Petra Martin
I experienced a traumatic birth, and the only way I can make sense of that is to prevent it from happening to others. Depending on which study you consult, 25 – 34 percent of mothers describe their birth experience as traumatic, and about a third of those develop PTSD. I was among the latter, and in my experience, birth trauma can lead to what I call a "parenting disability."
Fortunately, in an attempt to help emergency responders heal the stress and trauma they experience in their service to us, I learned how to heal my own birth trauma. If you've already experienced a traumatic birth, healing is possible. If you'd like to prevent trauma from happening in the first place, that's possible too.
Here are some questions that might be going through your mind:
- Won't I learn this in my childbirth class? No.
- Won't my doctor, midwife, or doula already know about this? Most likely not.
- How can you possibly know something they don't? I learned about therapeutic tremors while becoming certified as a provider of Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises.
For pregnant women
If you're pregnant, a video conference before you give birth will help you recognize the mechanism that your body uses to re-regulate an overwhelmed nervous system. Once you know what how this mechanism works, you can hold space for it when it arises spontaneously during childbirth, advocate for it, and allow it to naturally release stress and prevent trauma.
Price: $90 per 60-minute session
Videoconferencing platform: Zoom
For pregnant women and their partners
In this single session, your partner will learn to invoke and self-regulate the therapeutic tremors that arise in mammals spontaneously when their nervous systems are overwhelmed — the same tremors that usually arise during labor and childbirth. Learning how relaxing therapeutic tremors are will help your partner understand why these tremors are beneficial for you.
By watching your partner during this process, you'll learn what to expect and how to self-regulate therapeutic tremors when they arise during labor and childbirth.
Price: $180 per two-hour session
In person: Whidbey Island (preferred) or Seattle
Videoconferencing platform: Zoom
For physicians, midwives, childbirth educators, and doulas
Most people who attend women as they labor and give birth have witnessed these mothers-to-be spontaneously tremoring, but haven't known what purpose it served. They also don't know that preventing this tremoring can cause birth trauma.
In this two-hour session, you'll experience this therapeutic tremoring for yourself. You'll learn how to start, self-regulate, and stop it. Feeling the effect in your own body will help you understand the effect it has on women in childbirth.
Price: $180 per two-hour session
In person: Whidbey Island (preferred) or Seattle
Videoconferencing platform: Zoom
Note: This can also be taught to groups. Please contact us for more information
For women who have experienced a traumatic birth
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