The Spinning Babies^® Workshop

Who are these workshops for?

The Spinning Babies^® Workshop offers continuing education for midwives and nurses in many areas. Our workshop is open to other professionals who serve people during pregnancy and birth, such as, doctors, childbirth educators, doulas, prenatal yoga instructors, chiropractors, massage therapists, fascial therapy practitioners, and community health workers.

“The presentation is key to understanding the concepts. This cannot be understood by just reading the website.” -Patty, CNM in Minnesota, right after the workshop… then, Patty emailed again, 6 days after the workshop:

“WOW! It worked. “I was blessed with the perfect labor situation, prime stalled x 4 hours at 8cm, LOP. She slept through side-lying release, 3 contractions on each side (took 30 minutes). She got out of bed, and was immediately in transition. Baby born 1 hour later!”

“Had my first post Spinning Babies^® birth 12 hours after finishing the workshop! She breathed her baby down beautifully into the water! Lots of Spinning Babies^® and other preparations prior to her amazing VBAC. Such an incredible way to finish up the weekend.” -Anjela, Doula in Minnesota

1-day Spinning Babies^® Workshop:

• 7 (or 8) hours of class time
• Start times varying, 9 am is common in the US, 10 am is common in Europe.
• Lunch may be one hour or 90 minutes, often beginning 3 hours after scheduled start time.
• Example: 9-12:30 Antenatal. 12:30-2, lunch. 2-5:30 Labor = 7 hrs.

2-day Spinning Babies^® Workshop:

Times:

• Day 1: 10 – 6 pm with lunch from 1-2 (7 hours)
• Day 2:  9 – 4:30: lunch from 12:30-2 pm (6 hours)

Note: Both the 1-day and the 2-day workshops teach our basic curriculum. There is a there is more hands-on covered and slower pacing compared to the fast paced 1-day workshop.

Topics include:

• A new Paradigm for the experienced provider in childbirth ease and labor progress
• The role of “Soft Tissues” in pregnancy, labor, and fetal position (muscles, ligaments, connective tissue)
• Common causes and effects of posterior position
• Pelvic levels and birth position
• Resolving the stalled labor
• Practice activities for pregnancy comfort and ease of labor

Day 2 Adds:

• Additional hands-on practice
• A technique for sacral mobility

Both introduce you to the Spinning Babies^® premise and basic introduction.

Why?

Use your wisdom better. You will be able to identify and help pregnant and birthing women with a new approach to comfort, pain relief, fetal positioning, and labor progress. Reassess “what you know” and take birth care to the next level.

Workshop Outline:

1. Changing the paradigm for labor progress – Spinning Babies^® asks a new question
2. Anatomy of Birth and Balance
   • Normal Cardinal Movements
   • Birth anatomy – The uterus is not a water balloon
   • Baby – head down is not enough
   • Daily activities –  range of motion rather than assume maternal positioning. Rest Smart^SM to maintain.
   • Body balance for comfort, fetal positioning, and/or birth ease
3. Pregnancy (and birth): The Three Balances^SM
   • Credits and contraindications
   • A fascia jiggle technique
   • Forward-leaning inversion: using stretch receptors to untwist/lengthen the utero-sacral ligament for comfort, dilation ease, and/or improved fetal position
   • Side-lying Release for repositioning uterus, softening the pelvic floor, releasing buttock and hip muscles
4. Comparing Labor Patterns with 5 common stalls in labor
   • Compares the occipital posterior labor (“asymmetric labor”) to a progressing labor (“symmetrical labor”) by contraction pattern
     • The symmetrical labor pattern associated with the anterior presentation or well fitting OP
     • The asymmetrical labor pattern associated with the posterior presentation
5. When enough is enough; labor pattern indications for cesarean delivery due to cephalo-pelvic disproportion compared to indications that baby can rotate to fit the pelvis
   • Need for rotation compared to slow but continuing progress
   • Contracted inlet: Signs of CPD compared to need for rotation
6. Where’s Baby?
   1. Diameters of the pelvis in relation to stalled labors and solutions.
   2. Introduction to the Three Levels Solutions^SM
   3. of the pelvis as a starting point for solving a stalled labor
7. Identifying Pelvic Level issues causing labor dystocia
   • Open the inlet Engagement and mis-engagement at the brim
   • Open the Midpelvis
   • Opening the Outlet to finish the birth

Approved Trainer Jennifer Walker explains: “The course [introduces you to] the concepts of Spinning Babies^® which you can integrate into your work as doula, midwife or childbirth educator. You will get a certification of attendance. You will not be a certified Spinning Babies^® presenter or certified “Baby Spinner.” [We don’t even use that phrase!] That level of knowledge is much too involved to learn in one workshop, even by repeating it. Your certification of attendance is proof of the contact hours for the workshop.”

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Costs

Typically $195-225 per 1-day registration, depending on location. Spinning Babies® is required to collect a sales tax for US states (except where exempt), Canada and Australia (GST).

Health & Safety

Spinning Babies® follows CDC and local recommendations related to COVID-19 precautions. Please check your local health department’s guidelines as you are planning for your registration and attendance.  Spinning Babies® will update you on our planned measures close to the time of the event based on current recommendations. Please see Spinning Babies® infographic: PDF COVID-19 precautions.

Our safety measures may include:

• Adhering to physical distancing guidelines.
• Wearing masks (over noses and mouths) 
• Doing hands-on activities with a limited number of other participants. 
• Asking participants to bring their own pillow. 

Participants who register and attend must review and agree to the COVID Waiver prior to attendance.

If a Participant Needs to Cancel Due to COVID-19 Exposure or Local Pandemic Restrictions

Please refrain from attending a workshop if you have symptoms that may be related to COVID-19. 

