Prenatal Education
“The educated consumer is our best customer”
In order for you and your spouse to be partners with us in your healthcare, you will likely need some additional information about how to achieve your goal of a healthy, normal pregnancy and natural birth. We have a series of classes that will completely prepare you for labor and birth and the important first weeks with your new baby.
Childbirth Classes (a.k.a Lamaze Classes) - HypnoBirthing® Method 
How exactly does one manage this whole “natural birth” thing, anyways? Isn’t labor horribly painful and don’t women “need” drugs to handle it?
You might be surprised by what you can achieve with proper preparation....
When you have your baby with HypnoBirthing®, you will not be in a trance or a sleep. What you will experience is similar to the daydreaming or focusing that occurs when you are engrossed in a book or a movie or staring into a fire.
You will experience birthing in an atmosphere of calm relaxation, free of the fear and tension that prevents your body from functioning as nature intended it to. In this calm state your body's natural endorphins replace the stress hormones that constrict and cause pain.
The relaxation techniques of HypnoBirthing® eliminate the Fear-Tension-Pain Syndrome. Classes are currently being taught throughout the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
We are very proud to be the only birthing center in Southwest Florida offering this valuable technique for our clients. All baby Love Birth Center clients must attend this 4 week class series (unless you have already had a natural birth).
Classes are held on Wednesday Nights at the birth center. The instructor, Jaclyn Sieben, RN,
has been a nurse for 23 years. She has worked in both hospitals and free standing birth centers. Jaci has extensive experience in "natural" childbirth, waterbirthing, and HypnoBirthing®. She began teaching HypnoBirthing® classes in Maine after experiencing first hand as a labor and birthing nurse what women can do when their bodies are in harmony.
What you will learn:
- Everything you need to know to achieve a safer, easier, and more comfortable birth.
- To explode the myth that pain is a necessary accompaniment to labor.
- What’s wrong with labor as it exists with most other childbirth methods.
- Techniques of deep relaxation to help eliminate the Fear-Tension-Pain Syndrome.
- How your body is naturally designed to conceive, nurture and birth your baby with ease and comfort.
- To create the body’s own natural "epidural", the body’s only safe labor enhancement.
- Natural ways to bring your body into labor without artificial chemical induction.
- How you and your birthing companion can create a birthing environment that is calm, serene, and joyful.
- Gentle birthing techniques that allow you to birth your baby the way that nature intended.
HypnoBirthing® is as much a philosophy as it is a technique. The method teaches you that in the absence of fear and tension, severe pain does not have to be an accompaniment of labor. You will gain an understanding of how the birthing muscles work in perfect harmony--as they were designed to--when your body is sufficiently relaxed. You will learn how to achieve this kind of relaxation, free of the resistance that fear creates, and you will learn to use your natural birthing instincts for a calm, serene and comfortable birthing.
Visit Jaci Sieben's HypnoBirthing website, Bonita Birthing Solutions.
Read Time Magazine's Article on Hypnobirthing - Birth Bliss.
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Weekly Classes - Four Weeks - held at the birth center on Wednesday Evenings. By special arrangement for Baby Love Birth Center clients ONLY, the fee for this class is $75 per couple for the entire 4 week series.
We occasionally hold Weekend Classes - the entire series on 2 consecutive Saturdays. Please contact Jaci if you are interested in a weekend class. |
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The series is also open to parents who are not clients of the birth center, but only Baby Love Birth Center clients get the subsidized rate of $75.
The birth center subsidizes the cost of the class because we feel strongly that the Hynobirthing techniques will allow you to have a peaceful natural labor and birth.
If you are not a Baby Love Birth Center client and would like to take the class, the tuition is $300 for the weekly class. Go to Jaci's web site for more information.
YOU HAVE 2 CHOICES TO REGISTER FOR THE CLASS:
1) Register at the birth center and pay by check or cash. Braidy, the office manager will give you the forms to fill out and collect your payment.
2) Register on Jaci's web site and pay with pay pal.
YOU MUST REGISTER AT LEAST ONE WEEK PRIOR TO START DATE OF THE COURSE, OR YOU WILL BE CHARGED A $25 LATE FEE.
You can also view the class schedule online. |
Nutrition Class
The first cornerstone of a healthy pregnancy is nutrition. Many pregnancy complications can be prevented or treated through proper nutrition and supplementation with vitamins where needed. We encourage you to make healthy choices while still living your normal life. We do not expect you to become totally organic or avoid all artificial substances (although that would be nice, it is unrealistic for most of us).
Betsey Lunsford is our Director of Nutrition Education. We feel so strongly about the importance of nutrition in a healthy pregnancy that we require you to attend her nutrition class once during your pregnancy. You should bring your partner to the class, so that you both can learn what is important for a pregnancy diet and how to achieve optimal nutrition in the context of your normal life.
Betsey has a wealth of knowledge to share and, as the mother of five, she shares lots of tips on easy ways to improve your diet without needlessly complicating your life. Betsey is also a trained La Leche League breastfeeding counselor and is available to clients for consultations throughout pregnancy and post-partum.
This class is required of all new clients. The class is free.
Nutrition Class is held on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 7 pmCall Betsey Lunsford (239) 481-8730 to register or email
nutrition@waterbirthbaby.com for more info.
You can also
view the class
schedule online.
Breastfeeding ClassBreastfeeding is natural, but that doesn’t mean that it is always easy.
For new mothers, the first weeks of nursing can sometimes be difficult and confusing. We offer a breastfeeding class and on-going support to get you through the sometimes rough beginning of life as a nursing mother.
