Online Classes for Natural Hospital Birth
Online Birthing Classes
Doctor & Midwife recommended, specializing in natural hospital birth since 2009.
KOPA® PREPARED Essentials Online Birth Course
12-MONTH COURSE ACCESS- 12-MONTH COURSE ACCESS
- ONLINE STREAMING, 24/7 AVAILABILITY
- 8 COMPREHENSIVE VIDEO CLASSES
- 12+ HOURS OF INSTRUCTION
- MOCK LABOR EXPERIENCE
- MEDITATIONS & IMAGERY FOR LABOR AUDIO DOWNLOADS
- 100+ PAGE DOWNLOADABLE COURSE MANUAL
- 100% RISK-FREE, 30-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE
- PRIVATE KOPA® MEMBERS FACEBOOK GROUP
- BONUS: NATURAL HOSPITAL BIRTH FOOTAGE
- BONUS: KOPA® POSTPARTUM CARE CLASS
KOPA® PREPARED Plus Online Birth Course
LIFETIME ACCESS- EVERGREEN, LIFETIME ACCESS TO COURSE
- ONLINE BREASTFEEDING COURSE
- KOPA® MEAL PLANS
- RELAXATION TRIGGERS CLASS
- PRENATAL FITNESS PROGRAM
- NEWBORN BABYWEARING BASICS
- 3 PARTNER LABOR GUIDES
- "POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS" AND "TOUCH RELAXATION" AUDIO DOWNLOADS
- ONLINE STREAMING, 24/7 AVAILABILITY
- 8 COMPREHENSIVE VIDEO CLASSES
- 12+ HOURS OF INSTRUCTION
- MOCK LABOR EXPERIENCE
- MEDITATIONS & IMAGERY FOR LABOR AUDIO DOWNLOADS
- 100+ PAGE DOWNLOADABLE COURSE MANUAL
- 100% RISK-FREE, 30-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE
- PRIVATE KOPA® MEMBERS FACEBOOK GROUP
- BONUS: NATURAL HOSPITAL BIRTH FOOTAGE
- BONUS: KOPA® POSTPARTUM CARE CLASS
What if I have questions during the class?
We’ve got you covered! When you enroll in a Kopa® Birth online birthing class, you’ll receive an invitation to join our members-only, private Facebook group. This is a place to connect with your instructor, ask questions, and receive inspiration and support from a community of like-minded mamas.
Well-Prepared, Happy Couples
Read what other couples have to say about their experience with Kopa Birth® online birthing classes!
Start your class today!
Take the first step to begin preparing for your natural hospital birth!
100% risk-free, 30-day, money back GUARANTEE!
No worries, you can purchase a KOPA® PREPARED online childbirth course with confidence! We guarantee that our online birthing classes will help you feel more confident and prepared for childbirth, or we’ll refund your money. No questions asked.
KOPA® PREPARED Course Content Preview
Online Birthing Class #1: A Foundation of Relaxation
The first online birthing class offers an introduction to the benefits of natural childbirth. You will see how relaxation can be the foundation of a positive natural birth. Learn how to steer clear of suffering in labor and to replace fear with confidence. Some subjects you will cover in the 1st of 8 natural childbirth classes include:
• The Benefits of Relaxation, Rhythm, & Ritual
• Fear – Tension – Pain Cycle
• Pain vs Suffering
• Cooked vs Uncooked Noodle Theory
• Positions for Relaxation
• Introduction to Guided Imagery
Online Birthing Class #2: The Birth Process & Early Labor
In the second online natural childbirth class, we’ll jump right into prelabor and early labor. Visualize what to expect physically and emotionally during early labor. Learn labor coping tools to work with your mind and body for a positive early labor experience. Some subjects you will cover include:
• Touch Relaxation
• The Birth Process
• Signs of Labor
• Prelabor & Early Labor
• Introduction to Breathing Techniques
• Slow-Paced Breathing
• Affirmations & Mantras
Online Birthing Class #3: Patterned Breathing & Active Labor
In the third online birth class, explore the excitement and intensity of active labor. Start practicing more advanced, modified-paced breathing techniques. Experiment with your new labor coping tools during a pain stimulus! (This is nothing to worry about– we promise!!) Some subjects you will cover include:
• Ideal Birth Imagery
• Effleurage
• Active Labor
• Modified-Paced Breathing Techniques
• Pain Stimulus
• Leaving for the Hospital
Online Birthing Class #4: Transition & The Pushing Phase
