Yoga for Labor & Birth: A Workshop for Partners

Yoga Sanctuary (Thornes Marketplace, 150 Main St., Third Floor, Northampton MA 01060)

Beauty/Wellness

with Beth Donnelly Cabán. In this workshop, you will learn a variety of labor coping strategies, and partners gain practical physical and emotional labor support skills. We will explore positions, movement and rhythms that influence fetal position, encourage progress, and ease pain in labor. We will bring attention to the breath and explore ways that you might use it to steady and calm the mind, induce relaxation, and energize the body. We will work with touch – massage, counter pressure, acupressure points - as means to support comfort, facilitate progress, and relieve pain. When the mind is free of tension and fear, the body is able to give birth with greater ease. We will practice relaxation techniques and visualizations for labor and birth and examine the universal needs of laboring women. Other topics we will discuss include the use of heat and/or cold for comfort, eating and drinking as essential labor support, and the benefits of water. This workshop includes practices to do at home and a bibliography. All levels welcome. $75 per couple. Please register ahead of time by phone or online. Day of drop-in - exact change / check only.