SCHEDULE A GENTLE BIRTH CHOICES EXPERT
Renowned Gentle Birth Choices author Barbara Harper is available for conferences and other speaking engagements. She shares her extensive knowledge and passion for waterbirth and other gentle birth alternatives with midwives and other medical professionals interested in using her methods to promote a more relaxing birth experience for mother and baby. Contact us today to schedule Barbara for your next event.
Barbara also specializes in preparing couples with Blissborn Childbirth Education – a five week self-hypnosis complete birth preparation course. She also provides a 2 hour private or group class to prepare couples for waterbirth. Contact us today to schedule your private Blissborn Childbirth Education or Preparing for Waterbirth class.
We suggest you join a Blissborn class no later than your 32nd week of pregnancy to give you plenty of time to prepare for your birth. You can join as early as 24 weeks.
Preparing for Waterbirth can be anytime during your pregnancy up to your birth date.
Barbara Harper is on a mission. Since the tender age of 13, she has known her purpose and has pursued it with relentless passion. People call her the world’s leading expert on giving birth in water. She has taught in 75 countries, within medical schools, and midwifery schools. More than 15,000 people have taken her water birth certification courses.
Barbara’s professional inspiration for waterbirth started with a close and loving relationship with her grandmother, Estella Ethel Harper Lemunyon – a nurse and midwife for 47 years. Barbara became a Registered Nurse in 1975, following in her grandmother’s footsteps. She worked in obstetrics, pediatrics, cardiac, neurosurgical intensive care, and holistic nursing early in her career. She was on the first Board of the American Holistic Nurses Association in 1982.
While her grandmother’s dedication to nursing served as encouragement, it was not the spark that led Barbara to pursue gentle birth. It was her experience as a 13-year-old child denied the right to be present for the birth of one of her siblings that ignited her desire. From that moment forward, she vowed to become a leading voice in seeking gentler, kinder, and easier ways to welcome babies into the world.
In 1988, Barbara founded Waterbirth International after researching water immersion as a gentle birth option. Her own experience with water labor with two of her three children gave her insight into using water immersion during pregnancy and for her birth. Her commitment and dedication to home water birth and incorporating waterbirth in hospital labor and delivery unit and birthing centers sparked a global movement.
