Congratulations on your pregnancy!

Welcome
The Birth Empowerment Course
To

and . . .

www.BirthinginConsciousChoice.com

with Krystal Trammell, of

Session One
What is birth empowerment?
Empowerment is the difference between childbirth as something that you: * happening to you * and birth

consciously choose the terms of clearly examine your beliefs about

honestly evaluate your feelings toward

Empowerment is the difference between being a passive or active participant in the birth process.

Obviously, we cannot always choose the circumstances under which we give birth... Some women and some babies have health

issues or risk factors that preclude them but that does NOT mean that they have to be passive participants in their own care. from having a more naturally-oriented birth,

empowered birth is conscious choice.

The central & essential element of an

Birth empowerment doesnt only apply to mamas who desire a natural birth.

If anything, birth empowerment is even more important to those mamas who are high risk style of care. The inherent tendency of a
hospital birth is to feel that you have very little autonomy in any matters but only if you don't speak up.

and in need of a more medically-managed

Even the most medically managed birth can, contain elements that allow you to feel more human, more validated, and more empowered. Hospitals can be notorious for neglecting the human element of birth but that doesnt mean that there arent incredibly caring, with the help of sensitive care providers,

dedicated, mother-friendly OBs out there! birth is guaranteed to be peaceful & zen-like! You can feel out of control & fearful about having a natural birth AND you can also be empowered in a hospital/medical setting. It also doesnt mean that a midwife-attended

+ Choice is key +
Birth is inherently unpredictable. Yet, in our culture, we value control very highly. Thanks to imposing (yet fairly recent) cultural norms, when we think of an empowered woman, what comes to mind is career woman. Sadly, mothering, and so pregnancy and

often an image of an unencumbered, youthful

childbirth as well, are now often seen as limiting or even oppressive to women, thanks to our historical and cultural legacy.

Our culture tends to tell women lies about birth--although theyre not widely recognized AS lies, even by those perpetuating them.

Some of these lies include the belief that birth is inherently dangerous, and its safer to just turn things over to the professionals...

...that interventions are only used to protect the health and safety of the baby and mother...

...that once the babys here safely, it doesnt matter how you gave birth.

and those of your baby--in mind and at heart more than you do.

The thing is, no one has your best interests--

It might be common to assume that our health to know about birth--but the truth is that too concerned with management of risk, to the exclusion of all else. often, many care providers are primarily care provider will tell us everything we need

The average health care provider is busy (if not overwhelmed), schooled in averages and enormous pressure to have their patients typical case scenarios, and sometimes under comply with hospital policies. Many of them

simply cant be relied on to give you the kind of specific, nurturing, personalized care that we all desire access to.

Its unrealistic to expect that an average --especially one who works in a busy hospital-completely educate you about all things to do with pregnancy, birth and beyond. will be able or willing to properly and medical professional

While midwifery care is well-known for being much more thorough and nurturing with their clients, typically spending an hour or more on minutes of face-time in a doctors office-educate you on all the options and concerns any other time in life--health care is primarily SELF-care. Unfortunately, some care providers have about your birth. In pregnancy, as well as you still cannot rely on your midwives to each visit instead of the customary five

your best interests at heart only insofar as no ones going to obviously get worse instead of better, and no lawsuits are going to transpire. This is, sadly, almost inevitable in a litigious

society such as ours, and it ends up creating a sort of one-size-fits-all approach to birth, where whats average becomes elevated to the definition of normal--and whats not

average starts to be viewed as dangerous. We ought to realize that this sort of rigid approach to something as organic and unique as human birth patterns is nonsense at best, and dangerous at worst.

We may talk about and even write down our birth, in all actuality. birth plans--but of course, you cant plan a and even in hospitals, variations and emergencies can and do occur. Even in low-risk mamas,

But instead of living in fear of emergencies birth to the point that we are aware of our personal potential for risks, and be able to choose for ourselves what we are comfortable with risking. Its useful here to remember that everything in life contains some measure of risk, and that risk is inherent in every aspect of life. We may have different feelings of fear or happening, we can educate ourselves about

safety attached to certain courses of action or decisions, but it is a good practice to bear in mind that these are merely our about our decisions. observations--the way weve chosen to feel

Risks are everywhere--by being aware of them, we can consciously choose what were willing to risk.

