I just sent my middle school age daughter to a full week of sleep away camp, the longest she has even been away from us and a million thoughts keep running through my head of things I think she might not remember. Like, it might be cold in the morning, so put your jacket on before you go to the cafeteria.

I know that I can't mother her forever, as she gets older, she has to learn these lessons on her own through her own experience and even her own pain, but I still find myself wanting to help her avoid painful lessons.

The more I think about this, the more I realize this feeling is much like how I feel about helping expectant parents navigate birth. I want to prevent everyone from experiencing unnecessary difficulties, and though sometimes adults also have to learn on their own, I am still committed to helping expectant parents be as prepared as they can be so they stay can stay in control of their birth from start to finish and avoid painful experiences that so many others have been through.

The problem with childbirth education is that just talking about the physiology of birth and learning some comfort techniques are not thorough preparation techniques for what the actual experience will be. Like with my daughter, who has to learn by experiencing life, noticing patterns and drawing conclusions, I approach teaching about childbirth education in the same way - helping expecting parents experience life, notice patterns and develop conclusions that will allow them to take actions and made decisions that support the birth experience they envision.

As much as I would love to just tell you everything you need to know, there is no way we could predict what you will need to know nor even remember it all with so many other big transitions in front of you. So I have created an experiential birth class that brings together the best of what you need to know with a teaching and exploration method and a simple framework that allows you to learn everything you need to know without memorizing anything except the simple framework.

You might wonder, what does it look like to take an experiential childbirth class? What exactly does it mean?

Think about a typical day, what does it feel like to wake up, do you wake quickly or slowly? Do you need an adjustment period or are you ready to get out of bed? Do you wake naturally or always need an alarm? Most of the time, you probably don't think about this when you wake up, unless waking up is really difficult for you.

Now think about when you get hungry. Before you were pregnant, were you the type who would go long periods forgetting to eat or would you notice it was lunchtime by how you felt? What does this say about how your body works, and why is it different for different people?

Being more conscious of how you feel at different times in the day and night, how your body and mind interact with the environment at these key times will  provide you insight into how you experience life and will shape the experience of your labor.

As you learn to start noticing your environment and your interaction in it, your responses to it, you will start to notice patterns, at first subtle until they become obvious to you everyday. It is at this point you can begin your birth education where you will be able to recognize patterns and draw conclusions that will help you stay in control of your birth.

If you want to start to explore cycles of nature and how they relate to your pregnancy and birth, download the free guide Three Sacred Cycles You Need to Know for a More Confident and Intuitive Homebirth, get your copy by clicking here!