Giving birth to new art classes (From Watford Observer)

Giving birth to new art classes

5:10pm Wednesday 4th May 2005 in News

THE last thing on most women's minds when they are giving birth is painting.

But according to one Kings Langley mother, grabbing a brush and palette during labour is a great way to ease the pain.

She is now helping pregnant women and new mums review aspects of the birth experience through art.

Tamara Donn, 39, is a holistic childbirth educator. Her classes are based on a childbirth education, popular in the US, created by midwife Pam England, called Birthing From Within.

Tamara will run Birth Art Cafe sessions in her home for pregnant women on Thursday mornings, between 10am and noon, and on Tuesday afternoons, between 2pm and 4pm, for new Mums.

The informal classes are held individually or in groups and give women the opportunity to work with paint, clay and pastels.

Each session has a theme which the women can work to such as Door to Birth or A Womb with a View.

Tamara said she found painting while in labour a great help when she gave birth. She said it can release fears of child birth and motherhood.

She said: "The benefit for the pregnant woman is that this process stimulates the primitive part (right side) of the brain, which is the part active in labour. It allows women to move away from decision making and thinking (a major part of the way we live in our society) to a state of simply being the way women are in labour."

Other classes Tamara runs are: preconception preparation, early pregnancy workshops and exploring birth fears.

For more information visit www.womantomother.co.uk or e-mail info@womantomother.co.uk or telephone 01923 260050.