Baton Rouge's Choice For The Most Experienced In Childbirth Education And Doula Services
EXCEPTIONAL BIRTHING SUPPORT GROUP
Across all cultures and time women have looked to other women for information, encouragement, and support during pregnancy and birth.Exceptional Birthing, co-sponsored by Red Shoes and facilitated by Birth Help doulas, offers a place where today’s women share and explore concepts, philosophies, and techniques supporting natural childbirth. We’ll discuss physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of birthing along with resources for achieving your birth goals.
Women who have had or attempted natural childbirth, as well as pregnant women interested in childbirth and nursing babies are welcome.
NEW DATES AND TIME:
Exceptional Birth Group meets on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at Red Shoes, 2303 Government Street from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. There is no fee, but please register by calling Red Shoes 225.338.1170 or email redshoes@bellsouth.net.
2010 Meetings will be held on:
July 13, August 10, September 14, October 12, November 9, and December 14.
MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE EXCEPTIONAL BIRTHING GROUP
by Jessica Diez
I am pregnant with my 2nd child, planning to have a natural childbirth, and trying to be very proactive about seeking out support for natural childbirth outside of just the medical community.
During my first pregnancy, my husband and I felt confident that our OB at Woman's Hospital was on board with us having a natural childbirth. We took several childbirth, breastfeeding and Lamaze classes to prepare ourselves, and we felt assured that the doctor was there to support us through this and the labor/delivery.
Unfortunately, I was not getting very much support from my mother, other family members, friends or coworkers about having a natural birth. Everyone seemed to think that I was crazy for this decision and told me so often. "What do you have to prove to anyone?", "You'll be screaming for that epidural eventually", "What are you some kind of new age hippie or something?" were just a few of the comments we had heard.
So my husband and I just kind of shut out a lot of this negative feedback and we sort of lived in this little bubble believing that everything was going to go just fine, according to plan, despite what others said. We ended up not having a natural birth, had a particularly bad time with lots of interventions forced upon us, and walked away from the whole experience bruised, battered and feeling like we had run through a baby mill.
With this 2nd pregnancy, initially I was faced with many of the same old problems. I wasn't trusting the new doctor that I had switched to, never found that supportive network of natural birth friendly family members, friends, or coworkers, and I was still somewhat in the same mindset that I'd have to do this on my own again. That's when we found the team of midwives at Ochsner who are night and day different from the OB services that I'm used to. They are knowledgeable, supportive and well experienced in natural childbirth and encouraging of a birth this way. However, I knew that they would not be capable of providing that daily/weekly one on one support or gentle nudge to say, 'hey, you ARE doing the right thing - this CAN work for you, it's worked for me' nor would I solely look to them for this.
In comes the Exceptional Birthing group. What an exceptional group of women who came together to just talk, share stories, ideas, or to ask questions. I was slightly skeptical of going to the meeting for a couple of reasons. 1) I just didn't know what to expect and thought that maybe this was the "new age hippie" thing people talked about - that's just not me, 2) I thought that this was going to be a group of women that I had nothing in common with, and 3) I wasn't sure if I would get a chance to ask the ladies a few questions that I really needed some feedback on.
Ok, how foolish did I feel when I all of my skepticism was blown out the window. These were real women, from all walks of life, some with kids, some without, some with the same birth story that I had with my first child, seeking out this group for the exact same reasons that I was. It was extremely empowering for me to sit in that room and realize that this was exactly the group that I didn't know that I needed with my first pregnancy. I felt like the pieces of the puzzle finally fit together and I found that missing 'personal support' piece that was missing for so long.
And you ask, how can you have had such an epiphany when all you were doing was sitting around talking to a bunch of other women about giving birth? Well if you have never had one second of that, rather being told that your otherwise completely normal and legitimate decision to have a natural childbirth is crazy, stupid, and only some weird act of heroism, then you would understand. It was the first time that I have been in a room with other women that were on board with natural childbirth, that were fearful just like me, that were seeking answers and reassurance just like me, that were exploring their options and hearing that 'yes you CAN do this, it's worked for me' message.
So thanks for providing this service to the Baton Rouge community. Just that one meeting was so valuable to me, and I cannot wait to attend more and one day have my own natural birthing story to tell.