Birth Healing Circle
A small group to help you find new meaning in your Birth Experience
When thinking about the birth of their child, mothers and fathers often have mixed feelings of joy and grief, guilt, anger and depression. Especially when the baby is healthy, most people discount the importance or validity of a parent's negative feelings about the labour or birth. Left unresolved, negative feelings and beliefs can undermine the joy and confidence of parenting, and may negatively affect relationships with partner, baby and friends.
A Birth Healing sharing group will help women find new meaning in their Birth Experiences. This workshop is an open, compassionate place for women to explore and share stories of their birth. Whether those experiences were triumphant, wonderful or ecstatic, painful or confusing, joyous or disappointing - this workshop will help you find new meaning and new understanding. In this group, your story will heard with empathy, compassion and understanding. No judgements will be made. Whether you arrive filled with rage, grief, confusion, ecstasy or blame,you will leave our circle with a new perspective of birth and of the power of stories. You will leave with a better understanding of birth story loss phases and the many levels to a birth story. Above all you will leave with a meaningful way to process the details of how your birth unfolded and a new knowing about yourself.
Sally has experience with trauma debriefing as a counsellor and she learned this Birth Healing Process at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, USA in 2010 from Pam England who founded Birthing From Within.
Testimonials
Colette posted about her experience of the workshop on her Nurtured Babies blog
Birth Healing Group
- Johannesburg
- Date: Tuesday 13th December 2011
- Where: at Mother Instinct (129 Republic Road, Randburg)
- Time: 10h00 to 12h30
- Hermanus
- Date: Wednesday 18th January 2012
- Where: Phila Therapy Centre, Camphill Hermanus, Hemel an Aarde VAlley
- Time: 10h00 to 13h00
- Johannesburg
- Date: Tuesday 26th January 2011
- Where: at Mother Instinct (129 Republic Road, Randburg)
- Time: 10h00 to 12h30

Birth Healing Counselling
These sessions offer women a chance to talk about her birth and her unwished for experiences in a private individual session. Too often, women are told "you have a healthy baby, what are you so upset about". When a birth did not go as a woman hoped and dreamed for, there is a substantial loss that is experienced. These counselling sessions help women to understand and integrate their experince into their lives. Exploring, understanding and resourcing from a traumatic birth can go a long way towards healing and treating post natal depression and anxiety.
Their are many ways in which a birthing experience can be experienced as traumatic by a woman, these sessions work on many different levels to find healing.

Recommended Reading
- Birth Crisis by Shiela Kitzinger
- Coping with Post Natal Depression by Dr Sandra L. Wheatley
- Down Came the Rain by Brooke Shields
- Birthing From Within by Pam England & Rob Horowitz
- When Survivors Give Birth: Understanding and Healing the Effects of Early Sexual Abuse on
Childbearing Women by Penny Simkin and Phyllis Klaus
Recommended Websites & Forums
Solace for Mothers - Healing after traumatic childbirth
PNDSA - Post Natal Depression Support Association South Africa