Course Description

Birth Practices II is a collection of five popular sessions from the Spinning Babies® 2022 Virtual World Confluence and provides birth professionals (RNs, doulas, midwives, and other birth workers) with lively and in-depth education. This course includes 5 recorded sessions covering how to incorporate a biodynamics approach in birth, learning about the round ligaments, the sacrum, how to visually assess labor progress, and demonstrates the use of the Jiggle and the Forward-leaning Inversion.

Continuing Education:

This course provides four and (4.5) continuing education contact hours with American Nurse Credentialing Center (ANCC). Maternity House Publishing dba Spinning Babies®️ is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

About the collection:

In the first recorded session, “Biodynamic Birth” midwife Claire Eccleston explores how a biodynamic approach for birth aligns with Spinning Babies®principles. Looking at bodies and birth through the lens of biointelligence/biotensegrity rather than biomechanics invites the body to respond accordingly. Claire is a mother, grandmother, an experienced registered midwife, a Spinning Babies® Approved Trainer, a biodynamic craniosacral therapist, and a STREAM practitioner working with pelvic/birth scar tissue.

You have explored the importance of the round ligaments in Spinning Babies® workshops, but in the “Role of the Round Ligaments” with midwife Rachel Shapiro, you are invited to take a deeper look inside of these ligaments and how they grow and change in pregnancy and birth. Revisit the symptoms a pregnant person feels when the round ligaments stretch out of balance as the baby grows. Re-examine the role these ligaments play in breech fetal positions. Explore the internal structure of the ligaments and see images of them from inside and out as they grow and change orientation in pregnancy. Consider the role these ligaments play in birth, when in balance and when physiological balance is not restored. By deeply understanding these ligaments, we can better restore physiology for comfort in pregnancy and ease in birth (SM). Rachel is a certified nurse midwife, Spinning Babies® Approved Trainer and director and owner of Equilibrio: Birth and Bodywork (focusing on internal pelvic balance as well as bodywork in the childbearing year).

In the third session, join Dr. Hosaka in “The Sacrum in Labor” which explores the dynamic changes of the sacroiliac joints during the process of labor, including normal motion as well as aberrant joint function allowing the practitioner to assess and correct the sacral motion to promote an easier labor for both parent and baby. Differential diagnoses will be explored including nuchal hands, asynclitic positioning and other less than optimal fetal positions so that the practitioner can differentiate between joint function and fetal position. Kristen is a Chiropractor, Spinning Babies® Aware Practitioner, and Dynamic Body Balancing instructor for Dr. Carol Phillips. Dr. Hosaka is passionate about helping pregnant people balance their bodies to create an easier passage for babies into this world. She strives to make birth better for the dyad and to help prevent birth trauma and subluxation through balanced, physiological births.

In Observing Birth with Nicole Morales, gain confidence in how to assess labor progress in relationship to fetal descent using external visual, auditory, and tactile indicators. Using Spinning Babies® tenets, learn how to shift the paradigm beyond relying on cervical dilation. Nicole is a home birth midwife and co-author of The Breech Release: Opening Pathways to Midwifery and Prenatal Bodywork. She has been a Birthing from Within Mentor and integrates trauma-informed care into her practices, mentorships, and writings.

In the final session of this course, join “Pelvic Jiggling with Jenny Blyth” for a live jiggling session with a pregnant person modeling the 'how' and 'whys' of pelvic jiggling. This dynamic interaction will show the variations in how to touch, how to jiggle, where on the pelvis you do it, and why it is beneficial.

Course Outcomes:

1. Discuss how a biodynamic approach aligns with Spinning Babies® principles.
2. Distinguish the Round Ligaments by their structure, their functions, and their anatomical origin and insertions.
3. Demonstrate the Three Balances Forward-leaning Inversion and The Jiggle techniques for restoring balance to the round ligaments.
4. Differentiate normal and abnormal motion of the sacrum in labor.
5. Describe the main limitation of using cervical dilation as the sole assessment for progress.