Empowered Birth
hosted by Schuyler Grant
Empowered Birth
hosted by Schuyler Grant
21-day Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth,
and Early Postpartum
Welcome to Empowered Birth
You’re pregnant (or thinking about getting pregnant). You’re so excited… but also a little scared…and likely super confused and overwhelmed.
Our birth culture is both amazing and confounding. There are so many options and resources, but also tons of conflicting information and unnecessary fear surrounding pregnancy, labor, and delivery. How do you create the birth experience YOU want?
This course taps the knowledge of a wide range of leading pre- and post-natal experts to answer your questions and give you what all mothers crave: advice you can apply directly to your own pregnancy — and tools that work.
An empowered birth is one where you are an active and inspired participant, wherever and however it unfolds: home, hospital, birthing center, or the car en route... We are designed to do this. Three hundred thousand years of human history says we are.
LIFETIME ACCESS
$499
SINGLE PAYMENT
Expert guidance from 12 of the best doctors, doulas, midwives, psychologists, and yoga teachers in the birthing community
Permanent streaming access to all course videos — more than 100 of them! Return to this content again and again, as you need it.
Full-length transcripts
WATCH WITH MEMBERSHIP
for as low as
$35 $12
PER MONTH WITH 1-YEAR COMMITMENT
Full access to Empowered Birth along with 100+ courses on health, personal growth, and social impact
1,000+ daily practices including yoga, meditation, breathwork, journaling, and much more
Attend member-only gatherings & learn LIVE with Commune teachers
Be part of our private community, a members-only space where you can find encouragement, accountability, and support
Mobile app access, including offline viewing, easy listening on-the-go, and screencasting to TVs
New courses added every month!
You can also give this course as a gift.
What You'll Learn
How to assemble a birth team and create a birth plan
Pre- and post-natal nutrition
What's going on in there? (a.k.a anatomy and physiology)
Important questions to ask doctors and midwives
Methods to ease prenatal discomfort
Core and pelvic floor strengthening exercises
Birthing styles and labor techniques
Movements and partner massage to aid labor
How to navigate your changing identity
Practices for postpartum healing
...and much more.
What You Get
Your purchase unlocks access to more than 100 videos, including lectures, movement practices, lesson notes, and a community of mothers to support you through your journey.
Permanent Access
Revisit this course again and again as you need it — like a good reference book.
In-App Viewing
Watch videos offline, create custom playlists, and screencast to your TV.
More Ways to Learn
Review transcripts, print out notes, and access audio-only versions of the lectures.
Course Curriculum
Practical tools for living in your changing body.
For the first week, we focus on pregnancy: nutrition, exercise, journeying within, and building your medical support system. (Click to see all programs)
- Empowering Your Pregnancy Choices with Elizabeth Bachner
- Anatomy and Physiology of Pregnancy with Suzanne Gilberg-lenz
- Preconception with Suzanne
- Prenatal Nutrition with Nina Planck
- Pregnancy and the Vegetarian Mama with Kimberly Snyder
- Through the Lens of Aryuveda with Suzanne Gilberg-lenz
- Journeying Within: Personal and Cultural Myths with Britta Bushnell
- Assembling Your Birth Team with Erica Chidi-Cohen
- Prenatal Support: Family, Community, and Professional with Shafia Monroe
- What's Going on In There? Easing Discomfort and Promoting Well-being with Elizabeth Flynn
- Changes in Pregnancy for Breastfeeding with Kimberly Durdin
- Movement and Exercise for the Changing Body with Lara Kohn-Thompson
- Modifying in a “Regular” Yoga Class with Schuyler Grant
- Questions to Ask Your Midwife with Elizabeth Bachner
- Questions to Ask Your Health Provider with Suzanne Gilberg-lenz
- Anatomy of the Abdomen and Diastasis with Schuyler Grant
- Peace Bubble Exercise with Lori Bregman
The second week we prepare you for a labor and delivery experience where you are in charge so you can completely let go. (Click to see all programs)
- Empowering Your Labor and Navigating Change with Elizabeth Bachner
- The Art of Resting (at the End of Class or Anytime!) with Schuyler Grant
- Anatomy and Physiology of Birth with Suzanne Gilberg-lenz
- Oxytocin: The Love Hormone with Nina Planck
- Demystifying The ‘Ideal’ Birth: The Labyrinthian Journey with Britta Bushnell
- Home Birth Transfer with Elizabeth Bachner
- Birthing Styles and Techniques for Labor with Erica Chidi-Cohen
- The Vision and Plan: Thinking About Birth Options with Shafia Monroe
- Empowered Epidural with Elizabeth Bachner
- Partner Support: Ways To Ease Labor with Lara Kohn-Thompson
- Star Babies: Miscarriage, Stillbirth & Loss with Nina Planck
- The Business of Birth: Navigating the Medical System with Elizabeth Flynn
- Inequality in the Birth Experience with Elizabeth Bachner
- Collected Birth Stories
- Birth Affirmation Jar with Lori Bregman
Birth culture is all about the rising and baking, but we don't focus enough on mommy's mind and body once the bun is out of the oven. Let’s talk postpartum self-care.
