I'm Stephanie Freeman
When I was pregnant with my first baby, I couldn't understand how I was supposed to "trust my body" while at the same time everyone was telling me what to do. Every book was conflicting, every article confusing, and every person.... Well they all wanted to tell me their story, but I didn't know what my story was going to be yet.
Afterwards I thought "For f*cks sake. We have got to get better at this. This education bit"
Now, 20 years later, 2 kids, hundreds of births, thousands of classes taught, and you know what? I still feel the same way. I've done what I can in-person and locally, but it's time to do more.
So here we are. Welcome to my School of Birth.
It's a little spicy here - I tend to swear - and I'm not shy - AND I don't have an agenda for your birth.
What I do have is a desire for you to feel empowered and educated. I don't want your birth to be a shit show. And it doesn't have to be.
I want you to feel like you got this.
(And you guys - This is not an insane, nor unachievable outcome.)
Welcome Back to School!
Looking back at my birth experience, I think the most important aspect that made it a positive experience was that I felt very prepared going in and during the birth. This was my first baby and I was quite worried about being very unprepared. I had all the information I needed and I had tons of resources from the birth classes and I felt confident while talking to the doctors/nurses and choosing next steps during the labor. Banu M.
The classes were just great! They were really friendly and funny - I looked forward to them. I'm all about doing the homework so we took both these classes and the ones through the hospital. The doula classes were more engaging, though both were really useful and I appreciated getting the different perspectives. The doula classes were especially useful in helping you piece out what's medically necessary during birth (i.e., taking high blood pressure seriously) and what you might be able to negotiate (not getting an I.V. put in right away). While our decisions probably skewed more to the "standard" medical practices, there were a few moments where I was able to advocate for myself during birth that I don't think I would have had the confidence and knowledge to do without these classes. Beth C.
I generally love to understand each and everything in detail to which the classes helped me a lot. … all the options that are available to you are discussed which made us well equipped to go ahead and make a choice . Shweta P.
Friends and Family...
The course that everyone (but not you Pregnant Person!) actually needs - it's for the rest of them!
Listen, I get it. You love your partner, you feel pretty good about your family (or not), but you still wonder... is it enough?
It's not.
I see you though - I know they don't listen to you, let me do the heavy lifting and educate your people on how to actually be good support for you during this time.
Childbirth Education
This is a picture of people who knew nothing about having a baby despite taking a hospital class.
They were in the hospital because they were worried that "the water" had broken.
Spoiler Alert. It was just pee.
Sigh.
This course that you are about to sign up for is 1000% better than anything else that you can take.
Newborns. Seriously. WTF?
I know everyone jokes about wishing there was a manual - but guess what - there kind of is.... It's just that with the one million books out there it's hard to understand any of them. This course will walk you through the 101 of newborns.
The Feeding and Care of them, if you will.