Re: [ozmidwifery] Sensuously Special Pre-natal session

[M & T Holroyd]

Hi Julie,   Do you know of anywhere in Brisbane that runs pre-natal sessions such as yours.  This sounds so amazing... makes me envious that I found nothing like that during any of my pregnancies.  Keep up the wonderful work.   Tina H. ----- Original Message ----- From: Julie Clarke To: Ozmidwifery Mailing List Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 1:23 PM Subject: [ozmidwifery] Sensuously Special Pre-natal session Hi fellow listers, I had a pre-natal session last night which was such a pleasure I thought I’d share it with you… it was one of those very memorable magical nights… This “class” is a little different in that it is an open group and unstructured.  The couple’s who choose to attend do not have to book in, they can come and go on a weekly basis, and only pay for the night they attend. It is totally unstructured except for commencing with a breath awareness relaxation and finishing with a relaxation/visualisation.  The theme alternates from one week to the next between “Birth” and “Babies”, so it’s kept very broad and caters to the group’s needs. We commenced with a 20-minute breath awareness relaxation – music by Enya – Watermark. Aromatherapy oil vaporising was mandarin, which is light fresh and uplifting.  They enjoyed it and relaxed well in the darkness with just a touch of light streaming in from the hallway. Towards the end of the relaxation, I asked the women to place their 2 hands on their belly and send a message of love to their baby – then I asked the partners to place a hand also on the belly and send a message of love to the baby too. They all did it easily and some smiled lightly. Then I encouraged a long stretch before slowly sitting back up. After the relaxation, I put on only one set of lights to try to maintain the mood of peacefulness. Next an ice-breaker: a quick go around of the group with each person introducing their partner saying how many weeks pregnant or for the women how many weeks to go before their partner becomes a Dad, and then what positive quality / character trait they possess now that you believe they will bring to parenting. Their responses were beautiful… “Love, gentleness, patience, kindness, sense of humour, warmth”… Then I guided them into the “siting back to back” exercise and guided them through an awareness of each other, the other person’s breathing, their movement, their warmth, through a brief exercise of gently leaning on each other I talked to them about working as a team throughout labour and parenting, trusting, supporting, caring… I then asked them to stay in that position, taking hold of their partner’s hands and resting for a moment… then giving a gentle squeeze as a gesture of thanks for the support. I then asked them to move (still only in their couples) face to face, closely and to give feedback about how that exercise felt for them – privately, not sharing to the group – they giggled and held each other, arms and legs entwined, rubbed noses Maori style, kissed, smiled and hugged.  They talked very quietly, leaning on each other, quite intimately for several minutes. They were quite joyous, lots of smiling. Afterwards I got the women to relax luxuriously back onto their beanbags and I gave each of the partners a towel and lots of lavender massage oil to set them up for foot massage – I didn’t give them instructions – these couples were connected enough; they knew how to touch each other. Whilst the partners were massaging I showed them the video “A Timeless Way” a history of birth – they laughed out loud at the part where the old 1950’s footage has a doctor speaking saying “There is a variety of medications available from gas to caudal etc however you will leave the decision to the doctor as to which medication will be required for you” In the debrief period after the video they brought it up again and laughed again saying things like – wow wasn’t it different in the old days!! Then we had a quick cuppa break – they received the chocy bickies that my Tuesday nights class had left behind – they devoured them! We finished with a long relaxation visualisation – I let them choose which one they wanted – they came up with a “giving birth visualisation” I think they were feeling confident, empowered, and ready to face the challenge of visualising going through labour and birth.  Afterwards – they gave lots of positive feedback about different aspects of the visualisation – “powerful, helpful, liked the words, feel ready now”. One of the women is due in only 5 days, so we finished with me saying to her on behalf of the rest of the group please take our warmest wishes with you … they all then murmured some supportive comments to her too, and I invited them to return to show us their baby and tell us their birth story next Wednesday evening if they were in the hospital and would like to return as visitors.  I then extended the invitation to everyone in the group to do the same, if it was convenient for them, if they just happened to be in the hospital on the Wednesday night and felt like visiting J they agreed and smiled.   Tonight was one of those night’s where I simply had a potpourri of things to select from and yet no real preparation other than the theme of “Birth”… it turned out to be a magical night – as I drove home I was on such a high! Pure Bliss. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful job. Hug Julie     Julie Clarke CBE Childbirth and Parenting Educator ACE Grad-Dip Supervisor NACE Advanced Educator and Trainer Transition into Parenthood Sessions 9 Withybrook Place Sylvania NSW 2224 T.  (02) 9544 6441 Mobile: 0401 265530 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.transitionintoparenthood.com.au