I'm going to the Dancing for Birth training!

Ever since writing my Dancing Your Baby Out post, I have been really interested in dance as a form of prenatal exercise and as a comfort and positioning measure during childbirth. I have always loved to dance. Although my parents never signed me up for classes when I was growing up (I'm sure they had good reasons) and my high school did not offer dance as an elective, in college, I took a ballet class, a modern dance class, and two ballroom dance classes, and I loved all of them. My husband took ballroom classes, too (he is actually better at ballroom than I am!) Since marrying into a Tahitian family, I have also tried to learn Tahitian dance. Tahitian slow dances probably have some some things in common with what is in prenatal dance classes.

Performing Tahitian dance at a family wedding reception (I am second from the right)

I think that teaching pregnancy dance classes would be a great way for me to combine my interests in dance and birth. It also will be an opportunity to expand my market (women who typically might not be looking for a Hypnobabies class or a doula might come to a prenatal dance class and then might find out about my other services that way), and will give me another birth-related thing I can do that won't disrupt my family life too much. Like teaching Hypnobabies, it is something I can schedule around my husband's work schedule, which avoids needing a babysitter, and since classes are for both prenatal and postpartum women, who can do the dances while wearing their baby, I will be able teach it while babywearing.

When I first learned that there was going to be a Dancing for Birth instructor training at the Simkin Center for Allied Birth Vocations at Bastyr University in Seattle, I wasn't sure if I would be able to go, even though I wanted to, because I had a doula client whose due date was about 10 days after the training. She gave birth at 37 weeks gestation last week (I will write more about that experience later, if I get permission from the mom), so I looked to see if they were still taking registrations, and they were! So, after discussing it with my husband, I decided to sign up! I will try to write a blog post about the training after I go!