The fourth online childbirth class offers a glimpse into transition, the most powerful phase of the first stage of labor. Partners will learn how to support the new mom during her strong contractions, as well as how to guide her through a positive birth experience. Couples also practice pushing positions & techniques. Some subjects you will cover include:
• Vocalizing in Labor
• Transition
• Patterned-Paced Breathing
• Birth Videos
• Pushing Positions & Techniques
• Perineal Support
Online Birthing Class #5: Labor Positions & Sensory Techniques
The fifth online natural birth class offers couples a mini-workout as they practice and perfect a wide variety of labor positions. Partners learn pressure techniques to ease back pain in labor. Explore sensory techniques — additional tools that engage mom’s senses and enhance her labor rituals. Some subjects you will cover include:
• Back Pain in Labor
• The Posterior Position
• Using a Birth Ball
• Labor Positions to Promote Comfort and Progress
• Sensory Techniques
Online Birthing Class #6: Medications, Cesareans, & Labor Inductions
The sixth natural birthing class offers a deep dive into the most significant labor interventions. Consider your options for medicinal pain relief, including IV narcotics and epidurals. Explore scenarios in which a cesarean birth or labor induction is beneficial, as well as steps to avoid unnecessary intervention. Some subjects you will cover include:
• Positive Birth Affirmations
• Analgesic Pain Medications
• Epidurals
• Assisted Delivery
• Cesarean Birth
• Labor Induction
Online Birthing Class #7: Benefits & Risks of Hospital-Based Interventions
In the seventh online natural birthing class, continue to challenge your thinking on the benefits & risks of common hospital-based interventions. Learn how to work with your doctor or midwife to promote both safety and comfort in labor. Some subjects you will cover include:
• Overcoming Challenges of Relaxation
• Advocating for Informed Consent
• What to Expect at the Hospital
• Fetal Monitoring
• Rupturing Membranes
• Meconium
Online Birthing Class #8: Birth Plans & The Mock Labor Experience
The eighth online birth class is where it all comes together! Couples practice their relaxation, positioning, breathing, and other coping tools amidst simulated contractions. We don’t want to give away the secret of the mock labor, but we promise you that you’ll leave feeling pumped up and more prepared for birth! Some subjects you will cover include:
• How to Write a Birth Preference that Gets Results
• What to do with your Birth Preference
• Packing for the Hospital
• The Mock Labor
BONUS Video: Katie's Natural Hospital Birth
Join your pregnant instructor, Katie, and her husband, Seth, for the natural hospital birth of baby #5. Watch as she progresses from early labor to active labor to transition and finally to pushing. See how you can likewise implement your new coping tools to have a positive, confident natural birth!
BONUS Class: Kopa® Postpartum Care Class
The 90-minute Postpartum Care class includes information about the physical and emotional changes moms may experience in the weeks following birth. Hear from the perspective of Katie Griffin, a registered nurse, as well as boots-on-the-ground postpartum experiences of 8 moms who have recently given birth. This class is not only fun and engaging, but it’s highly informative and sure to help both moms and partners face the postpartum phase with confidence!
Postpartum Care Class subjects include:
- The uterus after childbirth
- Lochia & bleeding
- Perineal changes
- Bowel care
- Hemorrhoids
- Bladder care
- Sweating
- Weight loss & body image
- Resuming exercise
- Sleep
- Resuming sex
- Emotional changes
- Postpartum support systems
- Relationship adjustments
- Special considerations for cesarean birth
Downloads: Guided Imagery Audio Tracks, Course Manual
Meditations & Imagery for Labor® Audio Tracks:
Guided imagery is a powerful way to develop the skill of total body relaxation, and is also a valuable tool for many moms during labor. The Kopa Birth® Meditations & Imagery for Labor audio downloads will take you on a mental journey of relaxation through 6 calming, birth-focused meditations.
