session
The first step in birthing (and living) in-awareness is to turn your attention inward each day. One of the important tasks of pregnancy is to consciously tune in to, develop, and trust your own, new, maternal intuition.
Are you pregnant and interested in learning practical ways to improve your pregnancy and birth experience?
Dr. Amy Heilman, West Lethbridge Family Chiropractic, will offer some practical ideas about easing some of the common discomforts of pregnancy as well as answer any questions about how chiropractic care can help many of these problems.
Ellie Colver, Birthing from Within Mentor and Doula, will begin to help you prepare for emotionally and mentally for your birth and parenting experience. She will also tell you about her classes and doula support.
2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
West Lethbridge Family Chiropractic - 888 Heritage Boulevard W
For more information and to RSVP:
Contact Ellie Colver
Birthing from Within Mentor & Doula
elliedoula@gmail.com
403-360-7878
Birthing from Within Lethbridge on Facebook
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Good Nutrition is the Number One Thing You Can Do to Ensure a Healthy Baby
Throughout pregnancy, many women receive numerous tests to ensure that their baby is healthy. While these tests can sometime be helpful in detecting problems, in most cases knowing something is potentially wrong does not actually provide a solution.
The best thing you can do to take care of your baby and yourself is to eat well and stay physically active. There is no guarantee that if you do all the 'right' things, your baby will be healthy, just as some people do things that research has shown to be harmful and end up with perfectly healthy babies. Nevertheless, eating well and exercise have been proven by research to improve outcomes for babies overall. Also, the habits that you form around your diet before and during pregnancy will be passed on to your children. Babies actually develop a taste for the food that mothers are eating through their amniotic fluid (and later through breast milk) and like those foods themselves.
Here are some specific suggestions (businesses are all Lethbridge-based):
Yoga is great for helping you feel good during pregnancy and preparing your body for birth. Theresa Spencer at Terra Sol Yoga offers classes and workshops for pregnant women and their partners. www.terrasolbodytalk.com
Eat whole, unprocessed food. Avoid processed soy, sugar, corn syrup and artificial sweeteners whenever possible. Many grocery stores have a 15% discount on the first Tuesday of the month, so stock up on healthy, organic food. Look for local produce and meat, as it is often free of pesticides and hormones and it supports local businesses.
Eat as much as you need to of healthy, nutrient rich food and you can expect to gain 28-40 pounds (or more) during your pregnancy. Perfect Fit – Pre & Postnatal Fitness offers classes specifically tailored to pregnant and new moms to help you stay physically active. www.perfectfitness.ca
Taking a DHA (or fish oil) supplement improves your baby’s brain development. Naturistas (424 7 St S) sells prenatal DHA, other prenatal vitamins and many other high quality pregnancy and baby products.
Receiving chiropractic adjustments can be a great way to relieve many of the common discomforts of pregnancy. Many women under chiropractic care report feeling better during the entire pregnancy, better quality of sleep, less morning sickness and a more comfortable labour and delivery. Contact Dr. Amy and Dr Elliott at West Lethbridge Family Chiropractic for more information. 403-327-0070.
Birthing from Within® Childbirth Classes help you prepare for the healthiest, most stress free pregnancy, birth and new parenthood possible. Contact Ellie at elliedoula@gmail.com to learn more about these unique classes.
Take time every day to relax and connect with your baby, even if it is just a few minutes. When you are eating, pay attention to the food, how it tastes and remember that you are nourishing yourself and your new baby.
The best thing you can do to take care of your baby and yourself is to eat well and stay physically active. There is no guarantee that if you do all the 'right' things, your baby will be healthy, just as some people do things that research has shown to be harmful and end up with perfectly healthy babies. Nevertheless, eating well and exercise have been proven by research to improve outcomes for babies overall. Also, the habits that you form around your diet before and during pregnancy will be passed on to your children. Babies actually develop a taste for the food that mothers are eating through their amniotic fluid (and later through breast milk) and like those foods themselves.
