When we hear or think of birth, more often than not we are reminded of TV shows and movies where a pregnant woman is rushed down the hallway – huffing, puffing and screaming through contractions while being told to “push” laying on her back with her legs in stirrups! For many of us this is also how we view birth, as a rush, as a medical emergency full of bright lights, doctors, tests and exams, not moving or having very little movement and not having many choices – being disempowered.
Tv and Hollywood tend to portray Childbirth as an emergency, painful and unbearable.
(Image courtesy of “One born every Minute.)
What we don’t think of- is giving birth with confidence, being informed, having choices and knowing our options, having the freedom to move and change positions, having support and being empowered.
This is Lamaze.
Lamaze is about giving women the confidence to give birth, to trust in their bodies, and their innate ability to birth, to understand the process of birth and to be informed, Lamaze emphasizes knowing your options.
Lamaze classes provide women with opportunity to gain confidence in their ability to give birth simply and have the safest, healthiest birth possible. Classes are based around the Lamaze Six Healthy Birth Practices, which help to simplify the birth process, alleviate fears and instil confidence in expectant mothers.
Lamaze is not just about breathing techniques (many of us associate Lamaze with this). When Lamaze dropped the breathing method in the 1980s, it transformed from a birth method into a birth philosophy. Lamaze Classes provide women with the best and latest evidence based information about pregnancy, labour, birth and breastfeeding. Lamaze was established in 1960 and is the oldest childbirth education organization around, and is internationally recognised. Lamaze’s mission is to advance safe and healthy pregnancy, birth and early parenting through evidence-based education and advocacy.
I believe deeply that birth is a process you can trust, just as millions of women before have done, women natural know how to give birth and this is why I started Birthability.
Women NEED to believe and trust in their ability to give birth, but society also has to trust in a woman’s ability to give birth – It is vital that we support women in every way possible during pregnancy, labour and birth instead of intervening and turning birth into a medical procedure.
“Birth is an opportunity to transcend. To rise above what we are accustomed to, reach deeper inside ourselves than we are familiar with, and to see not only what we are truly made of, but the strength we can access in and through Birth” – Marci Macari
As a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator (LCCE), I feel that I have a crucial role to play in helping women understand how amazing birth really can be, and helping to empower and educate them to have the birth they want. Birthability course teach fundamentals to help women achieve this, and using the Lamaze Six Healthy Birth Practices – women can see how they can have a safe, healthy birth and the birth they want.
Classes are kept small, to ensure every question is answered and so parents to be dont feel overwhelmed.
The birth of your children are moments that stay with you for the rest of your life. It is the most incredible, overwhelming, emotional and inspiring time in a woman’s life. I am passionate about helping mothers regain their connection to their innate ability to give birth. I want to offer mothers a new way of looking at birth that will lead them from fear to freedom, that will give them knowledge to make informed decisions, help them feel empowered and understand that they have choices and most importantly that they feel confident giving birth.
I’m excited to be able to pass my passion on to expecting parents, to be able to show them how amazing and powerful their bodies are and how amazing and inspiring birth really can be, to help them remove the fear of birth and tap into their Birthability.