• Most common symptoms: fever, dry cough, tiredness
• Less common symptoms: aches and pains, sore throat, diarrhea, conjunctivitis, headache, loss of taste or smell, a rash on skin, or discoloration of fingers or toes

Those who are experiencing cold or allergy symptoms, which may be unrelated to COVID-19, a negative COVID-19 test is an appropriate measure before attending a workshop.

If any participant is unable to attend their scheduled Spinning Babies® Workshop due to having COVID-19 or recent exposure, please let us know as soon as possible prior to the first day of the workshop. Your fee may be transferred towards registration for a future workshop with the same trainer, at the discretion of the Approved Trainer.

Please note: The Spinning Babies® Workshop refund policy is at the discretion of each trainer and will vary based on who is teaching your particular workshop. If you have questions prior to or after registering for an event, please contact the trainer directly.

If a participant cancellation occurs due to any reason unrelated to COVID-19, the cancellation policy for each Spinning Babies® Workshop will apply.

Participants are responsible for their own travel, accommodations, and related expenses and Spinning Babies® is unable to reimburse these expenses.

Promoting Access

One seat (minimum) per workshop is given to a Black and Indigenous birth professionals of Color as part of Spinning Babies® commitment to reduce death and birth injuries in Black and Indigenous communities. Eligible professionals are birth workers who actively attend births and/or bodyworkers with a pregnancy focus, usually local to the workshop. Simply contact the Approved Trainer teaching the workshop.

Each trainer has their own policy and must be contacted personally but all have committed to a seat in the class for Black and Indigenous birth workers already attending births. Whether a doctor or a doula, this offer is the same. Please contact the Approved Trainer about your plans to attend in order to secure a seat because we limit the size of each workshop.

• Each Approved Trainer offers one or more Equity Seats for birth workers of Black or Indigenous birth workers (in some countries outside the US or Canada the person may be of another community suffering birth inequities) to promote more access to birth education and skills training.
• A seat per workshop, as long as there is still space when a request comes in. So apply early, before the class seats are full. Overall space is limited and a spot is saved only by booking with the special link the Approved Trainer (or Gail) gives you. It is easy to arrange your seat.
• If someone wants to come who isn’t attending births, they can email the Approved Trainer doing the workshop of their interest and say what they do and why they want the workshop information. Acceptance would depend on space available since birth workers and pregnancy-focused bodyworkers are prioritized.
• No one will be announced or described as an equity seat recipient or identified in any way other than the way they introduce themselves in the class introduction. Write your name in the spot when you fill out the free/reduced price ticket registration in the way you want to be recorded for continuing education (professional name and title). (To be in our private Facebook group, you’ll have to let us know the email address you use for Facebook.)

Contact Approved Trainers individually from their workshop postings to let someone know your request to attend. You will get a link to register and then you will get handouts and other support materials.

BIPOC Access for Our Bigger Events:

• For the 4-day workshops, all pre-requisites are the same as other participants of those programs and an application is filled out.
• For our conferences, watch for a link on our website or in our social media to an application in our registration process. Don’t pay til you know. We prioritize 30 seats at our virtual conference for free spots.

Why don’t we have low-income and LGBTQ+ equity seats? Each seat we give is company income or Approved Trainer income and expenses keep getting larger as we grow. Therefore, Gail Tully set an intention to give her money to increase BIPOC seats as her way to help save the lives of Black and Indigenous children and their birth parent, the lives lost due to racism.

Many worthy and wonderful birth professionals give their time to help families and birth givers without charging much money. Some, like LGBTQ+ and recently again, Asian communities face significant challenges from discrimination. In 1999, Gail chose the boundary of where time and money is dedicated because of intense mortality disparity in the USA.  Equity Access isn’t simply a free chair in the room (“Can’t I just come be in the background and watch?”) Each free seat costs the company time and resources to support each Equity Access participant to have the same documentation and recognition in our records as a paying or full paying participant. That’s our commitment. We want to offer equal relationship and not have “a fly on the wall” participant. Our boundary keeps clarity and frankly, keeps the workload on our small staff somewhat manageable (is that achievable when trying to change birth on Earth?).

However, there are a few places in the world that BIPOC Access wouldn’t address the disparities in the larger area of the workshop. In the EU we may include a person of the Romany Community in addition to an African European. Outside the US and Canada, contact the Approved Trainer.

Equity Access is not a traditional scholarship based on income. An equity seat is a restorative measure, an invitation to explore Spinning Babies® and how the paradigm of physiology first may be beneficial to BIPOC communities, and a social commitment by our small company doing our part with a huge social inequity.

We offer at least one seat a workshop to an active birth worker (or a pregnancy focused professional, but not retired or about to start soon) as long as that person is BIPOC. This seat is available for each public workshop and most private workshops. (A private workshop is one that a hospital or group has for their staff, doulas, etc. so that seat can go to BIPOC L and D staff or providers of the sponsoring hospital.)

Find a Spinning Babies^® Workshop

Refunds
Each Approved Trainer sets their own refund policy.

Registrants for events canceled by the Approved Trainer will receive a full refund, or may transfer to another workshop given by the same Approved Trainer within the same fiscal year at no cost. In the event of cancellation, neither the Approved Trainer nor Spinning Babies^® is responsible for refunding travel expenses. Weather, natural disaster, illness or other “Acts of God” or government are reasons an Approved Trainer may cancel. Believe us, we don’t want to cancel!!

Can’t attend?

Download the Spinning Babies^® Parent Class for a similar outline to Spinning Babies^® Workshop (which is designed for experienced Birth Keepers). The Parent Class is like a childbirth education class II, or as my sister said, “It is what I would have wanted when I was pregnant – childbirth education for a birth nerd.”

Check out our online courses in our shop. We add new ones every couple of months.