Guest Post by Claudia Citkovitz

I’ll be there!

Save the date!  Birth Basics Class has arrived.

My book, Acupressure, and Acupuncture during Birth won’t be out until December 19, but I’ll be teaching all the content (and then some) here at White Pine Healing Arts on September 28-29, 2019.

The class will cover needle and bodywork approaches for everything from labor preparation and prenatal homework through the three stages of labor and postpartum care.  In particular, we will look at the roles of Yin, Yang, Qi, and Blood in birth, and the effects of stagnation and deficiency on contractions, dilatation, and descent of the baby through the pelvis.

Suitable for non-acupuncturists such as doulas and midwives, students learn to recognize the faces of yin and yang, as they manifest and shift throughout the course of labor and delivery. Using a clinical problem-solving approach, you will learn to assess balance and flow from labor preparation through the postpartum period and use acupressure, bodywork, auriculotherapy, and moxibustion to support and encourage healthy labor. Acupuncturists taking the course will learn a full range of needling and non-needling techniques, suitable for even the most conservative hospitals. Non-acupuncturist birth professionals will come away with a powerful but manageable toolbox of new techniques for helping moms with breech, oligohydramnios and polyhydramnios, IUGR and other prenatal challenges, as well as cervical ripening and contraction encouragement before and during labor, and throughout postpartum recovery.

Whether or not you are interested in attending births professionally, understanding a mom’s constitution can help to anticipate and prevent or treat perinatal challenges such as premature labor and postdates, preeclampsia, small-for-dates babies and oligohydramnios.  Constitutionally appropriate labor preparation treatments and individualized ‘care packages’ for prenatal and birth acupressure can also empower Mom for a smoother and easier birth.

Click here for information and registration