***Next Birthing From Within Class***
Four Wednesday nights in August: Aug 4, 11, 18 and 25
Location: to be determined
6 to 9 pm
Cost: $200
please return this form to me via email or regular mail with your $50 deposit to sign up
****SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!****
“Healing from Birth Trauma Workshop”
Wednesday, July 14th, 6pm-8pm
$50
in my home (contact me for details)
Birthing mothers or those who witness birth can be uplifted by birth’s mystery and power, but at the same time be haunted by profound feelings of confusion, powerlessness or shame about a particular moment. In its many forms, birth trauma is not often apparent. Even when it is, it is often minimized or ignored. Whether you are a mother or a birth worker, are you having trouble facing memories of a past birth experience? Is this trauma affecting your life, internally or externally? Would you like to take some time to process so you can begin to move through the experience and incorporate it into your self? We will work through our births together through storytelling, art and ritual in a safe circle of other women. Both mothers and birth workers are welcome to attend, whether or not they have taken my birth class or not.
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Imagine you are a river flowing. Water knows, without having to think, how to flow downward. The waters toss this way and that; sometimes calmly and slowly, hardly moving; sometimes with fierce intensity and determination. Occasionally there is an obstacle in the water, such as a rock, and the surf gets rougher, rapids form and the intensity builds stronger still, yet the water intrinsically knows how to find its way to flow around the rock. And always, no matter how the water flows, she eventually makes her way to join the big, beautiful sea.
The river is the way of a woman in pregnancy and childbirth.
If everything is proceeding normally, the water needs very little from the world to complete its journey – most everything comes from its inner, ancient knowing. The only thing the water truly needs is someone to hold the space for her to discover her own unique feminine power. A strong, experienced presence she can feel collecting her as she rolls. A river bank who has had many rivers flow through her and be held by her still yet accepting arms. With each spring runoff, the river bank is molded by the waters, yet grows stronger still. The river bank knows how to keep the water flowing together, yet still trusts the water to flow in the way she needs to flow.
The river bank is the way of the birth doula or childbirth educator.
Welcome to Three Rivers Birth Services. I’m Kristina French, and I’ve been a DONA certified birth doula practicing since 2007 and an independent childbirth educator teaching Birthing From Within classes since 2008. Whether you seek a guide during the prenatal months as an educator or for me to act as the river bank during your birth, whether your birth will be attended by a doctor or a midwife at a hospital or at home, I would love to be a part of your journey to parenthood.
See pages above and to the left for more information about me, my classes, my philosophy and my services.
Artwork used by permission by annie b, artist, illustrator, and lightworker. Her beautiful work can be found here.