Pain as the default sensation of labor A lot of childbirth classes focus on pain

management--and this one does touch on the learning about pain--were going to be learning about fear--and how pain arises from fear. Very few people question why pain is the typically expected sensation of labor and differently. childbirth, or whether it can be experienced concept, but in a unique way. Instead of

The short answer is YES--but consider for a moment, do we really want to escape the sensations of birth?

In our culture we fear pain, and tend to shy away from anything that might be painful, whether physically or emotionally. Instead,

we can choose to redefine pain:

Pain--especially in childbirth--is not a sign that we are damaged. properly! It is a sign that our body is working Pain in other contexts, however, is

something to worry about, because

it signifies that something is wrong and needs to be attended to. We must question, then, why childbirth is experienced so painful. pervasively in our culture as

Many women experience childbirth as intense, attention--but not as painful. as something that requires your full There are even

speaking out about orgasmic childbirth--which is worth reading about, or watching the documentary of the same name.

a small but growing number of women

I don't necessarily think women ought to be although some women can and do experience childbirth this way, whether or not they intend to! Instead, I mention this simply as an example How often do we of the very wide range of whats possible hear childbirth described as a pleasurable during childbirth--and thus, to fear it. actively pursuing orgasm during childbirth -

when it comes to birth. experience?

We are socialized to expect pain

something is painful is often all thats needed to create the experience of pain.

Its worth noting that the belief that

Birth Trauma

experienced as traumatic in many ways, for arent often encouraged to speak candidly some reason, the objective account of what importance than the subjective realm of require permission from a larger group of peers or experts to legitimately explore and process our feelings of loss, hurt, or pain about an experience. Even the very idea that ones feelings and health is still only just starting to gain feelings and emotion. Its almost as if we happened is deemed to be of more about or identify with their feelings. For many reasons - yet in our culture, women

Aspects of the birth experience can be

emotions CAN affect ones physical state of credence in the mainstream knowledge base. categorize everything in the world, modern experience that does not fit into a neat and simple category of explanation. Consider, too, that birth trauma doesnt have to involve physical harm. thought has tended to toss aside any In our zeal to understand, quantify, and

It may exist solely inside of your mind, in the realm of feelings, but that doesnt make it any less legitimate. Indeed, perhaps the majority of birth trauma involves mental and emotional harm, rather well as your mind - responds the same to fear, whether or not the danger you're than physical. Your physiology - your body as

perceiving and fearing is real or imaginary. Post-traumatic stress disorder, incidentally, experience any strong, unpleasant emotion the memory of circumstances that caused be triggered by similar circumstances--even that emotional state stays with you, and can (especially for a prolonged period of time), operates in a very similar way. If you

if you dont have any conscious memory of the event. Women can even suffer from
PSTD from prior birth experiences, in certain circumstances.

We can even have residual, lingering trauma or perhaps if we grew up hearing stories of how mother suffered when she brought us into the world. from our own birth - either subconsciously,

complications, had to stay in the NICU for an difficult family circumstances, the effect of our mothers strong emotions on our psyche can still linger, although deeply buried. extended time, or if you were born into

If you were born very early or with

Just because we lack words to describe fresh and new, does not mean that it didnt impact us in some way. Talk to your mother about her birth what happened to us when we were very

experiences, if you can.

Find out how her

births went for her, how she felt about it all, and how you were cared for in the first hours and days of your life. You might be

surprised at the connections you will uncover with your present-day feelings, problems, and even the general way you view the world.

Birth is so deeply impactful to us socially, watching our loved ones from the sidelines, whether we are the one giving birth, or the one being born! emotionally, and physically--whether we are

~ Naming your fears is the first step in transcending them ~

Fear of giving birth is so commonplace question why this is the expected response. We assume that feeling fear and dread of labor as background emotions during pregnancy is a normal, natural, and inevitable to be so. We can choose to opt out of this in our culture that many women don't even

part of the process--but this does not have

constrictive, depressing reality and create a new one that's not mired in fear and worry. We can work to explore and then replace positive feelings, such as faith in oneself, courage, strength, fortitude, and calm. Some people believe that physical problems other imbalances start from emotional dis-ease and imbalance. the background emotion of fear with more

such as disease (literally, 'dis-ease'), illness, and

There are many excellent tools to address your fears and heal you from the inside out; including positive affirmations, visualizations, guided meditations, vibrational medicine such as the Bach Flower Essences, Reiki and energy work, aromatherapy, and much more.

We will take a closer look at many of these techniques further into the course.

