Workshops for Pregnancy, Birth + Early Postpartum
7 or 9-week Online and In-Person Comprehensive series:
Body, Breath, Heart + Mind: A Contemplative Birthing Workshop
Individual Birth Education Workshops:
1. Understanding Birth
2a. Movement and Partner Support for Birth
2b. Massage, Hands-on Support, Acupressure
3. Working WITH the Sensations of Birth
4a. Informed Consent, Family Rights, Birth Plans
4b. Interventions, Procedures, Cesareans
5. Postpartum
6. Newborn Care
7. Breastfeeding + Bonding
©Lisa Gendron | Agroterra Birth
Tuesday + Thursday evening workshops are offered from 6-9pm online, over zoom.
Saturday + Sunday afternoon workshops are held from 3-6pm in person in Pawtucket, RI (proof of vaccine required for in-person classes).
HOW TO CHOOSE A SINGLE WORKSHOP OR SERIES: Planning on an unmedicated birth? Planning on using epidural/pain medication? Classes are for anyone preparing to give birth however they choose to birth*. Choose to attend individual classes or take the full 7-week or 9-week comprehensive series. Class fees cover both the birthing person and their birth partner(s). Interactive and community-building, classes provide time to learn from experienced teachers, connect with your birth support, and meet other expecting families. Please review our cancellation policies here.
*If you have a scheduled cesarean planned, please contact us for classes that will be supportive in preparing for your cesarean birth and newborn.
Looking for private classes or consultations? Please inquire here.
Birthing: Body, Breath, Heart & Mind: a Contemplative Workshop
Pregnancy, birth, and parenting require a leap of faith into the unknown. How can one do this, but still retain a sense of safety and empowerment? Join other couples to explore the journey of birth and early parenthood through experiential exercises, mindfulness-based practices, group discussion and lecture presentations. Learn how turning to the wisdom of your body, heart, and mind can guide you to lean into the uncontrollable nature of birth, while making effective and important choices for your family. Discover a deep trust in the birthing person’s ability to give birth, the birth partner’s capacity to support, and baby’s active participation in his/her arrival. Workshops topics include: the process of labor; labor support; standard US birth practices and interventions; understanding + advocating for your rights; transitions into parenting; newborn care and breastfeeding. For a summary of each individual workshop in the series, please read the descriptions below.
My husband and I both found [Open Circle]’s birthing class extremely helpful. Kaeli has a wonderful gift of gently delivering empowering information that helped my husband and I feel more connected in our own unique pregnancy, birth and post-birth experience. The class covered important detailed information about what to expect during the birthing process that was not covered by our healthcare providers. The information [that was] presented also helped us identify and communicate what each of our needs was throughout the birthing process and post-birth.
How to Enroll in 7-Week and 9-Week Series:
1. Choose the 7 or 9-week Series option above.
Follow the prompts to create an Acuity account and complete your payment.
2. Viewing individual class date options, choose one to register for each workshop included in your series.
If you do this while signed into acuity, it will automatically enter your redemption code and add you to the workshop roster.
NOTE:
Classes may be taken out of order + from different series.
UPCOMING SERIES DATES
IN-PERSON:
*vaccination and masking required
Sun June 11, 18, 25, July 2, 9, 16, 23
9-week series + Sat 6/24 (2b) Sat 7/8 (4b)
Sun Oct 8, 15, 22, 29, Nov 5, 12, 19,
9-week series + Sat 10/21 (2b) Thurs 11/16 (online) (4b)
Sun Dec 3, 10, 17, Jan 14, 21, 28
9-week series + Sat 12/16 (2b) Thurs Jan 25 (online) (4b)
ONLINE:
Tues June 20, 27, *July 11, 18, 25, Aug 1, 8
9-week series + Thurs 7/6 (2b) Thurs 7/20 (4b)
Tues Oct 24, 31, Nov 7, 14, 28, Dec 5, 12
9-week series + Thurs Nov 2 (2b) Thurs 11/16(4b)
* signifies day changes or week/s off
Please check the schedule carefully.
COST
7-Week Series: $325/couple (IBP:$100-$225)
9-Week Series: $395/couple (IBP: $150-$295)
Applying for Income and Resource-Based pricing?
Please complete the application and call or email us to register.
Trouble Registering?
Step-by-step instructions can be found here.
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 an important starting point to preparing for a positive, empowering 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, not against, the natural power of birth.
Can’t thank you enough for your classes on labor/delivery. I was able to deliver him lying down on my side. Your pushing info along laboring techniques all came in very handy. [Our doctor] said we had done our homework!
DATES
COST $75/birth team ($20-$65 IBP)
TIME: Mon, Tues or Thurs Online 6-9pm
Sat and Sun In-Person 3-6pm
PROBLEMS REGISTERING ONLINE?
Step by step Class Registration Instructions
2a. Labor of Love: Movement and Partner Support for Birth
Does squatting really open the pelvis wider than lying down? How on earth is a baby going to fit out of there? Don’t I have to lie on my back while I’m pushing the baby out? How can I use movement if I’ve had an epidural? What if I want to labor on hands and knees? Come together with other expecting mothers and birth partners to discover answers to these questions and more. Together we will practice movements, postures and breath practices that support the labor and birth process. Learn why breath and movement help us cope with the sensations of birth, and how movement helps the body adapt to birth and the baby find his/her best way out. Discover how the birth partner’s physical support and hands-on techniques can help the mother throughout labor. And discover the powerful connection that is built between birth partners as they learn to breath and move together.