(Click to see all programs)
- Maiden to Mother: The Identity of Postpartum with Britta Bushnell
- Placenta Encapsulation with Elizabeth Bachner
- Anatomy and Physiology of Postpartum with Suzanne Gilberg-lenz
- Stuff: What You Need (and Don't) with Schuyler Grant
- Breastfeeding Made Easy with Kimberly Durdin
- Easing Postpartum Discomfort and Utilizing Your Team with Erica Chidi-Cohen
- Postpartum Rehab with Lara Kohn-Thompson
- Postpartum Healing and Support with Shafia Monroe
- Postpartum Nutrition with Nina Planck
- Baby's First Foods with Nina Planck
- Nurture List Exercise with Lori Bregman
We balance and strengthen all parts of the body, beginning with breath work and the pelvic floor, moving into static postures and physical therapy exercises. Appropriate for all stages of pregnancy. No yoga experience needed. (Click to see all practices)
- Day 8: Flow - Aligning with the Moon
- Day 9: Flow - Saluting the Sun
- Day 10: Flow - Hip Mama
- Day 11: Flow - Alive on the Sides, Awake Deep Inside
- Day 12: Flow - Open Heart, Open Mind
- Day 13: Flow - Balancing with a Baby on Board
- Day 14: Flow - Big, Big Bellies Can Too
Week 2 focuses on movement and flow. These vinyasa-style classes are appropriate for mamas with some yoga experience or who are otherwise physically fit and not experiencing any pregnancy complications. (Click to see all practices)
- Day 8: Flow - Aligning with the Moon
- Day 9: Flow - Saluting the Sun
- Day 10: Flow - Hip Mama
- Day 11: Flow - Alive on the Sides, Awake Deep Inside
- Day 12: Flow - Open Heart, Open Mind
- Day 13: Flow - Balancing with a Baby on Board
- Day 14: Flow - Big, Big Bellies Can Too
Let’s chillax with Yin and Restorative yoga. These are appropriate for everyone and also good for postpartum after a few weeks of recovery. (Click to see all practices)
- Day 15: Surrender - The Front Chest and Shoulders
- Day 16: Surrender - The Outer Hips, Inner Groin and Hamstrings
- Day 17: Surrender - The Side Body
- Day 18: Surrender - The Armpits, Back Chest, and Neck
- Day 19: Surrender - The Hip Flexors and Lower Back
- Day 20: Surrender - Self Bodywork
- Day 21: Basic Postpartum - 4th Trimester Self-Care
Meet Your Host
•••
Schuyler Grant
Schuyler Grant is a yoga teacher, the founder and co-director of Kula Yoga Project, and the co-creator of Wanderlust. She is passionate about providing women the tools they need to have a healthy, safe, and inspired childbirth experience — free of fear and full of options.
Schuyler grew up on a small communal property in Northern California. As soon as she was able, she fled the farm for the mean streets of NYC where she opened the first Kula just 2 blocks north of Ground Zero in 2002, in an effort to help bring some heart and community back to Lower Manhattan. Since then she has created 200- and 300-hour trainings for both Kula and Wanderlust, and for the past three years, she has lead Wanderlust’s hugely popular annual 21-Day Yoga Challenges, online yoga courses that have drawn more than 200,000 registrants. In 2015, she built the yoga program for Wanderlust Hollywood, bringing her back to the West Coast after 25 years in NYC.
She’s very happy to have come full circle as a health-food cooking, composting, chicken-raising mother to three daughters, all of whom she birthed at home.
