Online Childbirth + Newborn Education

Includes: Childbirth Education How to Choose a Class Workshop List Series Dates Testimonials Practitioner Pricing

©Lisa Gendron | Agroterra Birth

CHOOSE FROM THREE OPTIONS:

•9-week comprehensive series of live-online 2.5-hour classes*

•7-week series of live-online 2.5-hour classes* with supplemental pre-recorded videos

•Choose one or more individual classes from the 7 or 9-week series.

*Include an optional half hour community time directly after each class and optional facilitated monthly community calls until your baby is 3 months old (for series participants).

Since there’s no one class that’s right for everyone, it’s worth some exploration to find the best fit for you. Take a peek at our video discussing what our classes are known for.

“My husband and I took your childbirth series in preparation for the birth of our son. I can’t tell you how much you helped us gain strength and confidence in going through the end stages of pregnancy, labor, and childbirth. I ended up having a long 4-day induction but thanks to you (and our team of doulas – who we also wouldn’t have thought to enlist if not for you) we were able to make informed, careful decisions about interventions and ultimately managed to have a successful vaginal delivery.”

B.K. Providence

Open Circle offers prenatal massage as well as postpartum massage with baby in Providence, Rhode Island

Pregnancy, birth, and parenting require a leap of faith into the unknown. How can we surrender control, but still have tools to remain connected and safe, no matter where our birth journey takes us?

Join other expecting families in dynamic, live-online classes or 7-9 week series to prepare for birth and early parenting. Build internal tools to connect to the wisdom of your bodies, hearts, minds and relationships, and practical tools to remain empowered in your choices. Each class provides a mix of information sharing, experiential exercises (including mindfulness , breath and movement practices) and community discussion.

Discover what families and maternity care professionals (some who have taken the classes themselves) have to say about our programs. Listen to some of our birth meditations and instructional videos on youtube. And don’t hesitate to reach out if we can answer any questions !

PRICING

We offer income-and-resource based pricing for all workshops. Individual workshops range from $20-$65. 7-week series range from $50-315 and 9-week series range from $75-$395. Learn about our registration and cancelation policies.

How to register:

Workshops Include

1. From In to Out: Understanding Birth

Traveling to the “land of birth” is like parachuting into an unknown universe. It can be the adventure of a lifetime, or can be overwhelming and frightening. Understanding how it all works is important to preparing for an empowered experience. Spend an afternoon or evening with other couples and learn how baby travels from inside to out. Discover the important role of the baby, the mother and the support person. Explore how emotions and thoughts shift and change through the process of birth, and how you can work together with the power of birth. More information. . .

2. Labor of Love: Movement + Partner Support for Birth

Does kneeling really open the pelvis wider than lying down? How on earth is a baby going to fit out of there? Can I be upright while I’m pushing the baby out? How can I use movement if I’ve had an epidural? How do I help my birthing partner/family member and not do the “wrong” thing? Join other expecting families as we practice movements, postures and breath practices that support the labor and birth process by helping with coping and learning how to support the baby’s passage. Birth partners will be guided to understand what a laboring person needs, and how they can provide physical + emotional support and hands-on techniques. Together, birthing teams can explore close connection can be built between birth partners as they learn to breath and move together. Dates and more details. . .

3. Labor of Love: Massage, Hands on Support, Acupressure (part 2)

Dive more deeply into the second (pushing and birth) stage of labor and the experience of birth for all family members. Practice hands on partner support tools including counter pressure, acupressure, Rebozo and labor massage. We will explore the second stage of labor (pushing and birth) more deeply. In addition, we will, practice hands on labor support, including: counter pressure, acupressure, traditional Rebozo techniques and labor massage. More details and dates. . .

4. Power + Pain: Learning to Work WITH the Sensations of Birth

Whether the sensations of birth are called “rushes,” “waves,” “pressure,” or “pain,” few will argue that the sensations are immense and intense – and they must be, to move the baby out of the body. Learning to cope with this level of intensity asks woman to find deep power and belief in herself. Using experiential exercises and group discussions, this workshop explores what it means work WITH intensity, instead of trying to push it away or change it. Discover how, by bringing your attention to yourself and your breath, you already have the tools needed to work with the powerful sensations of birth. Birth partners will learn how important they are to helping a woman find her endurance and strength through the birth process. This class is recommended to women planning the use of an epidural as well as women planning on birthing naturally. It is medically recommended for most women to labor without pain medication until they are in active labor. These methods will support a woman up until the point she is able to receive pain medications, or, if she so chooses, until she births without them.

Informed Choices: Advocating for Our Families

Families often don’t realize the choices or rights they have in birth, or how much their choices can impact birth and adjustment to parenthood.

In birth we cannot control the internal process of our own or our baby’s body, or aspects of the social systems we are birthing in. Still, there are many choices we can make and skills we can learn that will impact our births. Learn more about:
•choosing your practitioner, birth team and birth location
•how to advocate for your family through building engaged and positive relationships with your medical team
•exploring doula support
•navigating hospital or practice policies that may impact your birth
•your legal right to consent to or refuse any recommended procedure
•using the B.R.A.I.N. acronym to help you understand choices
•creating a birth plan
More details and dates. . . .

