Classes and Workshops

Whether you’re delivering your first or fifth child, childbirth classes can help you prepare to meet the challenges of labor and delivery. Consider the opportunities:

• Learn things you never knew about labor, delivery and postpartum care. Find out how to identify the signs of labor and understand your changing body.
• Address your fears By discussing them with other women who probably share the same concerns. The instructor can dispel myths and help put your mind at ease.
• Connect with your partner or labor coach. By understanding the process of childbirth your partner can discover ways to support you during labor.
• Discuss and learn options for handling pain. You’ll practice methods, such as breathing techniques, relaxation, and visualization, for coping with contractions. Classes also cover the pros and cons of common medications, such as epidural blocks.
• Get the basics on medical interventions and possible complications. Find out how routine interventions can influence the course of labor.
• Brush up on newborn care. Topics include choosing a pediatrician, breast-feeding, testing and procedures, and more.

Sacred Knowledge offers childbirth preparation courses, with a focus on basic principles: Childbirth is natural, normal and healthy, therefore pregnant mothers and their partners need support on their journey. Proper tools and preparation, can help you feel relaxed, informed and equipped to have a rewarding birth, as well as a confident start with your baby. Sacred Knowledge Childbirth is a unique childbirth course full of evidence-based information for women who want to feel empowered to make the best choices regarding their birth. Whether you decide to give birth in a hospital, birth center, or at home, this course is designed to help you stay healthy and have a gratifying birth experience.

What we cover in childbirth classes:

• Basic pregnancy anatomy, adjusting to pregnancy, nutrition, and exercise.
• A look at pain in pregnancy, labor, birth and pain management.
• Comfort measures during pregnancy, pre-labor, birth,timing contractions, and methods of relaxation.
• The first stage of labor.
• What to expect, how to make informed decisions, and answers to questions like “When should I go to the hospital?” and “Is this the real thing?”
• How to be a supportive labor coach.
• Second and Third Stage labor, (pushing and placentas), birth plans, doulas, and lots of great tips!
• Labor positions and methods for pushing.
• Medications, common procedures, and complications.
• Cesarean birth, fetal monitoring, and episiotomy.
• How to make the best decisions for your birth.
• Postpartum adjustment, newborn care (diapering, bathing, cord care), sex after baby, six-week postpartum check-up, bleeding, and postpartum depression.

Sacred Knowledge provides childbirth education to expecting parents in a fun, interactive, positive, safe environment. We are committed to preparing families for childbirth with evidence-based information in a simple, nonjudgmental manner. We provide information that will assist you in having a healthy pregnancy. In addition, we will support you on your journey to becoming the best parents you can be.

We cover several different birthing techniques. For example, we encourage the Lamaze method of breathing during labor to promote relaxation. We discuss the importance of husband or partner-coached labor support like the Bradley method. We touch on the benefits of ease and freedom of movement, balance, flexibility, and coordination that the Alexander technique encourages. We teach principles that help remove fear and tension that are similar to Hypnobirthing, because severe pain does not have to be part of labor. Learning intense relaxation will enhance natural birthing instincts that lead to a calm and serene birth experience. Rather than seek to achieve a particular birthing process, our curriculum prepares mothers to “give birth in awareness,” similar to the techniques taught in Birthing from Within.