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Shining Light

Building empowerment, self-confidence and connection through candid education and compassionate advocacy for all families before, during and after pregnancy.

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Natural Childbirth Advocate? *or* Realistic Childbirth Advocate?

September 6, 2011 By Deena 5 Comments

A posting by Barb, “The Navel Gazing Midwife” helped me crystallize something that’s been rolling around in my head for the last few weeks.  She also gave me the term for it – Realistic Childbirth Advocate.  She gives us a pretty good idea of how a dogmatic view of childbirth can be problematic. As a […]

Filed Under: Into the Light, Main Blog Page Tagged With: C-section, Childbirth Education Classes, Choice, Decision making, Emotional State, Fear, Interventions, Lamaze, Media, Valid Medical Reason, Yamas and Niyamas

Perfection vs. Purpose OR the Birth Experience vs. Giving Birth

August 26, 2011 By Deena 3 Comments

To interrupt the series on “Integrating Yoga and Lamaze” for a moment…  I’ve had something nagging at me for a while…  I keep hearing the same theme from mothers who didn’t have the natural birth they wanted; the birth they were told they were *supposed* to have.  They feel like failures because their “birth experience” […]

Filed Under: Into the Light, Main Blog Page Tagged With: Birth Plan, C-section, Childbirth Education Classes, Communication, Decision making, Expectations, Fear, Labor, Non-Attachment, Orgasmic Birth, Pain, Traumatic Birth, VBAC

The 4 “P’s” of Birth – The Need to Sync your Body, your Baby and Your Mind

June 18, 2011 By Deena 4 Comments

When most of us hear about birth it’s in the singular, “When I was in labor…” or “The baby just didn’t budge.” or “They told me my pelvis was just too small.” or “I felt really strong and proud of giving birth naturally.” All of these things describe just one component of labor and birth. […]

Filed Under: Into the Light, Main Blog Page Tagged With: C-section, Coping Skills, Emotional State, Fear, Ina May Gaskin, Interventions, Labor, Pain, Position

Owen’s birth story – My C-section

March 3, 2011 By Deena 9 Comments

As promised, here’s birth story #1.  This is how I wrote it, in the week after his birth.  It’s interesting reading it with my childbirth educator eyes.  I’ll comment on the birth story at the end of it. Looks like today is the day!  April 16, 2005 My water broke at 8:30 this morning. So, […]

Filed Under: Into the Light, Main Blog Page Tagged With: birth story, breastfeeding, C-section, Ina May Gaskin, Labor, VBAC, Water breaking

How did I get into all this birth stuff?

February 24, 2011 By Deena Leave a Comment

One of the most common questions I get is how and why did I get my start in the field of yoga, pregnancy, birth, etc? Seems like a good entry for the 1st blog post. Entering the “way back machine”… When I was 19, and a precocious college student, a friend of mine discovered a […]

Filed Under: Into the Light, Main Blog Page Tagged With: C-section, certification, history, Ina May Gaskin, training, VBAC, yoga

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About Shining Light

Building empowerment, self-confidence and connection through candid education and compassionate advocacy for all families before, during and after pregnancy since 2012.

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