KOPA® PREPARED Online Birth Course Manual Download:
This comprehensive, full-color, 100-page course manual is a valuable reinforcement to the information you will learn in your course. In addition to pictures and helpful tips, you’ll find sections for Homework, Healthcare Provider Talk-Points, and thorough lists of citations and current references. Print off your course manual, get out a pen, and take some notes!
Community: Kopa® Members Private Facebook Group
Access your instructor and join a community of other moms in our private Facebook group only for Kopa Birth® childbirth course participants. This is a place to ask questions, share tips, get advice, and to support each other through pregnancy, birth, and beyond.
Additional Features of the PLUS Lifetime Course
Lifetime Course Access
While the Essentials Course offers 12 months of course access, the Plus Course offers LIFETIME access to the course and all of the bonus materials. This means you can come back over and over again to view the course with your future pregnancies!
Natural Breastfeeding: For an Easier Start Online Breastfeeding Course
The Natural Breastfeeding program is co-created by Dr. Theresa Nesbit, MD, OBGYN and author Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC, FLICA. Together, they have created a simplified approach to breastfeeding your baby in the first few weeks of life. This class will help prepare you for a positive and successful early breastfeeding relationship.
Relaxation Triggers Class
Relaxation Triggers are another tool mom can use to diversify her guided imagery practice and add depth to the rituals she uses in labor. This video-based online class is presented by Rachel Gray, a Certified Recreational Therapist, and offers a more advanced, hypno-style approach to relaxation. The Relaxation Triggers class is intended to supplement the KOPA PREPARED® course instruction on deep relaxation.
Prenatal Fitness: Fitness Instruction & Workouts for Each Trimester
Maintain a fit and healthy pregnancy through safe and effective pregnancy workouts! Read along as Certified Personal Trainer Tatum Rebelle presents the facts on exercise in pregnancy, dispels common myths, and offers prenatal fitness routines catered to each trimester of pregnancy. Brief instructional videos are included to demonstrate each exercise.
Newborn Babywearing Basics Class
Babywearing is a tool that can enable parents to both care for their newborn and accomplish the tasks of everyday life. Join Master Babwearing Educator, Bonnie Stafford, as she demonstrates safe newborn babywearing. Explore the brand name baby carriers and holds that are most useful for the newborn phase. This is a video-based, online class.
Kopa® Meal Plans
A healthy baby begins with a healthy pregnancy, and a healthy pregnancy is centered in good nutrition. Kopa Birth®’s Registered Dietitian, Stephanie Whiting, has created one week of daily, nutritious and practical meal plans to support a healthy pregnancy. The recipes use affordable, accessible ingredients to create meals that you and your family are sure to love. Provided in a digital format.
3 Partner Labor Guides®
The Partner Labor Guide® Series provides mobile access to the information a partner needs to support mom throughout labor. The three downloadable guides are designed for optimal viewing on a mobile phone. Titles include “Sensory Techniques,” “Positions for Labor,” and “Positions for Pushing.”
“Positive Affirmations for Labor” & “Touch Relaxation” Audio Downloads
Download two additional guided imagery scripts. “Positive Affirmations for Birth” offers positive, encouraging mantras to build your confidence in your ability to give birth. “Touch Relaxation” offers an interactive script for moms and partners to practice the skill of touch relaxation together.
This Online Birthing Course Is A Great Fit For You If....
You're planning a natural childbirth (no pain medication) in a hospital setting.
At Kopa Birth®, we specialize in preparing couples for natural childbirth in a hospital. We know that birth centers and home births also provide an environment for safe, satisfying natural births. Yet, over 98% of American women give birth in a hospital. Some natural childbirth classes, even popular ones, are notorious for breeding distrust of the hospital system. Our online birthing classes are developed, taught, and reviewed by healthcare providers who understand both the benefits AND challenges of natural hospital birth, and know how to navigate them. This includes certified childbirth educators, nurses, and midwives who all share a common goal of helping couples achieve their goals for natural hospital births.
