What Makes Blossoming Bellies Pelvic Dynamics Workshops Unique?
People have often asked what makes the Blossoming Bellies workshops different from other trainings. We are incredibly lucky as a birth community to have amazing resources for education and training in the greater Philadelphia area. From workshops on the rich history and use of Rebozo, to bodily alignment, prenatal yoga, incredible doula trainings offered through many different organizations, trauma informed care workshops, postpartum mental health support, and more, we are part of a diverse fabric of opportunity that allows us, as birth workers, access to some really incredible education. In the context of these workshops, it is fairly easy to see how the Blossoming Bellies pelvic dynamics trainings bring something different to the table. However, when it comes to continuing education workshops like those offered by Spinning Babies, it may seem a bit harder to distinguish the differences. My honest answer, for a long time, when people asked how my workshops were different than those facilitated by Spinning Babies trainers, was "I don't know!" I had been facilitating workshops on anatomy, pelvic dynamics and biomechanics, fetal positioning, and movement in labor and birth for years yet had never attended a Spinning Babies workshop. So I decided to go. Not only would it offer me opportunity to expand my knowledge - something we should always be open to - but it would also allow me to easily clarify what makes my workshops unique.
In the Blossoming Bellies pelvic dynamics workshops (including the shorter one hour sessions all the way through our longest seven hour sessions), the perspective focuses on the pregnant and laboring person's ability to use dynamics and biomechanics to create the space their baby needs to descend and rotate through the bony pelvis. Although anatomy, fetal positioning, and fetal presentation are discussed to create shared foundational knowledge, the conventional idea of “optimal fetal positioning” is not applied to the content or encouraged by the techniques in the Blossoming Bellies workshops. Some positions for labor, of course, are covered in many workshops, as would be expected in any training geared towards labor progress. However, Creating Space is a dynamic movement-based approach to supporting pregnant and laboring people both with and without pain medication, emphasizing the role that each individual's unique pelvic space plays in the positioning, descent, and rotation of a baby throughout labor and birth and the importance of and options available for mobility in labor.
Blossoming Bellies pelvic dynamics workshops combine anthropological research with resources from anatomy, kinesiology, physiotherapy, and perinatal education to explore alignment and positioning in pregnancy, labor, and birth and incorporate an understanding of biomechanics into the way clinical and non-clinical providers support birthing people. In addition, our workshops aim to provide education to support people that can help restore their client's confidence and trust in the birthing process by breaking down myths that perpetuate anxiety and emphasizing the adaptability of the body. It is important to emphasize that, although this workshop will provide lots of tools and information for clinical providers, it is not a clinical workshop and is not aimed at diagnosing fetal positioning or using clinical means for supporting labor.
Our workshops are similar to those of Spinning Babies in that we both aim to decrease intervention, morbidity, and mortality through an understanding of the physiological labor process and in offering of ways clinical and non-clinical providers can support that process. However, although fundamental information may be similar and the workshops complement each other, the focus and content of the Blossoming Bellies approach to reducing intervention differs.
So - just a reminder! Brittany Sharpe McCollum and Blossoming Bellies Wholistic Birth Services are not affiliated with Spinning Babies and do not provide Spinning Babies workshops or workshops based on Spinning Babies principles. What Spinning Babies does is awesome and what we do is awesome and both are great opportunities for education, empowerment, and support!
In the Blossoming Bellies pelvic dynamics workshops (including the shorter one hour sessions all the way through our longest seven hour sessions), the perspective focuses on the pregnant and laboring person's ability to use dynamics and biomechanics to create the space their baby needs to descend and rotate through the bony pelvis. Although anatomy, fetal positioning, and fetal presentation are discussed to create shared foundational knowledge, the conventional idea of “optimal fetal positioning” is not applied to the content or encouraged by the techniques in the Blossoming Bellies workshops. Some positions for labor, of course, are covered in many workshops, as would be expected in any training geared towards labor progress. However, Creating Space is a dynamic movement-based approach to supporting pregnant and laboring people both with and without pain medication, emphasizing the role that each individual's unique pelvic space plays in the positioning, descent, and rotation of a baby throughout labor and birth and the importance of and options available for mobility in labor.
Blossoming Bellies pelvic dynamics workshops combine anthropological research with resources from anatomy, kinesiology, physiotherapy, and perinatal education to explore alignment and positioning in pregnancy, labor, and birth and incorporate an understanding of biomechanics into the way clinical and non-clinical providers support birthing people. In addition, our workshops aim to provide education to support people that can help restore their client's confidence and trust in the birthing process by breaking down myths that perpetuate anxiety and emphasizing the adaptability of the body. It is important to emphasize that, although this workshop will provide lots of tools and information for clinical providers, it is not a clinical workshop and is not aimed at diagnosing fetal positioning or using clinical means for supporting labor.
Our workshops are similar to those of Spinning Babies in that we both aim to decrease intervention, morbidity, and mortality through an understanding of the physiological labor process and in offering of ways clinical and non-clinical providers can support that process. However, although fundamental information may be similar and the workshops complement each other, the focus and content of the Blossoming Bellies approach to reducing intervention differs.
So - just a reminder! Brittany Sharpe McCollum and Blossoming Bellies Wholistic Birth Services are not affiliated with Spinning Babies and do not provide Spinning Babies workshops or workshops based on Spinning Babies principles. What Spinning Babies does is awesome and what we do is awesome and both are great opportunities for education, empowerment, and support!