Our review time last night was humorous, as per usual. It’s somewhat annoying to have to try and be serious while my husband keeps making me laugh but it’s good that we’re enjoying it I found last night’s work to be really helpful. We’d both taken a few days to review a big section of the book and we got to put some of it into practice.

It was really helpful to talk through it. First we looked at parts of the body to relax during labor (all around the pelvic area, where the baby needs to come out.) That was pretty nifty to me because I was able to show Scott how his physiology is basically the same as mine, at least so far as the bones and everything in there go.

If you’re not really familiar with how the pelvis is built and don’t understand how a baby is going to come through there I think it would be helpful to you to take some time with the main Pink Kit Book – Essential Preparations for Your Birthing Body - before you start the language exercises. There are three sections on the pelvis (one on the bony pelvis, one on how the bony pelvis moves, and one on the soft pelvis). These will help you get to know these parts of your body and will make your practice in the language section of New Focus easier and more effective.

Like I said Scott and I saw last night, your basic structure down there is the same as your partner’s – regardless of whether your partner is male or female. So you can both practice the language. In fact, the first exercise has you, the birthing woman, instructing your partner!

I liked that and thought it was a really great exercise. It gave us both a good idea of why language and timing are important (timing being how fast you say things), and it also gave me a good opportunity to think of where I tend to tense up and what language helps me.

For instance the exercise suggested that having your partner use the word “soften” may help more than “relax.” I’m pretty conditioned towards relaxing after having a few babies But I do think that “soften” may help more when talking about muscles in the pelvic area. The tendency is to make them rigid and hard to try and escape or avoid pain from your opening and the baby’s descent. But the thought of “softening” around the baby and pelvic area is a good mental image and instruction.

We’re going to try and practice using language and such for relaxation a few times a week because I think it will really help in labor. The practice will help us figure out tension and such, and will also help us become comfortable with it so it feels natural and not scripted during labor.

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We are actually getting through it though and both of us are actually reading the materials. Reading separately and then going over together in the evening seems to be working well for us. Having the books in .pdf format is nice too.

Aside from the logistics and laughter (which isn’t a bad thing ) we’re still working through the initial part of the PK, which is breathing. Last night we went over using breath to relax different parts of the body.

I particularly enjoyed one exercise and found it helpful. I’ve done practice with directed relaxation and breath before – where you breath in deeply and focus on relaxing one area of your body (sometimes after you’ve tensed it first). But this PK activity suggested breathing through relaxation in your pelvis – feeling it open up and expand as you breathed into it.

I liked this exercise (not sure how much Scott got out of it lol) because I think it’ll be a good focus to have during birth, and even now during Braxton-hicks contractions. I want to keep that area open and relaxed so my body and baby can do the work they need to opening up and navigating through all the muscles, bone, and cartilage that sit in the pelvis. I’ve been practicing it throughout today and can honestly say it’s never an area I’ve focused on opening during my relaxation practice. I’m glad for the practical ideas and well-written materials that come with the Pink Kit :p

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