This Prenatal Workshop serves as an invaluable opportunity for expecting mothers to immerse themselves fully in an environment that not only educates but also empowers and uplifts.
This workshop is thoughtfully grounded in three core values that aim to foster a sense of confidence in our innate feminine wisdom as we prepare for the transformative experience of giving birth:
1. Cultivating a strong mind/body connection that enhances self-awareness.
2. Gathering and connecting with wise women who have traversed this significant passage in life, along with providing the chance to ask questions to knowledgeable local midwives and doulas.
3. Comprehensive Childbirth Education focusing on evidence-based information regarding anatomy, physiology, and the essential role of hormones.
This workshop is for:
-Pregnant women
-Women planning to become pregnant
-Birthworkers who want this opportunity of education, movement, and connection
Schedule:
8:45-9:15 - Meet & Eat: Mingle & Settle-in while enjoying a warm oat bowl and a green smoothie
9:15-9:30 - Introductions & Philosophies
9:30-10:20 - Prenatal Yoga: Toni Shama will lead a gentle slow flow yoga session designed to integrate the body/mind connection. This practice will incorporate specific poses promoting gentle pelvic and rib mobility, reaffirming spinal alignment, and releasing any built-up tension in the low back area. The session will be completed with deep restorative postures and guided relaxation techniques that aim to open the heart and encourage you to follow your intuition.
10:20-10:50 - Hypnobirthing: Kara Karaoguz will provide an overview of the philosophy of Hypnobirthing and guide you through relaxation and visualization techniques to help you feel calm and confident during labor and birth.
10:50-11:45 - Hormone Harmony: Working with your hormonal helpers for an optimal birth experience. Led by Tara Rice
11:45-12:00 ~break~
12:00-1:00pm - Ask the Doulas & Midwives: We sit in circle together and participants are encouraged to ask questions about pregnancy, birth or postpartum to the experienced local doulas and midwives. Come with written questions or ask openly.
About the practitioners:
Tara Rice
Tara Rice, IBCE (joyfulbirth.us) draws on 20 years of experience working with birthing families in the Finger Lakes region. Whether teaching childbirth classes, working with doula clients, assisting one of our area’s homebirth midwives, or training new childbirth educators, Tara’s passion is empowering birthing persons and their partners through education and support. She holds an AS in General Studies from SUNY Empire State University, is currently pursuing her BS at Empire State in Interdisciplinary Studies with a Concentration in Women’s Health, and plans to obtain her master’s degree in the future and pursue a career as a Certified Midwife. She sits on the board of directors and the curriculum committee of Informed Beginnings, a cooperative of childbirth educators, and is a certified postpartum nutrition coach. A mother of three, when Tara is not studying hard or attending a birth, you might find her running, hiking, knitting, or enjoying time with her family and dog.
Kara Karaoguz
With a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and 10+ years of experience as a Registered Nurse, Kara brings a unique blend of science and intuition to her work. A former RN home birth assistant, she’s been a birth doula since 2011 and has taught HypnoBirthing to support and educate expectant mothers for 15 years; Kara has supported over a thousand births. As a Kripalu-certified yoga instructor specializing in gentle, prenatal, and restorative classes, she guides students to connect with their inner peace, regulate their nervous system and build confidence in themselves. An intuitive life coach and a trauma-informed energy healer, Kara’s passion is empowering women to embrace healthy, conscious (birth) experiences that deeply honor their strength and mind/body/spirit.
Toni Shama
The woman behind FLX Mamahood (flx-mama-hood.com), Toni is a Registered Yoga Teacher specializing in Pre & Postnatal Yoga. She was born and raised in the Finger Lakes region and first began assisting laboring women when she was eleven years old. She knew right away that she wanted to support women during this transformative birth experience. In addition to teaching yoga and working as a Birth and Postpartum Doula, Toni has certifications in lactation consultation and childbirth education. With a BS in Education and BA in Communication Studies, Toni offers personable evidence-based support to women in the prenatal, birth and postpartum experience. Toni has trained with Kimberly Ann Johnson, author of The Fourth Trimester, in facilitating Mother Circles supporting women beyond postpartum.Toni knows that birth is a physiologic process and that our bodies are primed for it. She believes deeply in surrendering to the power of our bodies, and that all women deserve to feel supported throughout the Motherhood journey to build a world we want our children to be a part of.
Lisa Benedetto
Lisa Benedetto is a Certified Nurse Midwife who first began practicing midwifery in Boulder, Colorado where she lived the majority of her adult years. Although, she was born in upstate NY, she often says she grew into womanhood in Boulder, moving there at the age of 18 and residing there for over 26 years.
Lisa’s interest in the birth world began following the birth of her daughter in 1995 which was attended by a midwife in a community hospital setting. In 1997, Lisa became a DONA certified doula attending home and hospital births in Colorado. Lisa graduated from Colorado University in 2005 with a Bachelor’s in Nursing and worked as a labor and delivery nurse at University Hospital in Denver. At this time, she also had the opportunity to work as a nurse at the first freestanding birth center in Colorado, Mountain Midwifery Center. Ultimately, this is when her love with the birth center model and the dream of opening a freestanding birth center first began.
Lisa went on to complete a Master’s of Science in Nurse-Midwifery from Frontier Nursing University in 2009. Since then, she has practiced midwifery in the states of Colorado, Pennsylvania and New York and has had extensive birth experience in both the hospital and out-of-hospital community birth settings.
Lisa has attended over 1200 births and has supported many more laboring clients along the way. She is a member of the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM), the New York State Association of Licensed Midwives (NYSALM) and the American Association of Birth Centers (AABC). Lisa has also worked on state legislative committees, led midwifery grant development teams and has been a midwife preceptor to many aspiring midwives along the way. Supporting physiologic birth and assisting women to make informed decisions are a few of the important values that help guide Lisa’s midwifery practice.
Brigitte Rhody-Garrisonn, CNM, MSM
Brigitte’s pathway to midwifery began in 1988 with the highly stressful and traumatic birth of her first son in a hospital with an OBGYN who was eager to intervene. In 1995 she began attending births as an assistant and doula, helping women and their families have better and healthier births. In 1998 she “randomly” met a midwife at a social event while expecting her second child. That moment changed her life path. Once she birthed (at the hospital) with that midwife by her side, she knew that her calling was to empower other women to seek respectful care, avoid trauma, ask questions, and actively participate in their (and their children’s) own healthcare with truly informed choices. After teaching childbirth classes for several years and with a BS in psychology and education, she headed to nursing school.She earned her RN in 2003 and worked as a medical surgical/oncology and community health nurse for 5 years. There she learned advanced practice skills and became experienced in emergency procedures, IV and PICC line infusion, blood transfusions, and comprehensive health assessment. In 2008, she completed her Masters degree in Women’s Health and Midwifery at Philadelphia (now Jefferson) University’s Institute of Midwifery. She is New York state certified and nationally board certified. Brigitte obtained advanced evaluation of psychiatric illness in reproductive age women in 2020 and worked closely with a collaborative psychiatrist.
In her career as a midwife, she has been honored to attend nearly 800 births as primary midwife, and assisted at over 1000 in the past 24 years. Providing comprehensive women’s healthcare (from teens to beyond menopause) is also a passion of hers. The more educated and well informed women are about their wellness care, the better. She strives to provide women with autonomy, and meet the needs of individuals through time, careful attention, and integrated holistic health services.