A Comprehensive Series to Prepare You for the Ultimate Journey
The Journey to Parenthood
If we have learned anything during the past year of living through a global pandemic, it’s that we are not meant to parent in isolation. Community support is essential to thriving as parents and a new family. A foundation in mindfulness–the act of being fully aware in the present moment–can be an enormous support during your journey.
No matter where you intend to birth (at home, hospital or birth center) or how you intend to navigate your birth (with or without pain medication), the tools and practices we explore together will help support you through the physical and emotional transition to parenthood and beyond.
What’s Included:
Comprehensive Childbirth Ed
Nine weekly class sessions (27 hrs of face time) for you and your designated support person: in-person with limited group size
- Physiology of childbirth and stages of labor
- Practices for working with pain, labor posititons
- Work with gentle movement practices to find greater ease with common pregnancy discomforts and with the intense sensations of labor
- Partner support skills
- How to approach a birth plan and tips for skillfully communicating with your providers
- Discussion and resources for chest/breastfeeding and/or bottle feeding your baby
- Discussion on meeting social, emotional and physical needs of a newborn
- Deepen emotional resilience and reduce stress during your pregnancy and into parenthood
- Decrease fear and anxiety about the birth process
- Foster compassionate conversation about parenting hopes, fears, and goals with your partner
A Day of Practice Retreat
A Day of Practice Between Weeks 6 and 7: An in-person opportunity to practice mindfulness practices together in community. This supportive day together often is the highlight of the class.
Lifetime Access
Keep Practicing Even After Class Has Finished: You’ll have lifetime access to the audio files of the guided meditations, as well as any newly released meditations in the future.
Postpartum Reunion
Postpartum Reunion: an online or in-person opportunity to reconnect with your cohort, share birth stories, and imagine together what you’d like your community to look like (to be scheduled by each cohort).
Printed Course Handbook
A Beautifully Crafted Workbook To Document Your Journey: This workbook will contain each week’s practice, notes about the session, and a place to journal about your experience.
Next Course Dates: Winter 2022
Next series will begin on Monday, January 3, 2022
Tuesdays, 5-7:30pm
January 4, 11, 18, 25
February 1, 8, 22
Day-Long Retreat: Sunday, February 13, 2022
March 1, 8
Course Location
Nurturing Expressions (located in the Hilltop neighborhood in Tacoma)
You know how some things bring such a strong light into your life that you can hardly recall the time before it came along? That was Lena and this class for me. I cannot overstate what a blessing MBCP with Lena was in my pregnancy, and my life. The material covered in this MBCP is wonderful and fascinating, and I cannot imagine a guide more compassionate and skilled than Lena. My husband and I had an energetic 18 month old when we found out we were pregnant again, and then were plunged into a pandemic. Lena’s warmth, insight and humor throughout the MBCP course brought me a grounded energy I was desperately seeking, gave me confidence in my parenting, helped me reconnect with my husband, and enabled me to feel fully present and flowing with my pregnancy.
-Stephanie