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| About the Instructor | |
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Sharon Stevenson’s life mission is to empower women through her teaching, coaching, and private consultations. The narrative below will give you some idea of how she arrived at this work and of how passionately she feels about it. Sharon, and her husband, Gary, raised two daughters using homeopathic and osteopathic medicine, cranial work, and acupuncture. |
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Repeatedly they saw the body’s ability to respond to these safe and easy methods. Sharon’s interest in natural medicine and homeopathy lead her accept a position at the National Center for Homeopathy where she has spent the last 19 years and currently serves as the Executive Director. In 2000, the National Center held a program entitled “Homeopathy in Midwifery.” Organizing this program introduced Sharon to birth doula work. That same year Sharon began training to become a certified doula. She wanted to support women during their birthing process and to encourage them to tap into their own strength and courage. She believes that if women learn to release their fears of the unknown that surround birth, they will approach their baby’s birth with more serenity and confidence. In 2002 Sharon became a certified prenatal yoga instructor and is now registered with the Yoga Alliance. She incorporates into her prenatal yoga classes many of the comfort techniques she learned in doula training, as well as elements of childbirth education. Sharon’s philosophy is - the more things a woman can put into her bag of tricks when preparing for the birth of her baby, the more options she will have once labor begins. Sharon’s primary concern is that women believe in their bodies. She believes that the body is preprogrammed to know what to do once labor begins. Sharon teaches relaxation, visualization, and breathing techniques to assist the mother in staying comfortable, which allows her body to perform the beautiful dance of birth. In other words, these techniques allow the mother to surrender and thereby allow her body to do its work. Sharon is also a certified instructor of postnatal Yoga, Infant Massage and Itsy Bitsy Yoga®. She sees many of her prenatal yoga moms after the birth of their babies in her Mom and Baby Yoga classes. During these classes, the first half hour is spent teaching gentle, relaxing yoga for mom, and the remainder of the class is devoted to teaching moms Infant Massage and Itsy Bitsy Yoga® techniques. Sharon particularly enjoys these classes because she not only meets these new babies, but she also gets to watch the mothers grow into confident parents who trust their own wisdom and intuition. To support her work as a childbirth educator, Sharon enrolled in the HypnoBirthing® Institute's program to become a HypnoBirthing Practitioner. After completing the certification training she became a certified HypnoBirthing Practitioner. She realizes that her own birth experiences held such wonderful memories because she had approached them without fear and with confidence, which is exactly what she is teaching women today. She does not claim that birth is a walk in the park, and admits it is more difficult for some women than others, but she firmly believes that all women can benefit from the techniques that HypnoBirthing® has to offer. Sharon is also certified in hypnosis. Although Sharon was content with the range of modalities she could offer mothers and their partners, she was thrilled to learn about The Happiest Baby on the Block®. She is now certified in these techniques as well and wishes she had learned them with her own daughters, who she often did not know how to comfort and who cried a lot. Sharon makes sure that each expectant woman/couple she comes in contact with in her prenatal yoga or HypnoBirthing® classes has an opportunity to view the DVD produced by The Happiest Baby on the Block® so that they can see for themselves how these techniques can calm a crying baby. She likes to help couples find the joy in parenting, and is therefore committed to helping parents who are having a difficult time comforting their babies. In 2007 Sharon became certified through Signing Safari, to teach baby sign language. She works with babies/toddlers (6 months - 24 months) in singing, signing, playing, & rhyming in her interactive, educational, signing play classes! If you take one of Sharon’s classes you will quickly recognize her commitment to pregnant women and their families. Over the years, she has combined training and practice, and has worked with over 800 families (and counting!). She is honored to support women through pregnancy, breastfeeding, and the early months of parenting. Her tag line is “Serving Mothers and Babies” and that is what she loves. |
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