You want to learn many different coping tools to help you stay calm and in control during labor.
One goal of our natural online birthing classes is to expose couples to a wide variety of coping tools to help mom manage the experience of contractions with calm and confidence. Some natural childbirth classes focus their instruction on one primary coping tool, like hypno-style relaxation or breathing techniques alone. Not Kopa Birth®! We’re bringing you the best coping tools from the most popular natural childbirth theories, including deep relaxation, partner participation, breathing, and movement.
You want your partner to be well-prepared to support you during a natural birth.
When you have an epidural, partners often provide emotional support but may not need to offer much physical support. Not so during a natural childbirth where it’s all hands on deck! The KOPA® PREPARED online birthing course offers focused instruction in each class to guide your partner to help during (and in between) contractions. This includes massage, movement, pressure, hot & cold, emotional support, and many other techniques. Kopa Birth® classes are just as much about preparing partners as they are about preparing mom for the experience of childbirth.
You want to know what to expect in an unfamiliar hospital setting.
Moms sometimes fear that their chances for a low-intervention, natural birth are slim to none if they give birth in a hospital. This simply is not true! Yes, hospitals do offer IVs, epidurals, inductions, and other interventions. But we’ll show you what to expect from the moment you walk into the hospital until the moment baby is born. We’ll also discuss specific interventions and the scenarios when interventions are and are not necessary. And we’ll guide you on how to talk to your nurses and doctor/midwife with confidence to help convey your preferences.
You want to do all you can to prepare for a natural birth, but you're not opposed to intervention if it's necessary.
Preparing for a low-intervention, natural hospital birth requires deliberate practice and planning. Yet, birth can be unpredictable. Even the best preparation can’t help moms avoid every unexpected scenario. Kopa Birth® will teach you how to practice and prepare for the birth outcome that you want, and will also encourage you to be flexible and to give yourself grace. No judgment or shaming here!
Maybe this Course is Not The One For You If....
You dislike video instruction and would prefer reading or a PowerPoint presentation.
Kopa Birth® classes offer over 12 hours of high-quality video presentation. While we do have some written materials (like our 100+ page, full-color, downloadable course manual), couples should expect to be fully-engaged and participating throughout the course. You and your partner will be practicing breathing, positioning, and movement…as well as sitting back and taking in some fun, lecture-style instruction. But if voice-over PowerPoints are your thing, this is not the course for you.
You distrust doctors/midwives and would never give birth in a hospital.
We understand — some people just don’t feel safe in a hospital. Maybe you’ve had negative experiences with doctors in the past, or you want to be more assured that interventions won’t even be offered to you. While one main goal of Kopa Birth® online childbirth classes are to prepare couples with coping tools for natural birth, you would likely not find the instruction on hospital birth to be worth the time we spend on it.
You will consider your birth a failure if you end up choosing an epidural.
For most first-time moms, natural childbirth will be the most challenging physical experience of your life. It’s hard work. And we are going to prepare you with ample tools to help you stay calm and in control during your contractions. But if your birth plan takes an unexpected turn and you need or want an intervention, that’s OK and it’s your informed choice to make. Really, honestly, truly…your birth is still a success! Kopa Birth® teaches moms to have grace for themselves and will prepare you with the confidence to make the choices that are best for you. If you’d consider an epidural or pain medication to be a failure, our birth philosophy is probably not the best fit for you.
You're hoping for a quick birth overview and don't want to spend much time preparing.
The KOPA® PREPARED online childbirth classes are comprehensive, to say the least. We’re going to discuss general topics, like the signs of labor and when to go to the hospital. But we’re also going to go deep into subjects like baby’s position in the pelvis and positions you can try to help turn baby during labor. Each class also gives you homework assignments to do throughout the week, such as practicing deep relaxation for 20 minutes every day that you can. This course is best for couples who want a thorough understanding of natural hospital birth and are determined to practice coping tools regularly.
