We have an ADDRESS!!! – 3701 Butler St in Lawrenceville!!!

This has been a long time coming – almost a year in the making – since I started putting actual work into Shining Light Prenatal Education.  See, I had this idea that Prenatal Yoga and Childbirth Education all by themselves weren’t enough.  Something was missing.

What I came to realize is that there is much more to pregnancy and birth than anatomy and physiology – social and emotional well-being are critical to having a good birth experience and enjoying parenting a new baby.  Community and continuity are also key factors to making pregnancy, birth and early parenting a success.  There needed to be a place to teach classes from Fertility Yoga and Preconception though Prenatal Yoga, Childbirth Education, Breastfeeding, Infant Care, Mommy & Me Yoga… This place should host community groups like Babywearing, Breastfeeding Support, ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network), New Parents’ Coffee Talk, etc.

It is important that women, and their families, come together in a place to not only receive the factual, evidence-based information they need to make healthy and safe choices for their births, but they also need the continuity of care from a trusted resource.  From that continuity, relationships develop with the instructors and the other students in the classes.  When a woman comes to a class at Shining Light Prenatal Education, she will not only find the physical comfort and intellectual insights she’s looking for, but she will find a group of women in the same situation she is – having peer support is one of the best ways to enjoy pregnancy and parenting.

That is what makes Shining Light Prenatal Education unique in its offerings: Continuity and Community.

So, Shining Light Prenatal Education was born from the idea that women needed more than just the facts, ma’am.  So, I called the Small Business Development Center at Duquesne Univ. for assistance, wrote myself a business plan, gathered resources, scraped together some money and on January 1, 2012 my lease will start at 3701 Butler St., in Lawrenceville, for Shining Light Prenatal Education.  We will have a grand opening party in mid-January, and classes will start immediately thereafter.

I’ve got a ton of work to do between now and SLPE’s grand opening.  Keep an eye on the Twitter and Facebook feeds – there are a lot of new things coming down the pike and I’m excited to share in this new venture with you.

Sat Nam, and I’ll see you at the grand opening!!!!

Special thanks to:

Melissa Aird at the SBDC for all of my general business start up help; Maya Henry at the Lawrenceville Corporation for all her hard work (both past and current!); Don Orkoskey for my web site and further technical stuff that needs to be done; The yoga studios who have honored me by having me teach for them: Schoolhouse Yoga; iYoga and Sterling Yoga; My yoga teachers for my 200 hour certification – Joanne Vandenhengle & Leta Koontz; Gurmukh for my Prenatal Yoga certification; My Lamaze certification – Michele Ondeck; Can’t forget my ever-loving husband, Dan who puts up with my odd working hours, my continual talk about all things pregnancy and birth related and for being a great daddy to my kids – he makes all this possible; Of course, my students – I am forever grateful for all the lessons you’ve taught me.

Sat Nam.