Lesson plan
1. Intuitive Birthing and Beyond
Meet your instructor, Angela Rennie. A former midwife who will take your hand through the entire process – from pregnancy to the first few weeks with your new baby. In this unit, you explore:
- what is missing from modern-day maternity care
- how to prepare for the practical, emotional, and lifestyle aspects of becoming a parent
- what intuition is, how to access it, and how to use it to help guide your experience
- how to be you in a complex birthing culture
- an insider’s peek at a group of women sharing their birth stories
- how to get what you want from this experience
- important urgent concerns in pregnancy
2. The Pregnant Body – Do Pregnancy Choices Affect My Birth?
How does lifestyle affect your baby? A discussion on body, mind, spirit, and loving life. Here Angela discusses:
- how choices and lifestyle affect you and your baby
- your birthplace location and the care provider you choose
- facts about pregnancy that you need to know
- how to best treat the body while it changes during pregnancy
- optimal food and exercise for a healthy pregnancy and baby
- the vibrational food scale and how this can benefit you and baby
3. Pregnancy Care – Tests, Procedures, and Fetal Positioning
What to expect in late pregnancy, with a focus on the importance of fetal positioning. Take a deep dive into:
- the power in your decision-making process – having a choice is power
- working with a care provider
- standard tests and procedures in your pregnancy {including post-date pregnancy)
- what you need to know about cesarean sections
- what to expect in late pregnancy, with a focus on the importance of fetal positioning
- kick counts and what they mean
- what position baby should be in before and during labour
- how can you help encourage baby to the best position
4. Labour and Birth
Birth, birth, and more birth – this is what labour may look like. Education is power! Some topics discussed include:
- what is labour and how to understand what is happening during it
- the important difference between Braxton Hicks vs. true labour
- the female reproductive anatomy
- hormones and labour
- exactly what happens at this stage of pregnancy – know what to expect!
- effacement and dilation of the cervix
- labour timeline, early vs. active, and what to do in each phase
- understanding the umbilical cord
- how to know if the water has broken
- what contractions are and how to time them
- birth intention templates and getting what you want
- right brain vs. left brain in labour
- positions for best labouring and birthing baby
5. Comfort Measures and Chakra Energy
A look at how you and others can best support your labour, plus exploring energy work for ideal birthing flow. You learn about:
- complementary relaxation techniques
- the unpredictably of birth – there are two of you: birther and the birthed
- tools to handle your birth with confidence
- how you and others can best support your labour
- breathwork
- rineal massage
- fetal positioning
- the role of doulas
- how to express your need for your experience
- the serene – the space between contractions
- pain management options
- epidurals
- your chakras and you
- exploring energy work for an ideal birthing flow
6. Interventions and Birth Intentions
Learn about the most common items on the intervention menu and how to create your personal birth intentions. In addition, Angela discusses:
- post-date pregnancy vs. post term
- interventions or natural and the options of each
- medical interventions and what to expect
- the power of support
- cesarean emergency vs. elective
- informed choice vs. informed consent
- making choices and how to create your personal birth intentions
- your birthing guest list
- letting go of expectations of the unknown
7. What Are My Barriers and Beliefs? A Look at Self and Letting Go
Take a detailed, honest look at Self. Clear away unwanted baggage prior to becoming a parent and open your world to love and freedom – the best gift you can give your child – in anticipation of this life-changing transition. Additionally, you’ll explore:
- your need for support, guidance, and community
- the importance of meditation and feeling safe in your chosen birth environment
- what birth setting will be optimal for you and your options
- what is the most important in the relationship with your caregiver
- the importance of flexibility with change and the unknown
8. Baby’s First Few Weeks, Including Breastfeeding
What does the early postpartum journey look like? From newborn procedures and all the basics to babywearing. You also learn:
- what to expect in the first hours of your baby’s life
- what your newborn exam might look like
- about common newborn procedures
- all about jaundice in your infant
- about breastfeeding: how to and how often, and the positions to do so
- what to expect in the first weeks
- all about feeding, sleeping, diapering, and physical contact
- a step-by-step babywearing 101 lesson
9. Mama After Birth
The early postpartum journey from madness to magic – the first minutes to weeks after birth. Learn about:
- the immediate postpartum moments in the delivery room and what to expect
- why no one talks about postpartum
- your support options
- your post-baby body and what you might experience
• recovery in the early weeks - honouring rest and healing postpartum
- the ins and outs of the baby blues
- the difference between postpartum depression and anxiety
- postpartum weight loss and exercise
- sex and birth control after baby
- how to make a post-baby nest
- postpartum diet charts
10. Accepting Acceptance – It’s All About Surrender
You’ve got this! A reflection on staying in the moment. Here you explore:
- accepting acceptance
- weaving together all that you have learned
- the practical and the invisible aspects of this program
- your readiness to let go and allow
- the vibrational experience
- finding yourself
- kindness…and opening to others
11. Bonus Units
- mini baby swaddling video
- a guided walking meditation to prepare your mind
- an animated birth video on the 3 stages of labour
- a stunning Birth Documentary that takes an intimate look at 8 births – from early labour to welcoming newborns into the world (with real birth footage!). Prepare for an emotional journey as you receive honorary access into precious moments in each of the families’ lives.
Angela Schaerer
Monique de Moor
Shea Michelle
Seanna McDonald
Having attended the births of over 550 women in the 14 years that Angela has practiced as a registered midwife, birth doula, and primary care provider in Canada, the US and the Caribbean, Angela has amassed an amazing wealth of information! The uniquely intimate window through which she has been invited to view women’s lives has afforded her the perspective on the vastly diverse, yet often also very similar needs of her clients; on many levels, these women became her teachers.
Angela is a mother of three – one born in the hospital and two born at home. She has experienced first-hand – with her first – what it is like to be pushed blindly, unprepared through the birth system. Of course it was not a joyful or loving experience despite being, by all accounts, a “normal” vaginal delivery. Angela knew she needed to educate herself and intuitively evolve in order to ‘create’ a better birthing experience with her subsequent babies; and it worked! She chose an amazing midwife who educated and supported her every step of the way; she looked after her physical body, created a positive birth team, and in so doing, fostered a fearless birth environment. Contrary to the labour and delivery of her first child, the hours spent in her second and third labours were pivotal, empowering and life changing. It was because of her own experience that Angela determined to become a midwife.