Informed Choices (part 2): Understanding Interventions

In part 2 of the Informed Choices Class we do role-plays to practice using the B.R.A.I.N acronym and informed consent and refusal as we learn about Common Interventions + Procedures in birth, including:
•induction and augmentation
•pharmacological methods of pain relief
•monitoring in labor
•IV fluids; eating and drinking in labor
•assisted deliveries (vacuum and forceps supported births)
•vaginal exams
•manual perineal massage and episiotomies
•perineal repair after birth
•and cesarean sections
Details and dates. . .

*may only be taken in combination with Informed Choices part 1

A Brave New World: Preparing for a Newborn Family

Birth is a profound process, but it is also merely a doorway into a new life. We often know more about pregnancy and birth, then we do about what happens after our babies are born. What happens to mom’s body in the weeks and months after birth? How do our relationships change? How can we support ourselves and our partners / families through these changes? When and who do we call for help?

Spend an afternoon with your birth partner or friend/family support to engage in discussions and activities that can help make the adjustment into parenthood less stressful and more healthy for the whole family. Simple but effective tools can help learn what to expect and create an effective support network in the 4-8 weeks after birth. Good planning and support profoundly impacts the family, including the mother and baby’s physical healing and adjustment, and the entire family’s emotional and relational well-being. More details and dates. . .

This class uses a flipped classroom model, providing participants with a pre-class video to watch which will support in-class planning for the first three months after baby is born.

The Nursling: Breastfeeding + Bonding

While breastfeeding is historically natural to all mammals, including the human ones, in the United States families have different levels familiarity and comfort with breastfeeding. Some will feel excited to breastfeed and others pressured to try. Some will expect it to be a natural and easy process, and others will fear challenge, worry and discomfort. Ultimately, breastfeeding is a joint effort between the breastfeeding parent and baby (and other family members) and like any new skill, it can take time and effort to learn. Sometimes, pumping or supplementation will be necessary for the health of the family. Truly, each family’s feeding story will be a unique journey.

In this class you will learn about the ways you can support breastfeeding and your baby’s health in the early months after birth. We will explore both the benefits, joys and potential challenges of breastfeeding. Class will provide information on: skin-to-skin after birth, the breast-crawl, establishing breastfeeding, understanding milk production, latch, feeding cues, nursing positions, and breast health. Resources for accessing support with pumping, breastfeeding challenges, formula feeding and going back to work will be provided. More details and dates. . .

Open Circle offers massage therapy for "every body" in several modalities, including Thai yoga massage in Providence, Rhode Island.

Family + Practitioner Testimonials:

Kaeli Sutton has been a student of the body’s structure and function for over 30 years. Trained in 2001 at the Muscular Therapy Institute in Cambridge, MA, she has been a Rhode Island Licensed (MT01079) since 2001. With advanced training from Kam Thye Chow in Thai Yoga Massage and Carol Osbourne-Sheets in Prenatal, Labor and Postnatal massage, she specializes in Therapeutic and Relaxation Massage, Thai Yoga Massage and Pregnancy and Postpartum Massage. Kaeli’s approach to bodywork grows out of a life-long study of the interconnections between the physical, emotional, mental “bodies” of each person. Her many years of dance and yoga study deeply inform her work as a massage therapist.

More...

Kaeli began studying dance at 15, eventually training at the Alvin Ailey School in NYC, and studying traditional West African dance while living in Senegal, West Africa and for 20 years in the US. She holds a Bachelors degree in Culture and Dance from Long Island University. Kaeli was first introduced to yoga while at the Alvin Ailey school, and has been practicing for over 30 years, initially primarily studying Hatha yoga and Gyrokinesis with Leslie Journet and, later, “inner body yoga” with Angela Farmer, her primary teacher of the past 15 years. Kaeli has been a registered yoga teacher for 20 years, and holds her original certifications in Ishta Yoga and Gyrokinesis. Additionally, Kaeli has pursued extensive study of pregnancy and postnatal yoga. With an extensive background in yoga, dance, bodywork, and anatomy and kinesiology, Kaeli brings to her massage therapy work a multilayered understanding of the body’s structure and movement, and it’s role in finding an embodied and joyful connection to one’s self, and compassionate connection to others.

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

“After the birth of my daughter, it was a very stressful time and I endured a significant amount of back pain for about a month. I could barely get in and out of bed. However, after Kaeli’s therapeutic massage I felt almost immediately better! It was absolutely amazing. After about one week, I could do everything without pain. She worked thoroughly with attention to every detail to insure I was always comfortable and at a peaceful place during the massage.” -SS, Providence “Thank you for the work you’ve done in helping me with my shoulder and arm during these last few weeks of pregnancy. This shoulder issue has bothered me for many years, and I’ve been in and out of therapy, massage, and chiropractic care to help it. Although there has been some success in the past, the work that you have done has been different — I often felt that practitioners had a standard “script” that they were following and it didn’t really get to the root of my problem. However, the work you have done each time has been very unique to me and the issues that I’m experiencing. The difference is noticeable in the relief I’ve had after our sessions. Thank you! It has really made a difference! –G.M. Providence

“Massage has really done wonders with our little [boy]. He is so much more comfortable with his body. He loves being changed now, and his digestion is less problematic.” -CZ, Providence “Kaeli’s Thai Yoga Massages are the most invigorating, relaxing and energizing massage experience I’ve ever had, and I’ve tried many. Little aches and stiff points seem to evaporate, I feel two inches taller, and the muscular surrender that is part of the massage experience carries over into a feeling of intense surcease that lingers long after. Wonderful!” -RF, Providence