Here are some specific suggestions (businesses are all Lethbridge-based):
Yoga is great for helping you feel good during pregnancy and preparing your body for birth. Theresa Spencer at Terra Sol Yoga offers classes and workshops for pregnant women and their partners. www.terrasolbodytalk.com
Eat whole, unprocessed food. Avoid processed soy, sugar, corn syrup and artificial sweeteners whenever possible. Many grocery stores have a 15% discount on the first Tuesday of the month, so stock up on healthy, organic food. Look for local produce and meat, as it is often free of pesticides and hormones and it supports local businesses.
Eat as much as you need to of healthy, nutrient rich food and you can expect to gain 28-40 pounds (or more) during your pregnancy. Perfect Fit – Pre & Postnatal Fitness offers classes specifically tailored to pregnant and new moms to help you stay physically active. www.perfectfitness.ca
Taking a DHA (or fish oil) supplement improves your baby’s brain development. Naturistas (424 7 St S) sells prenatal DHA, other prenatal vitamins and many other high quality pregnancy and baby products.
Receiving chiropractic adjustments can be a great way to relieve many of the common discomforts of pregnancy. Many women under chiropractic care report feeling better during the entire pregnancy, better quality of sleep, less morning sickness and a more comfortable labour and delivery. Contact Dr. Amy and Dr Elliott at West Lethbridge Family Chiropractic for more information. 403-327-0070.
Birthing from Within® Childbirth Classes help you prepare for the healthiest, most stress free pregnancy, birth and new parenthood possible. Contact Ellie at elliedoula@gmail.com to learn more about these unique classes.
Take time every day to relax and connect with your baby, even if it is just a few minutes. When you are eating, pay attention to the food, how it tastes and remember that you are nourishing yourself and your new baby.
Join ‘BIRTHING FROM WITHIN LETHBRIDGE’ on facebook for great articles and information to help you in pregnancy, birth and new parenthood and chances to win prizes.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
The Teacher is "Midwife" to the Parents' Discovery Process...
...not the expert from whom wisdom flows.
This is the fourth Birthing from Within guiding principle, and one more thing that sets Birthing from Within apart from some of the other prenatal class options that are out there.
I realized how true this is when I mentored my first group class last weekend. My regular class series (whether weekend or six week series) is 15 hours of class time. Last weekend's class was 6 hours total. At first, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to cover 'everything' in 6 hours. Then as I explored further, I recognized that there is no 'everything'. There is simply the process of introducing parents to new ideas and ways of thinking about birth and themselves as parents and trusting they will take what they need from the class and learn more on their own.
There is so much 'information' about birth: telling people where to go, what to do and presenting potential scenarios for parents depending on the decisions they make. The reality is that parents will not really be able to understand in advance exactly what will happen and instead need to understand that each birth is a different and intensely personal experience for everyone (even a mother and father at the same birth or a mother from one birth to the next). This is one of the reasons that we use the Labyrinth to look at birth. The labyrinth has one pathway in and out, but the path is full of twists and turns. When I taught this at my class last weekend parents really responded to it. One mother said that she only really understood how useful it might be for labour and birth once she explained it to her own mother. This is a really good example of how the Birthing from Within Mentor (teacher) introduces a concept and parents take it, explore it further and make it their own. She bought the Labyrinth of Birth book, which includes history of labyrinths, how to make them and ways to use them in preparation for labour and during labour.
What I do as a Birthing from Within Mentor can be hard to explain. In our society, we are accustomed to looking for the right answer. Many people feel inclined to make judgments about pregnant women and give them advice, and sometimes that advice seems helpful, especially if it reinforces what we already believe about birth. As a Mentor, it is not my job to tell parents what to or tricks on how to have the 'right' birth. My role is to help them understand what might be right for them and to truly accept that the unexpected is inevitable. From there, parents take responsibility for their own birth preparation. Sometimes, it seems to make the classes more challenging to 'sell' to people, since I am not offering a magical solution. Instead, I am offering the opportunity to discover things about yourself, your relationship with your partner and presenting new ideas that may help you in birth and as a new parent.
