Rhea Dempsey | Birth Prepartion Workshops, Melbourne

Workshop: Embracing the Intensity

My weekend birth preparation workshop will guide you to:

Understand your own needs and expectations in order to make wise choices for a meaningful birth experience.
Identify, reframe and transform your relationship with functional pain
Normalise ‘crisis of confidence’ moments
Explore psychological and relationship dynamics which affect birthing potential
Discover the importance of experienced support to back your intention for normal physiological birthing.
Learn how to work with pain to connect with your instinctive birthing self through a dynamic labour rehearsal, breathing, movement, sound release and support strategies.

All couple bookings receive a complimentary copy of Rhea’s book Birth With Confidence.

This workshop is open to partners and support people. Ideally, you should undertake this course when you are between 6 and 8 months pregnant, but you will benefit even if you attend earlier or later in your pregnancy.

What attendees are saying

'Empowering and insightful. Rhea has so much experience and gives it all to us with such passion and honesty. We really loved it and felt so much more equipped on our pregnancy journey. Knowledge is power! Thank you Rhea and all the team.'

'Your workshop is the major contributing factor that gave my partner and me the confidence to birth our son naturally and drug free, just the way we wanted.'

'This was the most intellectually stimulating and thrilling seminar I've attended since I can remember. The concept of pain is power is a remarkable insight into the birth process, and life in general. Provocative ideas, presented well - a true paradigm shift. I've thought about it a lot since, and I'll remember it for years. I'm very grateful.'

'My partner and I loved the workshop with Rhea. Her sociological and psychological background paired with the practical and detailed information has helped us to feel confident and prepared in our choices. It felt like a real privilege to be able to be involved and learn from Rhea.'

'Empowering, encouraging and informative. Thank you Rhea and the support team for making this weekend workshop so helpful and educational. I feel more confident and comfortable heading into labour and birth with these new skills and methods to support both myself and my partner.'

'My partner and I had read Rhea's first book before we completed the course (still reading the second) and it was fabulous to have the material further focused and explained and learning some new physical birthing skills was just brilliant!'

'Fantastic. Absolutely essential information for anyone motivated to have a natural physiological birth. Rhea shares her wisdom in a humorous yet impactful way and we now feel so much more prepared and confident for the birth we want. Thank you Rhea.'

'Loved this course entirely! Rhea is a wealth of knowledge and her energy and hunger around creating the birth you desire is really contagious and inspiring! My husband really connected to Rhea and her delivery of the course. We both left feeling really empowered and as prepared as we can be for our first birthing experience coming up!'

'Rhea's workshop was so incredible, we left feeling so prepared and equipped for so many aspects of labour, ranging from the physical and emotional to navigating the hospital system. With our first baby we did a different birth class and we are both so happy we decided to do Rhea's this time because they are incomparable in how we felt afterwards in terms of preparation and confidence.'

'If I could recommend one class for expecting parents it would be this one. Such a beautiful weekend to prepare anyone seeking a physiological birth. There was a lot of content but I found it very engaging. Thank you.'

'I'm a registered nurse and practiced midwifery for three years... I found this course to be a realistic and unafraid presentation of the facts and politics around birth. My partner feels he understands so much more where my anxieties around birth have come from, and we both feel this course was an excellent overview of normal physiological childbirth as well as the context we're in at the moment.'

'Rhea was amazing and her helpful staff also accommodated us so well! Exceeded expectations completely. My partner and I were so engaged in every topic. I feel so prepared and confident going into my labour and like Rhea's wisdom is somehow instilled into the journey now. Thank you for such a memorable experience.'

'We wish we'd known about Rhea, her books, and this workshop prior to our first pregnancy. We absolutely loved it, and found it far more beneficial than all other birth preparation we did in our first pregnancy. The description of the potential sensory feelings and timings to be expected during labour were not explained as clearly and succinctly in any book, course, online resource or from any other birth support person we were involved with in our first pregnancy, as Rhea covers in her workshop. Highly recommend. Thank you!'

'Amazing workshop. We have walked away feeling empowered, motivated and informed about what's to come. Rhea's ability to keep you engaged is brilliant and we could have listened to her for many more days!'

'Loved it! Thanks Rhea! It was exactly what I needed to feel prepared and energised for birth.'

