NEW COURSE IN 2019!
We are very pleased to announce that we have decided to combine this iconic Active Birth Course with Hypnobirthing in 2019. This is because so many people wanted to do both courses and there is some overlap. The new course will be a whole weekend plus the following Thursday evening and is going to be the most comprehensive birth preparation you will find. Details on the course are now available. Please click here to view further information and book onto the course.
The weekends are from 10.00 – 5.30 on both days, and the Thursday evening session from 7.00 – 10.00.
Feb 16/17 and 21
March 23/24 and 28
April 27/28 and 2 May
June 1/2 and 6
July 20/21 and 25
September 7/8 and 12
November 2/3 and 7
December 14/15 and 19
More about the December 2018 weekend course
This iconic two-day course is held over select weekends from 10.00am – 5.30pm.
Most women and partners say it was the best thing they did to prepare for the birth of their baby!
£199 per person/£395 per couple to include a detailed course handbook.
We recommend that you attend Pregnancy Yoga Classes with Janet Balaskas in addition to these courses to have the opportunity to practice the relaxation and breathing techniques regularly and up to your due date.
Private Active Birth Sessions
Janet offers private Active Birth Preparation sessions for one person or couple with content tailored to suit your needs, over one or more sessions lasting up to 4 hours. If you are prefer a more focused private session, a lot of time and repetition of what you already may know is saved, so that one session is usually sufficient. You will be given guidance for practice at home. Sessions are held at Janet’s home consulting room in East Barnet by arrangement.
Individual session: Up to 4 hours based on an hourly rate of £110 per person/couple. A non-refundable deposit of £100 is required to confirm your booking and the rest is payable at the session. Bookings by arrangement with Janet’s assistant Alice Charlwood:
E-mail: jb@activebirthcentre.com
Call: 0207 2816760
More about the Complete Active Birth Weekend Course
After the birth of our son at UCLH Birth Centre the midwives asked if I had done an Active Birthing course as the labour was “text book”. Even though he was back-to -back and the labour was intense, we fully employed everything we had learnt with you and managed a wonderful water birth.
You have a wonderful presence, a calming, beautiful sense about you. I am so happy I found your classes – they gave me the tools for a birth experience I did not imagine to be possible. Without the benefit of all the knowledge we gained, I feel that events might have taken over. It was clear when we walked into the hospital that we knew what we were talking about.
This Active Birth Weekend Course will leave you confident, well informed and brilliantly prepared for your baby’s birth. These antenatal classes are recommended by midwives, doulas and hundreds of parents, these two days are inspirational as well as highly practical. The course is taught by Janet Balaskas and Jill Benjoya Miller, who is a very experienced senior Active Birth Teacher, professional trainer and also a doula.
Preparing for a natural Active Birth
Our first aim is to give you all the resources you need for a natural Active Birth. The focus is on body learning, with plenty of practice of labour and birth positions, breathing, relaxation, massage and guidance for the partner. These antenatal classes teach birth physiology in an experiential way that you will not find elsewhere. You will develop understanding of how to access and awaken your instincts and innate reflexes for giving birth. This in turn will have a profound influence on your mind – creating a positive mindset and a feeling of confidence and trust in what your body can do. You will find that you can apply techniques you have learned in Pregnancy Yoga or on our HypnoBirthing courses with a deeper sense of the way your body, your baby, your uterus and pelvis are magnificently designed for birthing. This is hugely empowering.
Knowing what to do if plans change
We want to help you to enjoy a calm, joyful and safe birth in any circumstances. Many courses focus too much on complications and hospital procedures or place an unrealistic emphasis on natural birth. This course strikes the balance, empowering you to first trust your body and reduce the likelihood of intervention, and to be informed and open-minded. If plans need to change, you will be ready to work with your midwifery and medical support team and make wise decisions and apply Active Birth Principles in combination with medical support.
Dads-to-be and Birth Partners
A great strength of this course is what it offers for partners. These days the partner is usually the main support person at birth, with little or no training. Unprepared, this can be a daunting prospect. Partners tell us they enjoy the common sense approach and their own participation, and are surprised how much they learn. Most importantly they leave with a new confidence in the instinctual abilities of both mother and baby, and feel more enrolled in the pregnancy and empowered to be present at the birth.
This course goes really well with Janet’s Pregnancy Yoga Classes
The course was an unforgettable experience as a father, little did I know that the last half hour when you showed us how to ‘catch’ the baby in case the birth happened quickly would come true. I’m so thankful I knew what to do in an emergency and the midwives were very impressed!
