A labor of love —

childbirth education classes

By Pam Woolway – The Garden Island

Homebirth midwife Terry Nash will be joined by art therapist and birthing assistant Kim Miller and childbirth educator and birthing assistant Mary Moss for a seven-week creative education series on childbirth.

“We use stories, music, art — as well as all the anatomical processes so you begin to open up to the internal process of birth,” said Nash who has been attending births since 1982.

Attendees do not have to be pregnant to participate though.

“Your own birth is a launching point,” said Miller. “It’s part of your personal history.”

This seven-week exploration will begin with a focus on birth stories of the participants.

“For any woman who wants to do inner exploration — it begins at birth,” said Miller, who described one collaborative exercise the group will undertake. “We’ll pass around a nest that we’ll weave as each person tells the story of their birth.”

“We welcome people who want to explore and heal their own stories,” said Nash. “We’ve had massage therapists take it and women who are menopausal.”

Nash said, “Our own birth story tells us how we’ve been imprinted — how the strands of our perceptions begin.”

She said that even if you don’t know your birth story — that is your story.

“If you don’t know because you were adopted, that is a story you’ve been imprinted with,” she said.

Consecutive classes will focus on the role of nutrition, signs of labor — what labor means for both the mother and the baby — and what one can expect from a home or hospital birth.

Nash said she’ll educate expectant mothers on actions they can take to make their labor easier.

“It’s not something that happens to you — labor is a relationship,” she said. “What is your relationship to pain or to your partner’s reaction? What are some skills to use during the labor and delivery process— like how to deal with fear?”

Nash’s intent is to create a network of support for expectant mothers where pregnancy becomes a journey.

“We create a collaboration,” she said. “We cover resources like where to go, what to look for, how to care for a newborn and what is postpartum.”

She described the class as an opportunity for anyone to explore their own birth story.

“Birth is not just a physical event,” Nash said. “It has emotional, mental, spiritual, social and family intersections. From that story and listening to one another, we begin to understand our stories.”

Nash said the class is for anyone.

“It’s about understanding the birth process,” she said. “Birth has been reduced to a medical event with bits of information infused with fear. Information is not wisdom — what you need at a birth is wisdom.”

“A labor of love — childbirth education classes” begin March 27. The class is from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays through May 7 at Ala Palamea art studio at 4540 Fernandes St. in Kapa‘a. To register, call 346-5967 or e-mail kiminkauai@yahoo.com.

• Pam Woolway, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 257) or pwoolway@kauaipubco.com