About Rhonda
Congratulations on your pregnancy and thank you for visiting my website! Such an exciting time along life’s journey. A time of significant growth (on many levels) that is sure to influence the way you see the world. Pregnancy certainly had a powerful impact on who I am today.
I came to my first pregnancy with a typical mainstream view about childbirth. In truth, I hadn’t ever given the birth process much thought at all. I suppose I intended to leave the details of my pregnancy and birth up to the discretion of my family doctor and other obstetrical professionals. During my second month of pregnancy, on the insistent recommendation of a friend, we went to meet the Briar Hill Midwives. This meaningful encounter opened our minds to the realization that there were actually options surrounding birth, along with important decisions to be made regarding our unborn child.
We chose the midwives as caregiver, then after doing some research, decided to take natural childbirth classes. What an educational journey that was! We learned everything there was to know about labour, birth, pain management, and how to work as a team. In 1997 we had a beautiful experience with the birth of our first daughter Makenna. Labour was tough work, a truly athletic event, forcing us to put our strategies to work for more than 20 hours. In the early hours of that October 6th morning I delivered our little one into the loving hands of our midwife, Joy, at the Foothills Hospital. Almost five years later, in 2002, we welcomed Kassidy into the world after a very quick water birth in the comfort of our own home. She was obviously anxious to meet her big sister, arriving only four hours after labor began.
In the months that followed my first birth, I found myself engaging with dozens of women who were noticeably traumatized by their birth experience (and who weren’t afraid to share it). In addition, so many had only negative things to say about their partner’s role in the process. This broke my heart and quickly became the motivating factor to attaining my certification to become a childbirth educator with the American Academy of Husband Coached Childbirth. I felt a responsibility to share with people that there was “another way to bring a child into the world” and that many options surrounding birth exist…even in Alberta. I was driven by a strong need to encourage, inspire and empower couples to get involved, helping them navigate how to make informed choices with regard to their pregnancy, labor, birth and beyond.
In 2010, my colleague and I created our very own pre-natal program, titled Healthy Birth Choices. We rooted our curriculum in quality research, recommended guidelines from the WHO, SOGC, and Public Health Agency of Canada, and years of experience we gained by teaching and attending births of our couples. The focus shifted from natural birth to optimal birth and we’ve had incredible success with this approach.
Over 25 years now involved in promoting a positive birth and my passion, dedication and belief in the process holds strong. There is unparalleled reward in assisting couples to discover their birthing potential, while giving partners a voice and a well-deserved place in birth. Proper training produces healthy mothers, healthy pregnancies, healthy babies, healthy relationships, healthier, more optimal birth experiences and a healthy transition into parenthood…..all of these things inevitably impacting the family unit, lifelong.
Covid brought forward some challenges and forced us into teaching online in the ZOOM format. As skeptical as I even was, it has turned out to be an effective approach to prenatal education. All the same educational perks, but from the comfort of your home. It has also allowed us to expand our horizons, reaching couples outside of Calgary, Alberta and even Canada.
I invite you to come journey with me, where together we will prepare you for an exciting, empowering birth-day of your little love.
Warm regards,
Rhonda Gordon, B. Ed
Healthy Birth Choices Co-Founder & Childbirth Educator
**The photo above captures the first encounter with my beautiful niece Frankie.