The Baby and Toddler Guide

Yogini Birthing –Making Childbirth an Enlightened Experience

By Dorothy Guerra , owner of Fertility to Delivery Yoga, Childbirth Educator,
Labour Doula, Creator of The Yoga BirthMethod

Woman flock to prenatal yoga classes during their 9months of pregnancy to help stay fit, promote flexibility for birth and to distress while awaiting the birth of their child.

Prenatal yoga classes can be far more useful than just an avenue for fitness. The Yoga Birth Method otherwise known as Yogini Birthing is a new concept thatmakes birth a natural and enlightened experience. Childbirth is a natural process; however through access to medical attention and medications the naturalness has lost its meaning. The idea that an epidural is readily available makes woman fear birth and expect the need for medications. Yogini Birthing empowers woman to take control back of the natural birthing process, it gives woman the tools they need to prepare for their labour by educating themon how to connect to their body using yoga postures, how tomanage pain with breath awareness and how to embrace the birth of their child with mindfulness and meditation.

This technique allows baby and mother to work together during labour to create a natural experience.

The Yoga Birth Method is an 8 step pathway used during labour to encourage progression through the three stages of labour efficiently and with ease. When a woman identifies and acknowledges her pain threshold she applies the specific techniques in the method and has a better chance at natural birth. The birth method gives a woman mindful control over her body and she is more likely to be connected to her baby during the entire birth process.

When a woman does not have the tools and understanding of what is happening to her during labour she can become overwhelmed and reaches out for medication to avoid the pain and the experience. This disconnects from her birth process.

The Yoga Birth Method is taught to woman in prenatal classes as an educational tool for childbirth preparation. The classes cover birthing topics and teach woman the specific postures and breath sequences that are used in early, active and transition stage to help manage contractions and build pain tolerance. The initial step of The Yoga Birth Method is to set a birthing intention; these intentions are based on 10 positive behaviours that the practice of yoga follows. When a woman has chosen an intention that best suits her outlook for her birth it becomes her point of focus. It’s through establishing this connection to her birth intention that she enters a state of natural meditation. In combination with her postures and breath she becomes embraced in a state of calmness and mindfulness that enables her to experience “yogini birthing”.

Childbirth and Yoga share amazing similarities, both rely on breath, physical movement and self awareness. By bringing them together in labour a woman gains the power to experience the gift of childbirth in a positive and peaceful state. By using yoga in her labour, she empowers other woman through her childbirth story to see labour as something that should be embraced not feared.

Dorothy Guerra offers Yoga Birth Method Child Birth Preparation classes at her studio Fertility to Delivery Yoga Centre; she is doula and uses this technique in her support to woman during labour. She trains and certifies doulas, childbirth educators and prenatal yoga teachers. Dorothy is a conference speaker for Lamaze and Doula’s of North America.

For more information on classes, training and speaking engagements please visit her website at www.fertilitytodelivery.com