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Contact: Dancing For Birth™ Media Relations toll free 866-643-4824 info@DancingForBirth.com
Dancing For Birth™ Instructor Training Workshops go International. Women learn movements designed to encourage “vertical birth.”
A moratorium has been declared on the back-lying, lithotomy position of birthing by Stephanie Larson, DFB, CD(DONA), CBE, BFA, Founder of Dancing For Birth™, whose vision is for women world-wide to have the enjoyment of dancing their babies into the world. Larson says women can learn how to harness gravity and move their bodies during labor for more satisfying births. Aspiring Dancing For Birth™ Instructors flocked to the Dancing For Birth™ Instructor Training workshops held this year internationally, where they learned how to Energize, Enlighten and Empower™ women in the childbearing year. They plan to complete the necessary steps to become certified and join the growing numbers of certified Dancing For Birth™ Instructors (DFB) who teach weekly classes for pregnant and postpartum women and their newborns in their communities. DFB instructors come from varied backgrounds, such as birth and postpartum doulas, midwives, nurses, and childbirth educators; dance, yoga and fitness teachers; massage therapists; moms and birth enthusiasts.
“Women’s bodies are not designed for birthing on our backs, which prevents the pelvis from opening fully and gravity from helping the birth process” says Larson, who feels that the norms (such as back-lying) and routine interventions which characterize many hospital births are not evidence-based and are hindering instead of helping birthing women. “We are mammals after all. Can you imagine trying to coax an elephant to give birth on her back with her legs up in the air? Our maternal instincts tell us to move during labor and plant our feet on the floor when it’s time to push. One way to improve women’s birth experiences is to shift the paradigm from horizontal to vertical birth positions” says Larson. Clearly, change is needed, as reported in ‘Evidence-Based Maternity Care’ by Sakala and Corry (Milbank Memorial Fund, 2008) “… many other nations are doing a better job with measures such as perinatal, neonatal, and maternal mortality, low birth weight, and cesarean rates. Nonetheless, per capita health expenditures for the United States far exceed those of all other nations.” The report includes the use of upright birthing positions as a proven, cost-effective, low intervention practice that is widely underused.
Dancing For Birth™ prenatal/postpartum classes teach a “language of movement” specially designed for women in any stage of pregnancy or who are planning to conceive and for postpartum women wearing their babies in soft slings or wraps. Though the movements are inspired by ancient dance forms like Belly dance (created by/for birthing women) and African dance, the 90-minute weekly classes, which combine dance and fitness with rare essential childbirth preparation skills such as optimal fetal positioning, are the wave of the future of birth and resonate with women. “Modern day women want to celebrate birth and be transformed by it!” says Larson. “They have innate wisdom of how to give birth with ease and nurture their children, and Dancing For Birth™ classes help awaken their abilities.” Women often come to class for fun and fitness, and find that they gain more than they expected to. “I gained great moves to help me feel good, and birthing positions and knowledge of what I can do to help me through labor”, said pregnant participant Melanie Eng.
“The first step to a satisfying birth,” says Larson, “is to listen to your baby via your body—and move accordingly. For many women this means laboring and birthing actively, in a forward-leaning vertical position, out of bed.” By moving instinctively, using gravity and positioning to their advantage, women can temporarily enlarge the dimensions of their pelvis for the baby's passage, help their babies rotate and descend, help reduce unnecessary interventions and enjoy natural pain relief. “You can be sure that you will gain a lot from Dancing For Birth™ classes no matter what type of birth you are planning,” says Larson, “the benefits include improved grace, strength, agility, endurance, knowledge, empowerment, confidence, and a circle of great new friends.” Stereotypes lead women to believe that they should take to the bed when they become pregnant, but according to ‘Exercising Through Your Pregnancy’ by J.F. Clapp III, for healthy women, exercising during pregnancy is safe and has many benefits for mom and baby too, “At five years old, the offspring of the women who exercised during pregnancy scored much higher on tests of general intelligence and oral language skills”.
Larson founded Dancing For Birth™ in 2000, when she realized that her lifelong dance experience which had helped her give birth naturally was a benefit to her birth doula and childbirth education clients as well. Dancing For Birth™ workshops came to the attention of the widely respected organizations DONA International and Lamaze International, which invited Larson to give presentations to childbirth professionals from around the world at their international conferences. In 2007, Larson began holding Dancing For Birth ™ Instructor Training workshops in St. Louis, Missouri. By popular demand, 2009 marked the start of national and international instructor trainings. The 2011 instructor training schedule includes New Zealand, Australia, Europe and more. Classes are available on four continents and are continuing to expand. For more information please visit www.DancingForBirth.com or call toll free 866-643-4824.
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