Meet Your Teachers
•••
Kimberly Snyder
Certified Nutritionist & New York Times Bestselling Author
Kimberly Snyder is a certified nutritionist, NYT bestselling author, founder of Solluna and the #feelgoodmovement. She is also a proud mama, host of the Feel Good With Kimberly Snyder podcast and owner/operator of her very own smoothie and juice bar. She believes in uniting the rhythms of the body with the rhythms of nature and living in harmony with the natural world.
Erica Chidi Cohen
Co-founder & CEO of LOOM
Erica Chidi-Cohen is a health educator and doula, co-founder and CEO of LOOM, and author of Nurture: A Modern Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and Early Motherhood, and Trusting Your Body and Trusting Yourself. She is working hard to shift the dynamics of conventional wisdom on sexual health, pregnancy, birth and postpartum.
Lori Bregman
Author, Doula, Life Coach, and Healer
Lori Bregman is a birth doula and writer of Mamaste, discover a more the authentic, balanced and joyful motherhood from within. Lori is unique in her ability to blend spiritual coaching, healing, and intuition into her doula practice. She has a passion for fostering mindful and empowered mothers, health and happy babies and joy at all stages of life.
Elizabeth Bachner, LM & CPM
Owner, Midwife and Clinic Director at GraceFull Birth
Elizabeth Bachner is a midwife, doula, and the owner and director of GraceFull Birthing Center. Trained in acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, she is an outspoken advocate for holistic care that addresses the trauma of childbirth and gives ultimate agency to mothers. You can catch her on her podcast, The Big Birth Junkie.
Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz, MD
Obstetrician-Gynecologist, Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist
Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz is an integrative OB/GYN whose practice incorporates Ayurveda and modern obstetrics. Using her candid approach to empowering women through healthcare, she has assisted in thousands of births and feels passionate about sexual health, pregnancy, delivery and postpartum.
Elizabeth Flynn
Founder and Creative Director of WILD WMN, Doula & Yogi
Elizabeth Flynn is a doula, yoga teacher, women's facilitator and founder of WILD WMN, a creative kula for women navigating any transition.
Shafia M. Monroe, IPM, CDT, MPH
President, Shafia Monroe Consulting/Birthing CHANGE
Shafia Monroe is a midwife, motivational speaker, author, and public health professional. She is the founder of the International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC) and founding member of the Oregon Doula Association. She is an infant mortality prevention specialist, doula trainer and President of Doula Ready, LLC. She advocates for cultural competency and equality in childbirth.
Britta Bushnell, PhD
Author & Educator
Dr. Britta Bushnell is a childbirth, relationship, and parenthood specialist, author, and speaker. Having worked with new families for almost two decades, Britta blends her experience in childbearing with her doctoral study in mythology and psychology, bringing a fresh approach to an age-old human experience.
Nina Planck
Author & Entrepreneur
Nina Planck is an author and entrepreneur, writing about real food. She is the author of Real Food: What to eat and why and Real Food for Mother and Baby. She advocates for whole foods and traditional ways of eating by dismantling common fears about diet in pregnancy, postpartum, and first foods for your baby.
Kimberly Durdin
IBCLC, Student-Midwife, Educator Doula, and co-founder of Kindred Space
Kimberly Durdin is a lactation consultant, student-midwife, childbirth educator, and doula. Her six children and three grandchildren are her greatest teachers. Kimberly is the co-founder of Kindred Space LA, a lactation, birth, and education center as well as being the home to the Birthing People Foundation, a non-profit training center for birth workers of color.
Lara Kohn Thompson
Licensed Massage & Craniosacral Therapist, Certified Yoga Teacher (ERYT- 500/ PRYT), Perinatal Trainer, Educator, and Mentor
Lara Kohn-Thompson is a massage therapist, perinatal trainer, educator, and mentor. She has been teaching yoga and advocating women's health since the early 2000s. Lara brings her extensive experience with movement and bodywork as well as French expertise in perinatal care to her teaching and bodywork practice.
An empowered birth is not a state of being. It’s a state of inquiry.
May you be empowered to ask the right questions of your partner, doctors, wider community, and, most importantly, of yourself.
~ Schuyler
If you are pregnant, thinking about getting pregnant, or know someone who is, then this course is a crucial resource.
You’ll learn what worked for other mothers, the science and psychology behind it, and how to implement these tools in your own pregnancy so you can feel strong, confident, fearless, and healthy.