I have a six-week series starting on November 2, for those in the Lethbridge area. please contact me for more information: elliedoula@gmail.com
This is the fourth Birthing from Within guiding principle, and one more thing that sets Birthing from Within apart from some of the other prenatal class options that are out there.
I realized how true this is when I mentored my first group class last weekend. My regular class series (whether weekend or six week series) is 15 hours of class time. Last weekend's class was 6 hours total. At first, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to cover 'everything' in 6 hours. Then as I explored further, I recognized that there is no 'everything'. There is simply the process of introducing parents to new ideas and ways of thinking about birth and themselves as parents and trusting they will take what they need from the class and learn more on their own.
What I do as a Birthing from Within Mentor can be hard to explain. In our society, we are accustomed to looking for the right answer. Many people feel inclined to make judgments about pregnant women and give them advice, and sometimes that advice seems helpful, especially if it reinforces what we already believe about birth. As a Mentor, it is not my job to tell parents what to or tricks on how to have the 'right' birth. My role is to help them understand what might be right for them and to truly accept that the unexpected is inevitable. From there, parents take responsibility for their own birth preparation. Sometimes, it seems to make the classes more challenging to 'sell' to people, since I am not offering a magical solution. Instead, I am offering the opportunity to discover things about yourself, your relationship with your partner and presenting new ideas that may help you in birth and as a new parent.
I have a six-week series starting on November 2, for those in the Lethbridge area. please contact me for more information: elliedoula@gmail.com
Friday, September 30, 2011
Childbirth Preparation is Also Parent Preparation
This is the 3rd guiding principle of Birthing from Within. People spend a year preparing for a wedding day, how much time do we spend preparing for married life? Similarly, most prenatal classes spend most of the time preparing for the day of birth itself, how much time do we spend preparing for actual parenting? The Birthing from Within perspective is that you are a parent while pregnant, and we use the terms parents, mothers and fathers to refer to our class participants.
One great thing about Birthing from Within Classes is that the way the classes are taught, prepares you for both birth and parenting. We learn that birth is unpredictable, unexpected events occur, we cannot plan for or control every aspect of it. We may feel frustrated, exhausted or uncomfortable. Welcome to parenthood!
I think about the ideas I had about both birth and parenting before I had my daughter, and I have to smile at myself. The expectation that I could control so many things, that if I just figured out the magical equation she would sleep, calm down, nurse the way I expected her too. Even now, she is 2 and a half and I still sometimes want to make things happen in a certain way, that is easy or convenient for me. I would have loved to take a Birthing from Within class, and maybe it would have helped me understand that holding a baby for hours on end to get them to sleep was not a problem to be solved, but what I signed up for as a parent. Now, in the rare event that she wants to snuggle or has trouble going to sleep, I do my best to use my Birthing from Within breath practices (used for pain-coping during labour), to be present in the moment and enjoy it or at least accept it. It works (sort of) for temper tantrums in the grocery store too.
Connected to the topic of parent preparation, I participated in a workshop in my community this week, from the creators of The Smiling Mask:
The purpose of The Smiling Mask is to create awareness, understanding, and acceptance of postpartum difficulties; to bring peace and validation to mothers and fathers by engaging and empowering families, and communities in the life changing and natural experience of parenthood.
The three women who started it all experience postpartum depression after the births of their children, and they were not prepared for it. Our society and media barrage us with images of happy mothers and peaceful babies, and if we fall outside of that there is some kind of deficit in us. Really the deficit is in an understanding of parenthood as a major rite of passage and the reality that we feel all kinds of things as new parents. Consistently, new parents feel exhausted, but other than that it really depends on the individual. If we do meaningful preparation before birth, the more resources and coping skills we will have. The more that we create a community of support, whether it is family, friends or professionals such as postpartum doulas and counsellors, the more we can call on them when we need help. Everyone who had a new baby needs help, the difference is whether we allow ourselves to accept the help.
