the big book of birth blog

The Today Show

Well after I gave a little bit of a hint in my last entry, I can now tell you that our sibling preparation class for second time around parents was filmed by NBC’s Today show this past Saturday! It will be airing TOMORROW (Tuesday March 27^th) in the 9am hour of the show.

The filming went really well, with Giada De Laurentiis being an incredibly gracious hostess/anchor! She even hung around a few minutes extra at the end so that my daughter could get her picture taken with her, since my daughter loves the Food Network and just happened to be at a cooking class at the Natural Gourmet Institute around the corner.

I also have to say it was the most well-behaved group of three year olds I've seen in a long time - really great kids and caring parents. The sound lady, a very cool person named Helen (as she clipped the mic to me before the shoot she said, "Are you ready for your fifteen minutes? Well don’t blink your eyes!" which made me laugh) said afterwards that I had the patience of a saint. I doubt my kids would say the same thing. Nothing like a camera to instill patience!

If we can we will figure out a way to link the segment with the blog so you can see it but tune in to NBC tomorrow morning and check it out!!!

Sibling preparation classes

If you're in New York City and you get the chance, have a look at the March edition of Time Out New York's Kids edition. They've done a great piece on Realbirth's sibling preparation class - those of you outside New York can have a look at it here. I actually was just in communication with the author of the piece yesterday who is holding her own with a brand new baby and a toddler by repeating to herself what I had told her in the interview!

Since one good deed leads to another (thank you Time Out Kids New York!), a major nationwide morning TV show is coming to Realbirth in the next few days to film one of our sibling preparation classes, to be aired on the show sometime during the week of March 26!

As soon as I know exactly when it will be on air, I'll post news here so that you'll know when you can see us on TV and which show!

In the meantime, if you want more information on Realbirth's sibling prep classes, just click here.

New York Post

Just found out that the book was reviewed in the New York Post this weekend. William Georgiades describes the book as "EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about birth, but were afraid to ask". And even better, he says that he only wishes that "this reassuring, humane and endlessly useful handbook had been in print when my daughter was born".

It's a great review, and it's rewarding that people are reacting so positively to the book. If you missed it in the paper, you can read it online here.

Realbirth in Brooklyn

It's been a few days since I posted on here - as you can probably imagine, it's been hectic with the release of the book and the construction to expand into an additional space. Thanks for all your support with the book so far, the positive feedback has been amazing and is deeply appreciated. And thanks to everybody who has read the blog to date, or passed on the link to friends and family!

A couple of you have left comments, including Lori Ungemah who wanted to know when we're going to be opening a Realbirth in Brooklyn.

What a great idea! We are actually looking for the right space and have been for quite some time. However, we do actually already run some of our childbirth education, breastfeeding and newborn care classes in Brooklyn, at Ola Baby on Court Street in the Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens area. Take a look at the Realbirth website for details of the classes and the schedule.

A conveniently located Brooklyn space of our own is the long-term goal! However, it's a huge challenge to find affordable space in New York City (as we all know!!), since running parent education classes and postpartum support groups isn't exactly Wall Street! We will keep you posted though, I agree there is a need!

Ask Moxie

I'm sure that lots of you have read the Ask Moxie blog, a great online resource in which Magda helps people troubleshoot their parenting problems. She took the newborn care class at Realbirth before the birth of her older son, and then our sibling preparation class before the birth of her younger son, so she knows plenty about the way we operate!

Well one of her latest posts on her blog is a glowing review of The Big Book Of Birth, which you can take a look at here. I'm really grateful for the support, and it's nice to know that people like the book and think that it can be a valuable resource. The feedback to the book since it came out last week has been so good, and it's great to hear how people are reacting. Feel free to leave a comment here on the blog letting me know what you think.

And as ever, please do let your friends and colleagues know about the book. You (and they) can buy it online from Barnes & Noble by clicking here, or at Amazon by using this link. Or just visit your local book store and buy or order it there!