'Excellent workshop, very informative content. My husband and I feel so much more confident about our homebirth and better equipped to understand the stages of labour and the process of normal physiological birth. Immense gratitude for Rhea's work. Thank you.'

'Billiant. Was worried it would feel too long but I could have done a whole week!'

'The course was incredible. Rhea provided us with some excellent theory and practical knowledge to set us up for an empowered birth experience. We are excited and looking forward to embracing the intensity of the upcoming birth of our first child. Thanks Rhea!!'

'Exquisite. A lot of information to squeeze into a small time frame but done brilliantly. Rhea's life experience and wealth of knowledge around birthing was fluent, engaging, and empowering for both the birthing women and their partners of how to work with the increasing surges of labour. Highly recommend!'

'So informative and empowering! Thank you for giving us a practical toolkit to work towards our goal of normal physiological birth. Even though we couldn't be there in person the comforts of home while attending via Zoom were an unexpected bonus.'

'Amazing, feel lucky to have been able to learn from you Rhea! Delivered perfectly in an online forum... You have such a wealth of knowledge and it was a privilege to be on the receiving end of it. We feel empowered and ready to tackle birth. Thanks for your time, energy and passion.'

'A really valuable workshop. Loved Rhea's holistic, evidence-based and down to earth approach. We thought we were prepared before but we didn't know what we didn't know!'

'This was amazing for me and my partner. I can't recommend it highly enough to my friends. It has made me reconsider my chosen place for birth ... never stop this work please.'

'Such a fantastic weekend! So informative, honest and really got down to the nitty gritty. We actually loved doing this from the comfort of our own home as we could make ourselves feel much more comfortable and also have some honest conversations between my partner and myself along the way. I would definitely recommend this to friends and family, especially for first births.'

'Feel so much more prepared for my first labour - and hubby is now totally onboard with my desire for a normal physiological birth, which was a goal of mine, so a big thanks to Rhea for helping him cross the divide.'

'Thank you for a wonderfully transformative workshop. My partner and I feel so prepared for the birth of our baby and the information you've provided us has helped us consider all aspects of the labour and birth within a hospital setting. It also have us so much clarity around my partner's role and how we can better work with our doula. My favourite segment of the course was when you explained the type of women who are most likely to have a physiological birth (the 1-5%) and all of the factors that contribute to that outcome.'

'I had already read Rhea's Birth With Confidence book so the workshops were a great accompaniment, and I appreciated her delving further into the stages of labour and how to work through the pain.'

'I really got so much from this course even though I have already given birth once. I found it really valuable to go through the timeline of labour in detail, and particularly useful was Rhea's description of the sensations of labour. So many people just say birth was intense but never describe what they mean by intense. I now have a good picture of the intensity and what that means and what I will likely feel. This has eliminated a lot of fear for me. I also really enjoyed the practical aspect of the course on the second day and tips for effective bearing down. Thank you.'

'This was amazing. I will be recommending it to all my friends and family for their pregnancies. Myself and my husband got so much more out of it than we thought we might. Thank you.'

'We felt that we got more out of Rhea's course than all our antenatal classes combined'

'Best part of the workshop … the realness. When you shared the f-word you had me! Love, love, love-hearted it!!!'

'I want to thank you for me, my partner and for our baby. What an eye-opening, exhilarating, challenging and inspiring workshop! I seriously believe that deciding to do your course was the best decision I’ve made in my life. Armed with this knowledge, with a greater understanding of the reality of normal physiological childbirth, I feel empowered going into my experience'

I just wanted to thank you for the workshop. Sarah and I found it to be an amazingly positive experience. Your workshop is something I wish we had done before our first birth. 'What you have showed me as a birthing partner is the necessity to understand what is happening in birth. Explaining the sounds and physiological process. On a personal level, I want to thank you for what turned out to be an absolutely life-changing experience'

'I am so grateful that I was able to attend your birthing workshop with my daughter and her partner. I had the privilege of being present for the labour and birth. It was an incredible experience. Attending your workshop meant we knew what we each expected and knew our roles and were able to work out a strategy which thankfully averted the drip — how easily that could have happened. Thank you for your words of wisdom, advice, and realistic preparation, which contributed to this experience. Highly recommend your workshop, for all attending the birth; it helps with discussions, defining of roles and expectations'

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birth educator and author

Birth preparation

Workshop: Embracing the Intensity

What attendees are saying

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