Your body was designed to feed your baby and makes the exact unique food your baby needs. We are here to help you before and after you have your baby, unlike most obstetrical practices. The usual care by a doctor ends with the birth of your baby, except for a brief six-week postpartum check up.
Betsey Lunsford, La Leche League Leader and mother of 5, teaches the class.
Husbands/Fathers/Partners welcome.
This class is free for clients.
Breastfeeding Class is the 5th session of the Hypnobirthing class schedule.
Call Betsey Lunsford (239) 481-8730 to register or email
breastfeeding@waterbirthbaby.com for more info.
View the class schedule here schedule
Infant Massage Class
A wonderful way to bond with your baby and soothe your newborn. Infant Massage is an
easy to learn technique which can lessen tension, fussiness, and irritability in your baby. It is especially helpful for colic and gassy babies. Massage strengthens the baby's immune system, enhances bonding, and improves the baby's sleep. The class is taught by Braidy Dauernheim, Licensed Massage Therapist (#MA41524).
The course is about two hours with hands-on instruction of thirty to forty-five minutes. You will receive a routine outline to help you at home as you and your baby start to enjoy infant massage together.
Tuition is $40 per person or couple, for this group class. If you would like to have private training, individual sessions can be scheduled for $65.
Call Braidy Dauernheim at (239) 645-8541 to register for the class, or give us a call at the birth center. You may also
email Braidy at
massage@waterbirthbaby.com for more information.
You can also
view the class
schedule online.
Infant and Toddler CPR
Be completely prepared for life with a newborn. We are very excited to be able to offer this course. In one evening you will learn the basics of CPR and First Aid for young children.
The next class date to be announced. If you are interested,
contact us. Colin Bulla, whose son Ian was born at the birth center, is offering a special deal for friends and clients of the birth center. The class costs $30 per person or $45 for two people from the same family. A deposit of $15 will hold your spot.
Creating Cooperative Children
An excting new course for transformational parenting that looks at the causes of misbehavior and transforms it at the core, instead of just treating the symptoms.
You will learn simple tools to reduce misbehavior by 50%.
You will learn how to teach your child self-control.
You will learn how to create clear and healthy boundaries and how to teach your child(ren) to expressively communicate.
You will learn how to create healthy, loving and FUNctional family dynamics.
You can create the family of your dreams!
The course is taught by Carlos Velaquez, who has been teaching parenting skills for many years and works as a life coach in Ft Myers.
Classes are held at the birth center.
Call for more information Carlos Velazquez (239) 410-9503 or check out the web site
View the schedule of classes
All Natural Parenting Group
Here is your opportunity to get together with other naturally-oriented parents...
Please join us on the 1st & 3rd Monday of every month for our Natural Parenting Group. Hosted by breast milk bank coordinator Kris Bulla and her three boys, Xavier, Ian, and newborn Drake.
The group is open to all parents, even if you're not a birth center client, so invite your friends.
Join us to hang out with a diverse group of parents and engage in free-style discussion of issues we all struggle with from cloth diapers to routine vaccinations and getting a decent nights' sleep. 
No agenda, no pressure, no dogma. Just a group of parents oriented towards natural parenting and a place to meet up with like-minded parents. All parents and kids are welcome to join us.
The group continues the mission behind the natural birth options offered at the birth center: "I think it is nice for parents who try to live naturally to be able to get together. Parents who choose an unmedicated birth, for example, or prolonged breastfeeding, or to delay or avoid vaccinations are in the minority in this society. We want to provide a network of support for new parents to find out about options other than the mainstream ideas about parenting"
for more information email
parents@waterbirthbaby.comThe group (parents and kids) meets at the birth center on the first Monday of every month from 10 a.m. until about noon.
The third Monday of every month is an outing, often to Lakes Park.
Join the parents' group email list, for updates on meetings and discussions:
Click to join FBCNaturalParenting
SWFL BabyWearers mission is to promote the art and science of babywearing to help make it a universally accepted and supported practice.
Babies need physical contact just as they need food, air, warmth, and shelter. Babywearing helps parents and other caregivers give babies all the closeness they need, while still having hands free for other tasks.
BabyWearing is for anyone practicing any parenting style and wishing to wear or wearing any child(ren) - newborn, baby, toddler. This group serves all of SW FL and welcomes mamas, papas, sisters, brothers, grandparents – anyone is invited.
The group meets at the birth center on the second Monday of every month.
They have an outing (often meeting at someone's house) on the fourth Monday of every month.
Click to join SWFLBabywearers
We are very excited to be able to offer massage services in the birth center. Braidy Dauernheim, Licensed Massage Therapist (#MA41524), offers Therapeutic Massage for both pregnant and non-pregnant clients.
Benefits of pregnancy massage include reduced fatigue, less swelling, and more energy.
Therapeutic Massage is available for $70/hour.
We offer packages for Expectant Moms and New Moms (did anyone say "shower gift idea"?).
For Expectant Moms the package includes One Private Infant Massage Lesson before the baby arrives, One Pregnancy Massage for the Mom, and One Infant Massage after the baby arrives.
The New Mom package includes One Therapeutic Full Body Massage and two Private Infant Massage sessions (you may exchange one of the Infant Massage sessions for another full body massage).
Call Braidy Dauernheim at (239) 645-8541 to register for the class, or give us a call at the birth center. You may also
email Braidy at massage@waterbirthbaby.com. You can also
view the class
schedule online.
Pregnancy Memento: Belly CastingRachael Scott, birth center client and local artist, will create a lasting work of art from your pregnant belly.
You can choose which parts you want to cast and painting and decorations can be added, as you wish.
Imagine preserving the beauty of your vessel of life...
For a quote and more information about belly casting, email
Rachael.