Birth can be so beautiful, so magical, so empowering. I love to capture birth through my photos, but I also love to talk about birth. A lot! I don't think it could ever bore me! I am a teacher, facilitator and birth activist. I believe all women and their partners deserve to be treated well during pregnancy and birth, and I know that a great way to achieve this is by informing them of their rights, their choices, and more than anything else by making them believe in themselves.

I am a certified BirthWorks Childbirth Educator in Frederick Maryland. I also have a Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Academic Studies, a PhD in Forensic Biology, a Batchelors degree in Biology and am a trained birth and postnatal doula. Every woman intrinsically knows how to give birth but in this day and age of modern technology, birth dramatization in mainstream media, and endless stories of 'bad' births, it isn't surprising that women can be scared to trust themselves. BirthWorks teaches more than the process of giving birth. It teaches couples how to communicate with each other, how to learn together and how to work together to empower themselves for the labor.

Couples taking my natural childbirth class will learn about:

• Understanding and working with the contractions of labor
• Making informed choices about medical interventions
• Relaxation, pelvic awareness and bodywork
• How our beliefs and attitudes affect our experience of birth
• Labor companionship and comfort measures
• Options for your birth and birth planning
• Healing past emotional trauma to facilitate normal birth
• Post-partum practices
• Breastfeeding
• Primal Health
• Mother-Baby Skin-to-Skin

We learn and grow by following through a series of discussions, birth videos, visualizations, pelvic exercises, breath work and partner exercises. The support doesn't end at the end of the last class. I love to hear how couples get on in their births and often become friends with past clients and laugh and cry with them through their experiences. I'm always available via email and create private Facebook groups for participants to update each other on their stories and ask questions and share resources. 

To me this is more than just running a class. It's creating a safe, welcoming space for people as they journey through an incredibly special time in their life, whether it is preparing for their first baby, or healing themselves from a past birth experience, or welcoming their second, third or fourth baby! Everyone has a special story to tell, and I am always ready and waiting to hear it.

If you are looking for a natural childbirth class which focuses on more than just giving birth, this is the class for you!

Visit my webpage for information on the next upcoming class. I also offer private and semi-private classes outside of main class times, contact me for more information! 

www.lindseywelchphotography.com/natural-childbirth-education-classes