Whole body birth

SOMATIC BIRTH DEBRIEF, PREPARATION & RECOVERY

How can you prepare for an experience that is essentially unknowable until you get there?

People ask, how can I prepare myself, as a birthing person and a support person? Many of us come to parenting with conditioning and expectations. Birth in particular is framed in our culture in a medicalised setting where it can be easy to delegate agency to professionals and the hospital setting.

Traditional birth education leaves some important factors out of the process. Over my 20 years in the field, I have found 4 key areas that are useful to reframe and reflect upon to set your birth and parenting journey up.

WHOLE BODY BIRTHING

Birth preparation that includes sexuality and

My first couple of sessions with Jo have been pivotal in helping me feel more connected with my body. After years of low libido and coming to terms with my new postpartum and post breastfeeding body, I wanted to reconnect with my sensuality and explore different ways I can experience pleasure.

Learning about consent and communication with Jo was one of the most important things I did to prepare me for labour. I was able to create a space for myself to ask for, and receive what I needed from the medical system. I look back on my birth experience as an empowering one, where I participated in choosing the treatment I received, rather than feeling like it was something that was done to me”.

it was a lightbulb moment. It had never occurred to me that i could control when and how doctors could touch my body beyond permission to perform a procedure. I also didn't anticipate how much more in control I felt when I could choose when a procedure started, even if I just took an extra 5 seconds to ground myself.