Doula Book Club - Mindful Birthing

In our first doula book club we featured Mindful Birthing: Training the Mind, Body, and Heart for Childbirth and Beyond.  Published in 2012 and written by Nancy Bardacke, CNM this book focuses on using mindful techniques for working through labor, birth and early parenting. 

I chose this book after hearing about it from a few of my doula clients.  I have had a little practice in mindfulness and thought that using this technique for childbirth could be such a useful technique. 

On February 24th I hosted a book club to discuss this book.  Below is the recording from that discussion.

The author, Nancy Bardacke, CNM is the founding director of the Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting (MBCP) program and leads a MBCP class.  In the book, she gives a lot of real quotes from her students about using the practice for childbirth. 

Here are a few pieces of the book that I really enjoyed:

Chapter 1 - Nancy describes the conversation that she has with all of her students before the class starts.  She makes sure they are aware of the concept and style of class.  This is an excellent idea.  We all want to fill our classes, but isn't it more important that our students get to the class that is right for them.

p 24.  The way in which Nancy describes labor is really unique and thought prvoking.

p 69.  Horticultural Time vs. Industrial time is an excellent concept!

p 130-131 Nancy describes how NOT to stimulate the thinking mind of a woman in labor and why that is important.  This section is a must read for all birth partners and doulas.

I really enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it to parents interested in mindfulness and looking for more techniques to manage the challenges of pregnancy, labor, birth and parenting.  I think couples that practice mindful birthing techniques will have a powerful set of tools for labor, especially those interested in natural childbirth or avoid intervention. 

Thank you Nancy for putting a great resource out in the world.