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Meet Lora Fiala of Birth with Knowledge in Mesa

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Lora Fiala.

Lora, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always been a planner. I’m not a down to the minute type girl but definitely, like to be aware of my options. So, even before we got pregnant with our first, I was on Google, all over Pinterest, and reading every blog I could get a hold of about birth and parenting. The thought of birth was scary and emergent to me. My whole life my store had been I was born via emergency cesarean and it was chaotic and fast. Somewhere deep down, I knew that couldn’t be the only way. Women have been giving birth for millions of year, if this was everyone’s thought then our species would have died out a long time ago. When I found the documentary, The Business of Being Born, my whole view on birth changed. When I finally got pregnant, I found a midwife group that caught babies in the hospital. Making the leap to out of the hospital was still filled with too much fear at that point.

We ended up opting for group style appointments for our prenatal visits. We would go in spend some time with the midwife and then would have class. There were a variety of presenters talking to us about a variety of topics every month all related to birth and postpartum. When we signed up for this model, I had been told that this would be enough education for us and we shouldn’t have to take anything additional, but I left every appointment with more and more questions. Birth is one of those areas where you don’t know that you don’t know stuff, so these classes would scrape the surface of a topic and I would leave wanting to know more and more. At one of our classes around the five-month mark, one of the midwives mentioned that if we were looking for a truly unmedicated birth we should be signing up for something outside of our appointments, and it was coming time for us to make a decision, like now, because some classes are as long as three months. She gave us a list of a few classes that were out there and I went home and immediately started researching, and within a few days had decided on a Bradley Method Class. It was the longest class but also involved my husband, which I really liked, and was geared directly at natural childbirth, double win.

We completed our class with a wonderful instructor and felt ready to have our baby. Our little dude showed up two days after my estimated due date. Labor was work but definitely manageable. We did have to speak up for ourselves a few times in the process but overall was a pretty uneventful, unmedicated birth. When our son was placed on my chest I felt so victorious. This little human and I had worked together for him to be born. I was on top of the world, he was alert and vivacious, and my husband had played a major role in keeping my head in the game. We were a family.

It was in those moments and hours after birth that I knew I want to spread this story. This story that birth can be beautiful and calm and strong. Mom should be the one in-charge, every woman should have the feeling of being on top of the world.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
So, after I had my son, I went back to my researching ways to find out how I could become a teacher. I figured out all the ins and out of becoming a Bradley Instructor, it was a lot of reading and writing and attending an in-person workshop. After completing all of this work and beginning to teach something, always felt like it was missing. I never felt like I had up-to-date information to give my students. I would continue to do my own digging and update things as I went along but it just felt off. Come to find that most Bradley Instructors spend a good amount of their own time updating and filling in the gaps in the curriculum, which was a tough job as I had a baby at home who was barely a year old, and was now pregnant again with my second. I loved teaching though, watching things click and listening to the amazingly thoughtful questions coming from my students was pure joy.

So, when I found Evidence Based Birth®, I was in love. This time, I did do some more digging before jumping on board and actually took quite a bit of time and reached out to current instructors to find out what it was like to be an instructor, and I was floored by their responses. Rebecca Dekker, the founder of Evidence Based Birth®, listens to her instructors and really takes an interest in getting parents today the information in a way that is relevant to them.

Becoming an instructor for Evidence-Based Birth® was not easy; their application process alone took me several weeks. I have learned so much from being their programs and love being able to share that knowledge with the parents in my community.

Another big challenge has been getting parents to take an interest in their birth process. So, many rely solely upon their doctors advise, or go in with having the game plan of getting an epidural with no backup. Then when their doctor is not on-call or the epidural doesn’t work or is given too early and slows labor down their birthing time turn into a roller coaster they have to control over.

When we take the time to learn about the process and what is normal we remove the fear and allow nature to help the process along in the way nature intended to. Parents also have the knowledge to help lead their course instead of just being taken along for a ride. I’m not here to preach that doctors are evil and epidural are awful, both have their place, but our society’s overreliance on them has taken the power of birth out of the woman’s hand and has morphed it into this big and scary thing that most just choose to hide from instead of educating themselves about it before the big day.

Please tell us about Birth with Knowledge.
I own Birth with Knowledge and I am an Evidence-Based Birth® Instructor. My goal is to help mamas and their partners have a voice in their birth. I want them to feel empowered to be a part of their birth team instead of just passive bystanders. To do this, I teach childbirth education classes. This is not your mama’s hee hee hoo hoo birth classes. They are full of evidence, comfort measures, and the tools to give parents a voice. Our layout is different than just about any other class out there as well. The class is a hybrid class, meaning we meet six times total; two classes are in-person and four classes are online via ZOOM. This is also a flipped classroom model, which means parents are going to have homework to do before coming to class; they’ll watch some videos, read some articles, and work through some relaxation practices each week. Then when we come together, we’ll make sure they are able to apply the new knowledge they have gained to their particular situation, as well as answer any lingering questions that may have popped up. They’ll also have the opportunity to teach their other classmates about what they learned. So, in reality, they are learning the information, then learning how to apply the information, and then teaching the information. With all of this exposure, the information is much more like to stick and be available to readily recall when they are actually ready to have their baby.

I have classes around the Valley in Gilbert, Mesa, and Phoenix.

As well, I run a Facebook group for parents who are pregnant and newly postpartum called, Bellies and Babies of Phoenix Metro. Our whole goal is to be a safe place for mamas to ask questions and feel heard. We focus on the positive side of birth instead of dwelling on the negative.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My goal is really to get this information into the hands of as many parents to be as possible. I have class locations in Mesa, Gilbert, and Phoenix and would love to continue to expand further through the Valley. Our maternity care needs change, we need to see more evidence-based care happening in our hospitals. Right now, it takes about 15-20 years for evidence to make its way into practice, and that is far too long. By giving parents this information and helping them to understand, they can make a change by asking for it that time span can and will drop.

I am also in the works of starting a podcast with an amazing woman named Ashley Emery. Ashley is the owner of Wholesome Haven and has a true passion for helping women understand and love their periods and all things that most of us don’t like to talk about regarding our bodies. Together, we are the Vital Vixens and will be talking about all thing in women’s health from periods, pregnancy, and your libido to so much more. Keep an eye out for episodes to be released towards the end of summer.

Pricing:

  • Standard Package Includes: 3-months access to the online portion of the class, Spiral bound workbook, Two in-person classes, Four video-chats with your class, and a reunion
  • Deluxe Package Includes: 6-months access to the online portion of the class, Spiral bound workbook, Two in-person classes, Four video-chats with your class, Class a reunion, PLUS: Additional Private Zoom Session to Discuss Your Birth Plan, AND a Spinning Babies® Daily Essentials DVD, to help prepare your body and get baby in the best position for your upcoming birth

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Alexandria Sprague, Diane Haggerson

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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