I would highly recommend The Smiling Mask website, dvd and books.
One great thing about Birthing from Within Classes is that the way the classes are taught, prepares you for both birth and parenting. We learn that birth is unpredictable, unexpected events occur, we cannot plan for or control every aspect of it. We may feel frustrated, exhausted or uncomfortable. Welcome to parenthood!
I think about the ideas I had about both birth and parenting before I had my daughter, and I have to smile at myself. The expectation that I could control so many things, that if I just figured out the magical equation she would sleep, calm down, nurse the way I expected her too. Even now, she is 2 and a half and I still sometimes want to make things happen in a certain way, that is easy or convenient for me. I would have loved to take a Birthing from Within class, and maybe it would have helped me understand that holding a baby for hours on end to get them to sleep was not a problem to be solved, but what I signed up for as a parent. Now, in the rare event that she wants to snuggle or has trouble going to sleep, I do my best to use my Birthing from Within breath practices (used for pain-coping during labour), to be present in the moment and enjoy it or at least accept it. It works (sort of) for temper tantrums in the grocery store too.
Connected to the topic of parent preparation, I participated in a workshop in my community this week, from the creators of The Smiling Mask:
The purpose of The Smiling Mask is to create awareness, understanding, and acceptance of postpartum difficulties; to bring peace and validation to mothers and fathers by engaging and empowering families, and communities in the life changing and natural experience of parenthood.
The three women who started it all experience postpartum depression after the births of their children, and they were not prepared for it. Our society and media barrage us with images of happy mothers and peaceful babies, and if we fall outside of that there is some kind of deficit in us. Really the deficit is in an understanding of parenthood as a major rite of passage and the reality that we feel all kinds of things as new parents. Consistently, new parents feel exhausted, but other than that it really depends on the individual. If we do meaningful preparation before birth, the more resources and coping skills we will have. The more that we create a community of support, whether it is family, friends or professionals such as postpartum doulas and counsellors, the more we can call on them when we need help. Everyone who had a new baby needs help, the difference is whether we allow ourselves to accept the help.
I would highly recommend The Smiling Mask website, dvd and books.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Childbirth is a Profound Rite of Passage...
...not a medical event (even when medical care is part of the birth)
This the first of Birthing From Within's 14 guiding principles.
I have been talking to lots of people in my community lately about Birthing from Within® and how the childbirth classes I mentor offer something completely different, and it seems like the principles are a gateway to that explanation.
So I am going to look at the principles over the next few weeks and give you my interpretation of them.
A Rite of Passage
a significant event in a transitional period of someone's life
Sometimes it feels like birth in our culture is really polarized between a medical birth and a 'natural' birth, with value judgements about one 'type' being better than another. Many of us who work in birth recognize how destructive it is for women to categorize their birth one way or the other. To me the piece that is important is understanding that all women who become mothers undergo a significant life change and that acknowledging and respecting this truth brings us together and allows us to support each other through this rite of passage. Regardless of where we are giving birth or what expected or unexpected thing happen during the birth, every women experiences this life changing event. Birthing From Within childbirth preparation validates the understanding a mother has about her own birth, motivates the parents to make the choices that are best for them, educates that birth is hard work and it changes you as a person, initiates the parents into the birthing experience and celebrates the strength and resilience of all mothers and babies.
Please contact me for more information about these amazing classes and check out www.birthingfromwithin.com
Friday, April 1, 2011
Recommended Reading
Check out (literally!) my list of recommend reads for pregnancy and childbirth.
All these books are available at the Lethbridge Public Library and other libraries in the Chinook Arch System.
Stay tuned for reviews of some of these books in upcoming weeks.
All these books are available at the Lethbridge Public Library and other libraries in the Chinook Arch System.
Stay tuned for reviews of some of these books in upcoming weeks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)