Day One

Welcome and intention setting

We begin with grounding and presence, arriving together in the space, acknowledging Country, and setting intentions for the weekend. This opening creates a sense of safety and shared purpose, inviting you to connect with your partner or support person and reflect on what you hope to learn or feel through this experience.

It’s an opportunity to slow down, breathe, and prepare to explore birth as both a physiological and emotional journey.

Pregnancy and birth physiology

We’ll explore the landscape of birth through anatomy, hormones, and the nervous system, and how fear and tension interact with the birthing process. This session builds confidence and understanding by helping you visualise how labour unfolds within your body. We’ll look at the pelvis, womb, and hormones that support physiological birth, and discuss how to create an oxytocin-rich environment that encourages safety and flow. Together, we’ll explore how knowledge reduces fear and increases trust in your body’s innate capacity to birth. As birth approaches, preparation shifts from planning to presence. This session focuses on supporting your body and mind in the final weeks. We’ll explore nervous system regulation, simple daily practices for balance, and ways to optimise baby’s position through alignment and movement. You’ll learn about perineal massage, antenatal hand expression, and gentle techniques to encourage readiness for labour. These final weeks are a time for connection, rest, and preparation; physically, emotionally, and practically.

Birth as a rite of passage

Birth is both a physical and emotional transformation. It is a threshold experience that changes how we see ourselves. In this session, we’ll explore birth as a rite of passage and discuss how personal beliefs, culture, and the maternity system shape this experience.

You’ll learn about decision-making tools, communication strategies, and ways to advocate for yourself and your preferences within the hospital or home birth setting. The focus is on empowerment: understanding your choices, your rights, and how to navigate the system while protecting your sense of agency and connection.

We then begin to move through labour, step by step covering the following aspects.

Through guided reflection and discussion, you will identify your values, preferences, and communication strategies for labour and birth. We will explore how to make informed decisions, navigate consent, and approach interventions or alternate pathways such as induction, augmentation, assisted birth, or caesarean with confidence. You will learn about your rights and how to stay centred when plans change. This process helps you express what safety, respect, and support look like for you, giving your partner and care team insight into how to best nurture your experience. Your birth map becomes a living document that supports flexibility, awareness, and agency.

• Understanding labour: the sensations, emotions, and physical stages of labour, from the final days of pregnancy to the birth of your baby. You’ll learn what to expect during early, active, and transition phases, and how to recognise when it’s time to call your care provider or travel to hospital. We’ll explore the rhythm and energy of labour, how to work with your body’s cues, and ways to create an environment that supports oxytocin and reduces stress hormones. By the end, you’ll feel familiar with the flow of labour.

• Comfort measures and support tools: you’ll explore a variety of tools to support your body and mind during labour. We’ll cover massage and pressure techniques, breathwork, use of the rebozo, optimal positioning, maternal alignment and movement practices that promote comfort and help progress labour naturally. You’ll learn to tune into your senses and intuition to find what feels best for you. Each couple will have time to practice these tools together, creating confidence and connection for the birthing day.

• Partner and support roles: Birthwork is teamwork. This session gives partners and support people a clear understanding of their role in creating a calm, grounded, and responsive birthing space. You’ll practice practical comfort techniques such as counterpressure, positioning, and rebozo use, alongside emotional support tools like reassurance, presence, and rhythm. We’ll also discuss ways partners can manage their own emotions, stay centred, and communicate effectively with care providers. By understanding both the physical and emotional needs of the birthing person, partners leave feeling equipped and confident.

• Birth Mapping: Throughout our time together we return to our birth mapping workbook, to bring everything together — what you’ve learned, what feels right for you, and what you hope for — by jotting down the intentions and decisions as we go and this is the beginning of your birth map. A birth map isn’t about controlling what happens; it’s about clarity, values, and communication.

Day Two

We continue to move through labour culminating in those tender first hours, step by step.

Traditional Chinese Medicine for pregnancy and birth with Michaela Rinkel

Facilitated by a guest practitioner trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), this session offers insight into how TCM can support balance, vitality, and wellbeing during pregnancy and birth.

Pregnancy and labour are times of profound transformation, and in Chinese medicine, care focuses on restoring harmony, nurturing energy (qi), and protecting the body from depletion. You will learn about foundational nutritional principles such as foods that strengthen blood and energy, and simple lifestyle practices that promote balance and recovery.

We will explore gentle approaches to supporting the body through late pregnancy and birth, including acupressure points for comfort, movement, and relaxation. The session also touches on the energetics of labour, helping you understand how rest, rhythm, and nourishment contribute to strength and stability.

Together, we will consider ways to apply these principles in everyday life, so that as you prepare to meet your baby, you feel centred, nourished, and supported by both modern and traditional wisdom.

Gentle yoga and meditation for birthing person

Our yoga is taught with commitment and care to honour both you and your baby. Guided by specialist prenatal yoga teachers, the sessions are tailored to the anatomical and emotional changes that occur during pregnancy. Using traditional postures and safe modifications, you will explore how movement can build awareness, ease tension, and promote balance.

The yoga sessions include gentle strength and mobility work to prepare your body for labour and recovery, as well as pranayama (breathing techniques) that can be used to steady the mind, support contractions, and regulate the nervous system. Each class offers space to connect inwardly, to rest, and to feel deeply attuned to your changing body and growing baby.

Facilitated Discussion for Birthing Partners

While yoga is underway, birthing partners will participate in a facilitated discussion is a dedicated space for birthing partners to pause, reflect, and connect with their own experience of the upcoming birth. Together, we explore what support looks like in practice, identify individual strengths, and gently unpack how each partner wants to show up during labour and birth. There is space to consider emotional presence, advocacy, communication, and practical support, as well as the partner’s own needs before, during and after birth. Through guided prompts and shared reflection, partners are supported to build confidence, clarify their role, and feel resourced rather than unsure or sidelined. This session honours that supported partners are better able to offer steady, attuned support in the birth space.

Afterbirth and early postpartum

The hours, days, and weeks after birth are a continuation of the birth process, a time of deep transformation and recovery. In this session, we explore what happens physiologically after birth, from hormonal shifts to uterine healing, and how to care for your physical and emotional wellbeing.

You will learn about common experiences in the first weeks, including feeding and sleep patterns for both baby and parents, and how to create rhythms that support rest and recovery. We will discuss the importance of nourishment, gentle movement, and support systems that allow you to heal and bond with your baby.

Together, we will look at ways to plan for help, from meal trains and visitors to professional supports, ensuring your postpartum period feels supported, spacious, and restorative.

In this final reflective session, you will work in pairs to define your anchors for the early postpartum period. Using guided prompts, you will map out what helps you feel grounded and what supports you need most, physically, emotionally, and practically.

This may include identifying safe people to lean on, moments of nourishment and rest, and boundaries that protect your recovery time. The goal is to create a personal postpartum plan that honours your healing, supports your family’s adjustment, and allows space for joy and rest in the first sacred weeks after birth.

Over the two days, you’ll explore your preferences for birth environment, comfort measures, interventions, and decision-making processes, and put these into a format you can share with your support team. We also cover common alternate pathways; such as induction, augmentation, assisted birth, or caesarean — and how to navigate them with awareness and choice. This process helps you express what safety, respect, and support look like for you, so that your care team understands what matters most, whatever path your birth takes.