I'm in my 36th week now and have just stumbled upon your site. I am thinking about using one of the three home-study classes which you recommend (The Pink Kit, Birth Outside The Box or Hypnobabies), but I am wondering if 4 weeks left to learn is even enough for any of them?
After reading your reviews I would actually like to try all three, but I am afraid that it would be too much info at once and I would only be left confused rather than informed.
So what do you suggest I do, since you are familiar with all three and know how much time it takes to master each one of them?
Thank you very much for your answer and for keeping this site 🙂
L.
Answer:
Hi L,
I think you should definitely work through at least one of them, even with just four weeks to go.
I think one of the Hypnobabies strengths is the constant conditioning – even though you could probably compress it into 4 weeks, I don't think that's ideal. And by the time it arrived, you'd probably only have 2-3 weeks with it. Since it's the most expensive of the courses I would suggest not trying to cram that one. It's great though, so if you're still interested keep it in mind if you're planning another baby 🙂
Both the Pink Kit and Birth Outside the Box are available as a digital download, which is your case is great because you can have them instantly.
If you want to do both of them, I think it's completely do-able. Work through the Pink Kit exercises… just try and do one lesson every day or two rather than each week. Start the Internal Work right away – I truly believe it makes a huge difference and 4 weeks of it will be very helpful.
If you choose both, just approach Birth Outside the Box as a book. Read it through. You can do the workbook section as you read through it.
I usually recommend the two together because the Pink Kit teaches unique skills that are truly important to birthing. But it's not a “complete childbirth education” – it's a birthing class. Birth Outside the Box gives you excellent information on interventions and it strongly compliments the PK.
If you just get one, get the Pink Kit because if you learn those skills they'll help you have a great birth no matter where you give birth or what procedures you may need/choose to have done.
You can follow my recommended Pink Kit timeline still – just start the video right along with your book reading.
In thinking about it, it might be less confusing if you got the Pink Kit and worked through reading that material for a couple of weeks, then read through Birth Outside the Box after. You really can read/work through BOtB like a book, just pausing to fill in the exercises. If you did it that way, you could keep practicing your Pink Kit skills (and re-watching video segments you thought helpful) while you worked through BOtB.
Both have reading material so I would plan to devote time to reading every day for the next few weeks 😉 Getting through the PK DVD and practicing the Internal Work will be very helpful for you, even in just this last month!
Feel free to ask me anything else or ask me to clarify if I'm not making sense!
For reference:
(NOTE: Want a Perfect Birth Plan Template? Use this template and step-by-step videos to write a birth plan that gets your birth team on your side for a beautiful birth experience! Get the birth plan kit here.)