However, in order to begin releasing your fears, you must first identify them, confront them with courage, and allow yourself to feel deep within, and give voice to your emotions however buried or complex they may be. ~ when you change the way you think of birth, YOU change ~ them clearly. Be honest with yourSelf, dig

Changing Your Beliefs With Positive Affirmations So now that you've got a better handle on in a position of power to change those

what you fear and what you believe you are beliefs, and begin to release your fears. fixed and unchangeable, and carry around a whole set of beliefs that don't serve them well, or perhaps actively sabotage their happiness and well-being. There's a little-known + powerful secret that I'm gonna let you in on: Many people think of beliefs as something

You get to decide what you believe.

Yes, really!
You didn't inherit your beliefs along with your like an overpriced cell phone contract. gene pool, and you aren't locked in to them You

are free to examine anything you believe with a critical eye, and to decide for yourSelf whether or not that belief is healthy and supportive for you.

Believe in yourSelf who else would truly know what's best for you?

been.

The power is in your hands, and always has or give your power away to someone or something else.

You get to decide if you will act on it

Being present moment-to-moment: In many ways, our past experiences do indeed shape our future, even in spite of much feelgood talk to the contrary.

The trick is to recognize that now, in this moment, is the only point at which we can start to effect and accept change.

The past is gone, the future is intangible, so this moment is really all there is. What we call the past is really just a

collection of thoughts we have about things that weve experienced. subjective. They're not factual, unbiased The thoughts are

We can choose to hang onto these thoughts, to let them define us and tell our story, or... we can let them go.

accounts they're personalized and unique.

There are many ways in which we fail to live are particularly helpful to us. in the present moment, very few of which good mood, we might choose to reminisce might also be rehashing our mistakes and hurts of yesterday. If we are in a

about happier times, and if were troubled, we

In either of these scenarios, however, we moment, which impedes our ability to make It's not really helpful to be constantly defining the present by what we used to think, do, or feel (especially if we're dwelling on ways we messed up!) This kind of mental nostalgia or clear decisions about whatever is at hand. are not being fully present in the current

guilt-tripping holds us back from truly exploring all our options, or thinking differently without judgment. Changing our beliefs about birth, and about of consciousness. This can be a broad,

what our body is capable of, requires a shift sweeping change but more likely, it will be subtle and small. Indeed, all shifts of consciousness, if they are to stick. Eventually your thoughts, feelings and beliefs new beliefs will start to gain ground over second-guessing yourSelf or looking to others for reassurance or validation so much. One very simple and effective way to start shifting your beliefs is by affirming the beliefs you wish to incorporate.

no matter how big, tend to start gradually

will reach a sort of tipping point, where your your old ones, and it won't feel like you're

Affirmations are just positive statements of to be fancy, complex, or poetic--just positive statements of potential truth. what you desire to be true. They dont have

What do I mean by 'positive' statements? I mean you should say,

I believe that I can birth my baby naturally instead of

I don't want to have an induction.

Use yes-statements that focus on what you no-statements that make mention of what you'd like to avoid or change. want to create and achieve, instead of

Why not just write down what we want to avoid? Because the universe operates like a cosmic search engine.

Being open to many options can be good--but beliefs, its important to get specific about (Incidentally, this is just as true for holiday gift giving as affirmation writing!) Think of it this way: If youre searching for what you want, or want to create. when writing affirmations or re-creating

a pair of shoes to buy on the internet, and you type in no tennis shoes, boots, or flip flops into the search box--what are your search results going to be full of?

Tennis shoes, boots, and flip flops!

youre interested in or actually want if you mainly focus on and search for what you DON'T want. The trick is to be specific. Think of writing affirmations as if youre a gift registry. You might not get exactly what you ask for-but youve got a much better chance of receiving things you want if you have clarity about what you DO want, and ask for it-instead of merely focusing on what you dont want.

You probably wont get much of anything

placing an order with the future--or filling out

Restating a fear, worry, or unwanted belief as a positive affirmation can go a long way in helping to weed out beliefs that keep us affirming ones instead. rooted in place, and install more joyful, life-

Affirmations are a wonderful tool, because like much of complementary, holistic self-care techniques, theres no harm done in using them to quantify, and far-reaching. ~*~

--and the benefits are often numerable, hard

That's all for this eBook! concepts in this session, make sure you try the rest of the session 1 resources before you move on to session 2. out the printable worksheets, and complete To further explore the techniques and

Wishing you a peaceful, powerful birth!

~ Krystal