Courses > calmbirth® Course
All about calmbirth® 
calmbirth® provides the knowledge of birth preparation techniques such as relaxation, visualisation, breathing, positive imagery, attitudes/expectancy to achieve a rewarding easier, more comfortable stress-free birthing experience. The courses are run daytimes, evenings, week days and weekends. The next weekend course available is Saturday, September 13 and Sunday, September, 14, 2008. Limited places.
Midwives and doctors really notice the difference when women have prepared themselves in this way and will often comment on how wonderfully well these women birth in a calm and relaxed way.
The calmbirth® course is suitable for each pregnancy, whether it's your first or fifth baby because every labour and birth experience requires preparation to enable the woman to be prepared both physically and emotionally. Be sure to ask your midwife or doctor about the results they've seen.
The current June 2008 edition of the Practical Parenting magazine available from newsagents and supermarkets, contains a very good article on calmbirth® as a means for thorough and effective preparation for labour available for women. Look for the bright orange cover.
What is calmbirth®?
The calmbirth® method of childbirth preparation by P. Jackson; a midwife in Bowral NSW, and is based on the work of Dr. Grantly Dick-Reid, the pioneer of natural childbirth, who authored the book, Childbirth Without Fear. calmbirth® is predicated on the belief that woman can experience birth through the natural flow and rhythm of their labouring body; to release birthing over to their mind and body and to trust their body to function as it was intended to, thereby alleviating undue discomfort, assisting rather than resisting the normal process.
By learning about the physiology of the birth process and the fight-or-flight response, which usually accompanies labour, the couple realises how that “fear-tension-pain syndrome” develops. They are then taught how to alter and improve that response through special relaxation techniques, through re-interpretation of pain and through fear-release techniques. In this way a woman is free to connect with and work with her body as she experiences labour and birth.
The labouring mother is alert but deeply relaxed. She then can maintain a deep relaxation along with "calm breathing" and "slow rhythmic focused breathing" through active labour and to interpret birthing sensations as pressure, stretching or numbness. It is this ability to deeply relax that enables the pelvic muscles to open and allow the baby to birth easily.
About the Course
The course takes place over either five evening sessions or two daytime sessions. Throughout the course, Julie demonstrates and teaches a range of relaxation techniques to the expectant mother and partner or support person, who is also taught how to assist in deepening relaxation and encouraging a calm, natural birth.
The course only costs $300 per couple. Special discount of $50 applies when booking for calmbirth® is combined together with the one-day workshop or childbirth preparation course, this is the ideal way to prepare for the birth of your baby as you'll gain so much more that way, rather than only doing one course. More...