DATES
COST $75/birth team ($20-$65 IBP)
TIME: Mon, Tues or Thurs Online 6-9pm
Sat and Sun In-Person 3-6pm
PROBLEMS REGISTERING ONLINE?
Step by step Class Registration Instructions
2b. Labor of Love: Massage, Hands-on Support, Acupressure
DATES
COST $75/birth team ($20-$65 IBP)
TIME: Mon, Tues or Thurs Online 6-9pm
Sat and Sun In-Person 3-6pm
PROBLEMS REGISTERING ONLINE?
Step by step Class Registration Instructions
3. Power + Pain: Working 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.
DATES
COST $75/birth team ($20-$65 IBP)
TIME: Mon, Tues or Thurs Online 6-9pm
Sat and Sun In-Person 3-6pm
PROBLEMS REGISTERING ONLINE?
Step by step Class Registration Instructions
4a. Informed Choices: Understanding Informed Consent, Family Rights, and Birth Plans
Birth is filled with contradictions. We cannot control it but must learn to ride whatever waves it brings us. At the same time, there are many opportunities to steer the course of our birth. Families often don’t realize the choices and rights they have, or how strongly these choices can impact their births, experience, and postpartum health. Join other couples and explore the importance of making intentional choices in practitioner, birth location, and practitioner or hospital practices and procedures. Learn about building positive relationships with your medical team, and your legal right to informed consent or refusal of all procedures and interventions. Learn how to use this information to create a birth plan that represents what is important to you as a family, and which can be easily read and responded to by your medical team.
DATES
COST $75/birth team ($20-$65 IBP)
TIME: Mon, Tues or Thurs Online 6-9pm
Sat and Sun In-Person 3-6pm
PROBLEMS REGISTERING ONLINE?
Step by step Class Registration Instructions
4b. Informed Choices: Understanding Medical Interventions, Procedures, and Cesareans
Because [Open Circle] took the time to teach us about c-sections, and the choices we have, the integrity of our birth plan remained intact . . . Even though [our instructors] weren’t physically present at our birth, I felt like [they] were with us! [Open Circle is] an amazing gift to the RI birth community and I feel so blessed that we were able to cross paths!
DATES
COST $75/birth team ($20-$65 IBP)
TIME: Mon, Tues or Thurs Online 6-9pm
Sat and Sun In-Person 3-6pm
PROBLEMS REGISTERING ONLINE?
Step by step Class Registration Instructions
5. A Brave New World: Newborn Family Care
As birth approaches, we tend to know much more about pregnancy and birth, than we do about what happens after our babies are born. Birth is a profound process, but it is also merely a doorway into a new world. 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 family to engage in discussion and activities that can help make your adjustment into parenthood less stressful and more supportive of the new family. Simple but effective tools can help you know better what to expect, and create an effective support network in the 4-8 weeks after birth. Preparation and support can profoundly impact the mother and baby’s physical healing and adjustment, and the entire family’s emotional well-being during the precious and challenging postpartum time.
DATES
COST $65/birth team ($20-$65 IBP)
TIME: Tues and Thurs Online 6-9pm
Sat and Sun In-Person 3-6pm
PROBLEMS REGISTERING ONLINE?
Step by step Class Registration Instructions
6. A Baby! Now whatt!? – Newborn Care
Our newborn can seem like a tiny, strange creature from another planet. She may not look or act the way we expected, and often seems a random mash-up of confusing wiggles, cries, jerks, staring, sleeping, and suckling episodes. Who is this little person? And what, on earth, are we to do with him? Join other families as we explore these amazing, sweet, and strong (if confounding!) little beings. Learn that instead of being made up of random and impossible to understand behaviors, they are actually highly organized and communicative. As we begin to recognize the journey our newborn has made from inside to out and the ways she engages with the world, we discover how to more confidently and effectively respond to her needs. As we learn to respond to his needs, we discover a calmer, more settled baby, and a life that supports parents’ rest and well-being, as well as baby’s.
Earth hard to my heels
Bear me up like a child
standing on its mother’s belly.
I am a surprised guest to the air.
-David Ignatow
DATES
COST $75/birth team ($20-$65 IBP)
TIME: Mon, Tues or Thurs Online 6-9pm
Sat and Sun In-Person 3-6pm
PROBLEMS REGISTERING ONLINE?
Step by step Class Registration Instructions
7. The Nursling – Breastfeeding + Bonding
Most women are given strong messages about the importance of breastfeeding for her baby’s health. Some expect it to be a natural and easy process that just happens. Others have heard all kinds of horror stories about the difficulties that can occur. Others feel pressured to try, but uncomfortable and uneasy about the idea of it. Not many of us are told that it is a joint effort between us, our body and our baby, and that like any new skill, it can take time and effort to learn and succeed at. Join us as we explore the wide range of experiences different mothers can have. Learn about the ways we can support the breastfeeding relationship and baby’s health beginning immediately after birth and in the first days and weeks. Explore both benefits and challenges to the newborn and the mother and how and where to reach out for additional help when it’s needed. Class will provide information on: skin-to-skin after birth, the breast-crawl, establishing breastfeeding, understanding the hormones of bonding, milk production and milk release, nursing positions, and breast health. Resources for support with pumping, latch issues, formula feeding and going back to work with be provided.
DATES
COST $75/birth team ($20-$65 IBP)
TIME: Mon, Tues or Thurs Online 6-9pm
Sat and Sun In-Person 3-6pm
PROBLEMS REGISTERING ONLINE?
Step by step Class Registration Instructions