More Praise for Kopa Birth® Online Birth Classes
FAQ
Course Payment
Yes! Kopa Birth® classes are fully eligible for reimbursement through most HSA, FSA, and HRAs. You can use your card to purchase the course directly on our website. If you need to purchase the course through a different payment method, your purchase receipt includes all the information you will need to send to your plan administrator to receive a reimbursement for your course. Learn more about HSA FSA eligibility.
We know that you’re putting a lot of trust in us when you purchase a Kopa Birth® online birthing class, and we want this to be a risk-free experience for you. If for some reason you’re unsatisfied with the course, we offer a 30-day, 100% money-back guarantee. Just email us at [email protected], and we’ll process the refund.
Course Info
The KOPA® PREPARED Essentials online birthing course offers 12+ hours of video content split up into 8 separate classes. There’s also a bonus 9th class featuring natural hospital birth footage.
The content is available 24/7, so you are free to watch the videos as quickly as you need. But if you have a few months before your due date, here’s our recommended viewing schedule:
Week 1: Watch Classes #1 and 2
Week 2: Watch classes #3 and 4
Week 3: Watch classes #5 and 6
Week 4: Watch classes #7 and 8
Any additional time you have before your due date will be spent practicing your labor coping tools, practicing, and practicing some more!! This is also a great time to re-watch any sections of the course where you need a little refresher.
The KOPA® PREPARED Essentials online birthing course has a 12-month access period.
The KOPA® PREPARED Plus online birthing course has a lifetime access period, so you can come back and watch the classes again in a future pregnancy.
Participation in our private, members-only Facebook group is also for life!
After each class, you will receive a series of “homework” assignments to complete. These include things such as practicing deep relaxation or breathing techniques, having a discussion with your doctor/midwife about a particular subject, and prepping your labor-tools bag for the hospital. We’ll guide your preparation every step of the way!
Practicing the labor coping tools is vital to your success in the course. It will also greatly increase your ability to have a calm, rewarding natural birth. You’ll learn a wide variety of pain-coping techniques in this course, from patterned breathing techniques to deep relaxation and labor positions. The time that you spend practicing these tools at home in the weeks and months before your due date will help you develop deep “muscle memory.” This will enable you to over-ride your natural, instinctive response to pain and replace it with the more effective tools you learn in the course.
Set aside at least 20 minutes daily to practice. This will change from class to class, but anticipate devoting time each day to prepare for your natural birth.
Yes! This course is aimed to prepare both mom and partners for a natural hospital birth. Partners are included every step of the way! Partners receive extra focus and attention as we learn about labor positioning and during the 2.5 hours mock labor class.
Kopa Birth® goes way beyond the basics of how to time contractions and when to leave for the hospital! We’ll demonstrate everything partners needs to know to support mom during labor, including:
- How to help mom breathe in labor
- Pressure techniques to ease back pain
- Touch and massage
- Emotional cues
- What to do if mom starts to struggle during labor
- How to recognize when you need to offer new coping techniques
- How to advocate for informed consent
The rigor of this course is suited to prepare couples for a natural childbirth. If you’re planning an epidural, you’ll learn all you need to know…and then some. But is it worth the time and money if you’re planning an epidural?
If you’re planning to get an epidural before contractions start (for example, you request a labor induction and start the epidural at the same time as the pitocin), and you’re on board with however your doctor wants to manage the labor from a medical perspective, this course would very likely be information overload. You could probably get the information you need in a shorter course that’s more focused on epidural birth, such as a hospital-based childbirth class.
If you want to learn coping tools to manage contractions before your epidural (say you want to labor at home for as long as possible before going to the hospital, or your hospital encourages moms to be 6 centimeters dilated and in active labor before hospital admission), this course will prepare you and your partner to cope well with contractions and labor pain. And if you would like to understand how interventions are connected in labor and try to avoid additional interventions, you’ll be well-prepared to ask questions and make informed choices.
Ultimately, if you view all 8 online birthing classes and do the practice/homework assignments, you’ll enter labor with the freedom to make lots of choices during your birth. You’ll be able to walk the halls, get in the tub, move on a birth ball, or ultimately decide when you’re ready to start the epidural.
