How to Birth Like a Rock Star

Want to birth like a rock star? Research tells us that it is actually not the specifics of a birth that can lead to a postpartum mood disorder, but rather a mom’s perceptions of those experiences. So how you feel about your birth experience is indeed a very big deal. What can you do to make it a good one? Lesley Everest and Gena Kirby help figure it out.

What we talked about:

• Can you mess up birth?
• What does it mean to birth like a rock star?
• How expectations and outside sources affect birth
• You are not your birth!
• Why you have to bring some moxie and hutzpa
• Our favorite rock star birth stories
• The role of your ‘birth roadies’: to serve and protect
• During birth, you only have to please yourself
• When pushing, “don’t turn yourself into a human popgun” (this gem is courtesy of Lesley Everest)

Related resources*:

• 5 Ways to Prevent Disappointment in the Delivery Room, by Lesley Everest (this is the blog post she mentioned)
• Trauma, Traumatic Birth, and Recovery, Improving Birth
• Birth Trauma: Definition and Statistics, by Penny Simkin (PATTCh founder)
• Childbirth Outcomes and Postpartum Depression: Are They Linked? Postpartum Progress
• Ina May Gaskin on Birth Matters: A Midwife’s Manifesta (video)
• A woman has a human right to choose the circumstances in which she gives birth to her baby, (video) HRIC Conf Clip from One World Birth
• They lied…It matters how you birth, The Best of Baby

Courtesy of Gena Kirby

 About Gena Kirby

Gena Kirby is on a mission. Gena wants moms to know what they are not being told and that they are not alone. She is a tireless advocate for mothers, babies, parents and the people that love them. You can listen to Gena share her passion on her Progressive Parenting radio show, or watch her at the Progressive Parenting Network TV channel.

Gena is a Doula, a childbirth educator, a La Leche League International Breastfeeding Peer Counselor, and a mother of 4.

Learn more about her and her rebozo workshops at GenaKirby.com

Check out the great parenting workshops lead by her and her network of peeps at ProgressiveParentingNetwork.com

Courtesy of Lesley Everest

About Lesley Everest

Lesley is such a centered and loving soul, that it’s impossible not to feel comforted in her presence. She also has the uncanny ability to balance that with a no-nonsense attitude and the acute perception of subtleties. This, no doubt, makes her a remarkable doula, and that’s a good thing, since she’s been supporting families during every phase of the childbearing year for over two decades now.

She is the founder and Director of MotherWit Doula Care, and in addition to her busy doula practice, Lesley travels around Canada teaching the MotherWit Holistic Birth Doula Training, and Postpartum Doula Training, as well as workshops on self-care to birth workers.

Over the years, Lesley has studied and practiced many healing modalities, such as Psychosynthesis Psychotherapy, Polarity Therapy, Swedish Massage, Pre-Perinatal massage, and Reiki. She’s also a mother of four.

To get in touch with Lesley, go check-out and like her Facebook page: Motherwit Doula Lesley Everest.

You can also get more info on her website, or send her an email.