Ziah trained in the international sensation Dancing for Birth™ in 2019, combining Ziah’s 3 decades of being a dance instructor, her Childbirth Education training with multiple organizations, and her Full Spectrum Doula studies. Birth Dance classes help reduce tension, increase oxytocin, loosen hips, and optimize birth position, these all can liberate the body to ease birth and help it be a quicker and more pleasurable experience.

What is a Birth Dance Class like?

Why is class 90 minutes? Class will open with chatting with other people that are just as interested in pregnancy as you, discussing everyone’s concerns and joys that week and sharing their experiences with birth, pregnancy and postpartum. Next the movement begins with grounding in, warm up, pregnancy fitness moves, dance moves to assist with birth, and then cool down. The closing includes childbirth education questions and selected subjects.

Class is Disability Accessible, just include accessibility needs, like closed captions or movement modification, when registering. Ziah will also check in at the beginning of class each week for any changed accessibility needs during pregnancy or postpartum.

JUST THE FACTS….What are the benefits of dancing during pregnancy and birth?

• 99% of women who were upright and mobile during birth said they would make the same choice again.

• Being upright and mobile during birth results in: • Shorter Labors (by more than an hour) • 20% Fewer Epidurals • 21% Fewer Episiotomies • 23% Fewer Assisted deliveries (forceps, vacuum) • 30% Fewer Cesareans

• Upright positions and mobility during birth significantly lowered admissions to neonatal intensive care.

• Recreational exercise decreases the chances of both premature labor and the birth of a very small baby.

• Maternal exercise throughout gestation improves fetal heart health.

• Getting up and moving during labor results in shorter labors and fewer requests for epidurals.

• Exercise helps prevent Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), the most common medical complication of pregnancy.

• Engagement in structured dance for 12 weeks decreases depression levels.

• All aspects of growth and development after birth in babies from exercising mothers are equal to or better than those of babies from non-exercising mothers. At five years old, children whose mothers exercised during pregnancy scored much higher on tests of general intelligence and oral language skills.

PLUS IT’S FUN!

These statistics are from The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommendations that healthy pregnant women get at least 2 1/2 hours of aerobic exercise every week. Find more facts at the Dancing for Birth™ Website