“I want you to know that childbirth can be one of the most transformative and potentially pleasurable experiences in a woman’s life. Yes, you read that right- I’m talking about ENJOYING childbirth. My goal is provide you with tools and resources so you can have an ecstatic experience birthing your child.” – Sheila Kamara Hay
I wanted to share a little of my experience of training to become an ‘Ecstatic Birth Practitioner’ over the past year. Signing up to this training was an intuitive leap of faith in the middle of the first lockdown of 2020 – I had already come across Sheila Kamara Hay – who created and runs the training – and I just had an instinct that it was going to be the support I needed for both my own development and for that of my clients; that instinct turned out to be completely spot on.
It’s been a fascinating year, journeying with a fantastic group of women who were also on the training (most in America but a few of us from Europe). Although I was the only osteopath on the training, there were some midwifes, doulas and others involved in women’s health and the world of birth. It’s been so interesting to have these other perspectives brought forward. I think we all share a desire to be part of creating a new paradigm: where birth can be considered as having the potential for deep soul connected pleasure and healing.
The training has also exposed me to heaps of really interesting teachers, all of whom have dived deep into the realms of the divine feminine – teachers of birth, pleasure, sexuality, experts in jade egg practice, meditation, dance, trauma, birth and sex coaching and a range of other things. I have met so many powerful women, whose goals are to keep challenging the norm, to step out of what we feel we ‘should’ be doing as women (in birth/life/work) and to listen in deeper to our own innate wisdom within our bodies. The training has been largely experiential; we’ve learned to train our bodies through daily practice to tune in to what feels good and what is going to give us energy rather than what is going to deplete our energy. Throughout this process, I have had the pleasure of monthly one-to-one coaching calls with Sheila, which have been enormously powerful and transformative.
If anyone feels drawn to this type of work (for practitioners looking for training, you can read more about it here.) or wants to explore what an ecstatic birth could look like, then I am happy to chat. Sheila has also created a great online training for pregnant women called ‘O Baby’ which you can sign up to using this link. Using a combination of Sheila’s program and sessions with me (to go through the material in more depth) can be very powerful.
Over the past year, I have realised that although this training focuses on birth, it can also be applied to so many other aspects of life – it’s amazing how the analogy of birth can be applied so often to other areas of growth and development. How can we all learn to create an ecstatic heart (and yoni centred) life for ourselves? This training has added further depth to my work with women, enabling them to connect even deeper with their bodies. And I’ve enjoyed the experience so much, that I’ve decided to sign up for a further year’s training to see what comes up this time!
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any questions on this or any other topic. Please subscribe to my newsletter using the ‘Keep up to date’ form below, if you would like to get more news on women’s health, future blogs, workshops and programs.
Rebecca x
