Description
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The Art of Coaching for Childbirth is a paradigm shift in birth support. It invites birth professionals to integrate principles, strategies, and models of transformational coaching, along with coaching exercises uniquely designed for this field, into their practice. The perinatal coaching approach has been shown to help birth workers resolve various dilemmas they encounter. Birth workers who practice this approach found that their clients experienced greater autonomy, increased confidence, and agency. Perinatal coaching also increases clients’ accountability to their desired perinatal experience, which in turn reduces professional burnout.
In the theoretical portion of the book, you will become familiar with the principles, terminology, & strategies of the perinatal coaching approach, and learn to recognize the benefits of integrating it into your birth support practice.
The practical part includes hundreds of coaching questions and exercises to address various scenarios and situations across the perinatal journey.
What will you learn?
- To address and clarify your client’s belief system around childbirth and facilitate a change of perspective when needed.
- To clarify your client’s motivation prenatally and tap into it during birth.
- To clarify your client’s goals, wishes, and vision for her upcoming birth during the prenatal visits.
- To coach your birth client around the topic of labor pain and the fear of it.
- To coach your birth clients prenatally around their challenges or concerns.
- The differences between educating and coaching.
- To conduct a reality check – distinguishing truth from myths and fears from reality.
- To open more options and lead your clients to make informed decisions that are aligned with their beliefs.
- To facilitate alignment between your clients’ beliefs, their wishes, and the actions they take.
- To elicit your client’s accountability to her birth process.
- To coach toward flexibility and adjustment when these are needed, without decreasing satisfaction levels of the whole experience.
Read the reviews:
“…The coaching method, as applied to birth support, becomes a viable and vibrant path through the unwinnable culture wars that surround birth, which focuses on questions like, “Is birth safe? Is it dangerous? Where should it take place? Who should attend births?” One question that Life-Choma addresses head-on, though, is “Whose birth experience is it?” Because the answer to that question is the pregnant woman herself, the coaching approach, as outlined in this wonderful book, is an optimal approach for those seeking to enhance women’s birth experience. Coaching for Childbirth is an important contribution to childbirth preparation and support, and this book and the method will be a valuable resource to childbirth educators, doulas, and others seeking to support birthing women…” Christine Morton, a former distinguished member of Lamaze International and current manager at the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative. Author of Birth Ambassadors.
“…The Art of Coaching for Childbirth, while compact at just over 70 pages, nonetheless packs in an incredible amount of practical information and useful tools. She has skillfully transferred classic coaching strategies and made them totally applicable to birth educators and doulas. These strategies enable us to transfer the power back to the birthing woman, encouraging her to take responsibility for her own birthing journey. Empowerment, as we know, is not something we can give another person. It is something that originates from within…Neri’s book set off some real “light-bulb” moments for me and will definitely change the way I approach topics such as fear, pain, and interventions in my Lamaze childbirth classes.” Tanya Strusberg, LCCE, FACCE, Director, Birthwell birthright Childbirth Education, Lamaze-accredited and CAPEA, Australia. http://www.capea.org.au/Resources/Reviews/ArtMID/589/ArticleID/62/The-Art-of-Coaching-for-Childbirth
“Coaching for Childbirth is an innovative guide for professionals who serve pregnant women and want to integrate coaching techniques into their work. Neri has done a wonderful job of clarifying the coaching role and distinguishing it from therapeutic care and teaching. The exercises and scripts Neri offers are excellent resources, and she constructs a convincing case for the value of incorporating coaching into birth support by healthcare workers, childbirth educators, doulas, and other birth workers…” Michal Klau-Stevens, The Birth Lady
“…The Art of Coaching for childbirth” provides nurses with concrete coaching tools and approaches which can be quickly implemented in labor and delivery. Teaching nurses to ask strong questions which help clients clarify their goals and priorities while using pacing and leading strategy will make client-nurse interactions insightful…” Olga Libova, DNP, CNM, RN, Perinatal Nursing Faculty, De Anza College Nursing program, Silicon Valley, Ca
“Coaching for Childbirth; a Practical Guide for Integrating the Principles and Strategies of Coaching into the Field of Birth Support” is required reading for all individuals in the field of birth support… Doctors, nurses, midwives and doula’s, new mothers and fathers, will all discover a plethora of valuable information on these pages. Dr. Rosie Kuhn, The Paradigm Shifts Coaching Group
I am the founder of Birth Coach Method and am celebrating 20 years of leadership in the field of childbirth support. Throughout my career, I have been honored to provide doula support and teach childbirth ed. classes to hundreds of expectant couples, as well as to direct two birth resource centers. I am also a doula leader in my community in the South Bay area of Silicon Valley in California.
Latest posts by Neri Life-Choma (see all)
- Medicaid is Rewriting the Doula Role—And Most Doulas are Missing it - April 28, 2026
- Doulas Can’t Fix a Broken Maternity Care System - April 10, 2026
- The Body is Ready, The Baby is Spun… What About Your Clients’ Mindset - December 27, 2025
