InnerWomb BirthKeeper Course
- Mar 30, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Sep 19, 2023
I feel it's time I write about my baby: The InnerWomb Birthkeeper Course.
What is it about?
For whom is it?
Why should you take this course?
It's simple:
This course is for birthkeepers. This could be you as a pregnant woman, a father-to-be, a mom supporting her daughter during birth, doulas, midwife students, midwives, obstetricians, and everyone who feels the call. And of course, this course is for all the beautiful Innerdance facilitators out there who are bringing the magic to the people.
InnerWomb and Innerdance. What is that, you might ask yourself!
I have to start with a little intro about my own experience with it first.
I´m Isabel and the name Isa (with a sharp ´s´) was given to me by Pi, the founder of Innerdance. That was way back 2015 when I just met him. He said “Oh, you´re Isa, same name as my daughter. That means ONE in Filipino.” I remember that he talked to me for at least one hour and I didn't get what he said but my heart understood it all. Do you know the feeling when words don't mean much but you go into a state of deeper understanding through your heart and soul? It was fascinating. I was pretty broken at this point in life, I was going through a very painful breakup and I was new to the island of Palawan in the Philippines. I drank too much, smoked too much, hardly ate, and needed a lifestyle change. Shortly said: I was pretty lost. Therefore one day I ended up in this retreat space where my new friend Pi was about to hold an Innerdance session and he invited me over. So I went and energetically probably never left again. He asked me to lie down on a mat inside a circle of strangers. He turned on some music, said some words, and touched my hands and arms, and there I found myself in a space within me that was so much more than me. Something revealed itself that has always been there, that guided me here and now into this moment. Finally, I could observe it, see it, feel it, express it. What a relief. Yes, I was aware of what was happening around me but I could retreat into my little cocoon where everything was only answers to questions I didn't even know yet.
This was the start of my Innerdance journey. A story like many.
I´ve lived in the Philippines for over 7 years until I moved to Mexico in May 2022. I became the mother of Laya beginning of 2019, my now 4-year-old son who grew up in the conscious community Maia Earth Village in Palawan (which is Pi´s land and the Innerdance hub) and in a local neighborhood in El Nido, Palawan. For many years I´ve been living a life very close to nature in a simple Bahay Kubo (bamboo hut) in the forest with water from the rain and solar. I purified my body through raw food, fasting, yoga, and swimming. I've regularly practiced Innerdance a lot throughout the years and became a facilitator myself.
For me, there's no more humble person than Pi. That's why I call him a friend and mentor, a buddy and teacher!
What is Innerdance?
So what happens on the mat? Shortly said you go into a conscious trance. This is also the name of Pi´s book “Conscious Trance”. You could describe it as a wakeful dream, a journey to essence, a homecoming.
My good friend Tom just recently said that it is incredible what can happen if we let go of ourselves. And that's it. It's letting go to enter another state of becoming. “You are what you are becoming!”
You simply lay down, in a Savasana state, you trust, you relax, surrender, and let go, and with the magic of sound and touch you will find yourself in certain brain waves, like you would in a normal sleep cycle but you´re not sleeping. You will be dreaming awake.
The feminine rises, you experience a flow, your intuition starts to guide, you lose attachment to `What I represent in the world`, trust rises, you come closer to source, you might experience oneness.
And as there is still an observer, your ego is not gone. Therefore you can harvest insights and you won't be lost in `LALA-Land`.
The sound triggers certain brain waves and so your journey begins. And every session might bring you deeper and deeper like you would go through layers of an onion.
The touch opens up the body which will release certain images, colors (often chakra-related), memories, and emotions. It is a release of old storage and it can go way beyond your own.
It takes about 60-90 minutes and is possible as a group session or 101. In group sessions, it's often experienced that a kind of group topic comes up which is very interesting. A reflection circle at the end to harvest insights and do journaling is very important. The ego is still down so to say and the harvesting of the thoughts is still very pure.
For me, it seemed that more and more the topic BIRTH was arising. I thought, okay, I´m a midwife, it might make sense. But it was way more than that. I saw myself birthing, being a newborn, birthing for others, and "making" other people birth. The orange chakra, the sacral chakra seems to be very active while in Innerdance. This is where our intuition lies, our storage of emotions, our creativity, our creation power.
So I explored this more and in 2016 I held my first InnerWomb session in Cebu, Philippines. The WombRoom was born. A cozy warm setting with Womb sounds and the Innerdance waves. It seemed simple but in reality, it is so deep.
Over the years WombRooms has been held all over the world and like Pi, I´m not claiming or “owning” any of it. In the end, it is all channeling and we are just the vessels.
Besides my work and the bliss of living simply in nature, I started coming back to my passion for supporting gentle births throughout the archipelago of the Philippines. I’ve worked often with a 65-year-old hilot (traditional birth keeper and village healer in the rural parts of the PH), which gave me lots of insights and she was also super important while I birthed Laya at the beach.
Some of the women I supported incorporated Innerdance Playlists while birthing.
Pi´s daughter Issa was also born in a pure Innerdance state so I could feel how amazing this healing modality is to support pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.
Please read my blog article “Your baby is the real birthkeeper” where I write about how in an Innerdance session I understood that everything was going to be alright with the birth of Laya.
To experience this trust in my baby and my body and the divinity of it all was surely beneficial for me on my journey to become a mother. But which other benefits have Innerdance while pregnant or during birth?
Birth is 100% allowance and surrender. So Innerdance sessions can be seen as a practice for the big day.
I felt okay to go wild in front of other people because I did so many Innerdance sessions where I expressed fully what had to be expressed. This could have been crying, screaming, moving, dancing, pushing, etc.
During an InnerWomb session, you will experience how it feels to be in the womb again. It makes you understand the needs of your baby, and connect with it. Where do we come from? What does the baby want, how do we want to be born? This is asking big questions! You might automatically start to question our common practices in hospitals etc.
Innerdance makes you intuitively work with the breath and after all work with fear and other strong emotions.
So what happens next?
If you'd like I would be more than happy to teach you to incorporate InnerWomb sessions into your pregnancy, your birth, your work, your life, your family, your circle of friends. Wherever it will take you, follow it!
In my InnerWomb BirthKeeper Course, I would love to show you all the benefits of this healing modality and talk with you in general and in detail about gentle birth and my take-outs after many years of working and living outside of the (medical) system.
We will also talk about the playlists, how to make one and I´ll give you playlists to start with.
If you feel the call and would like to know more about the course and the dates, please email me yourmidwifehour@gmail.com or follow me on Instagram
I also offer InnerWomb Sessions. Here you can find out more:
Looking forward, your Isa
