Rhythm, Receive, Rest™ · Micro training
Developed and taught by Erica Kroll, LPC, since 2000 · Forthcoming in the Journal of Perinatal Education
Move through your contractions.Rest deeply in between.
A simple concept that is easier said than done.
When professionals and parents understand how it affects the underlying physiology of birth, it becomes an essential skill. Rhythm, Receive, Rest™ is a nervous system-informed, teachable routine that, when repeated, becomes a familiar set of safety cues for regulation with real physiological effects. In this micro training you'll learn about the model and how to teach it.
Get the training · $47What's inside
For doulas, childbirth educators, and prenatal yoga teachers · 40 minutes, on demand · Nine-page handout
A routine for nervous system regulation in birth
Most of us teach coping techniques and comfort measures. We give parents accurate information about labor, we teach breathing, movement, positions, vocalization, and massage. Many of us have also watched parents who learned every technique lose access to them when the intensity of labor increased or fear took over.
Rhythm, Receive, Rest™ is about what preparation can build beyond information or mindset: a simple routine for labor that parents and partners can bring with them into birth rather than figuring out what to do once the thinking brain has taken a back seat.
What changes in your work
After the training, you can send parents into birth with a routine instead of a list, whether that happens in a prenatal class, a prenatal visit, or a yoga class. You can teach a parent and partner the routine in a single session and demonstrate it in about ten minutes. You can explain why it works in plain language. And you can normalize the sounds and movements of labor so that parents understand them as coping and as physiology, and feel less inhibited.
Most of labor is spent in between contractions
Yet most childbirth preparation focuses on getting through contractions and offers little guidance for the time in between. Many parents spend that time bracing for the next contraction or replaying the last one, and they arrive at each contraction already tense and afraid. This is the pain-fear-tension cycle most of us learned about in our first training, and the time between contractions is where it tends to take hold.
Rhythm, Receive, Rest™ gives parents something specific to do during contractions and teaches them how to rest in between, so that the time between contractions can become the most useful part of labor rather than the most anxious.
The model
Rhythm, Receive, Rest™
Rhythm, Receive, Rest™ is a routine for coping. It builds on Penny Simkin's 3Rs and reorganizes them through the lens of the nervous system and around the contraction cycle. It describes what the parent does at each point and what the support team does at each point, so everyone in the room knows the plan and nobody has to ask. It is simple and predictable, and that is intentional, because each part of the cycle does something specific in the nervous system to support the physiology of labor. Once you understand what each part is doing, you can teach it with confidence.
Most importantly, this model teaches parents how to rest. Resting deeply between contractions, in the middle of the intensity of active labor, is a skill, and it is the part of labor parents are least often taught.
I have taught this model in my childbirth education and prenatal yoga classes since 2000. It is a parent favorite, because it is easy to remember and it works alongside pretty much any other coping strategy they already have.
01 · DURING THE CONTRACTION
Rhythm
Supports mobilization during the contraction.
02 · AS IT RESOLVES
Receive
Co-regulation in the brief window as the contraction resolves.
03 · BEFORE THE NEXT ONE
Rest
Recovery before the next contraction begins.
“I find myself returning to the Rhythm, Receive, Rest™ model because it's a tangible model to give clients.”
Abbey Bartley, MHA · Birth Doula · Nona® Certified Prenatal Yoga InstructorWe can't control birth, but we can influence it.
Why the routine works
As labor progresses and a parent feels safe enough, the thinking brain takes a back seat and a more internal, unique state of awareness can emerge. I call this limbic dominance, and it is an adaptive state that supports the physiology of labor. It is also a state in which weighing options, remembering instructions, and choosing among techniques becomes harder to do and maybe even disruptive. A routine that is familiar, planned, and practiced ahead of time can survive that shift in a way that a menu of techniques often cannot. In this model, the routine itself becomes a set of safety cues that help protect limbic dominance, increasing the likelihood of normal labor progress. This is where the nervous system informs why the model works.
Inside the training
40 minutes · On demand · Nine-page handout
PART ONE
The context
Birth as an autonomic process, where we have influence and where we do not, and the pathways of regulation.
PART TWO
The model, phase by phase
What the parent does, what the support team does, what each phase is doing in the nervous system, and how the routine helps protect limbic dominance.
PART THREE
The demonstration
A full demonstration of how I teach the model to parents, through a contraction and into rest, so that you can watch it being taught.
You also receive the nine-page Rhythm, Receive, Rest™ handout, which covers the cycle, each phase and its sequence, why it works, positions for the cycle including from a bed with an epidural, and how to teach it ahead of time.
Who this is for
This training is for doulas, childbirth educators, and prenatal yoga teachers, and it is especially suited to those who want to understand the underlying physiology of birth. Nervous system language is everywhere in birth work right now, and much of it stays abstract. This training teaches nervous system regulation in concrete, easy-to-understand language.
About Erica
ERICA KROLL, LPC, E-RYT, RPYT
I'm Erica Kroll. I am a licensed perinatal therapist, a retired doula, a childbirth educator, and a mindfulness-based prenatal yoga teacher-trainer. I began birth work in 1999, and I have been in birth rooms, in classrooms, and on the mat with people moving through the childbearing year for over 25 years. Because I am a therapist, I think about birth through the lenses of psychology and neuroscience together, which inform all of my trainings.
Rhythm, Receive, Rest™ is a model I developed in those years of teaching and attending births. It is one of the models in my Birth Coherence™ framework, and it is forthcoming, with its partner model Recognize, Respond, Regulate™, in the Journal of Perinatal Education.
Common questions
What is Rhythm, Receive, Rest™?
A nervous system-informed routine for labor developed by Erica Kroll, LPC, and taught in her childbirth education and prenatal yoga classes since 2000. It builds on Penny Simkin's three Rs of labor and reorganizes them around the contraction cycle: rhythm during the contraction, receiving support as it resolves, and rest before the next one begins. It is part of the Birth Coherence™ framework.
Is this continuing education?
No. It is a micro training, with no CEUs attached.
How long do I have access?
For as long as the training is hosted. There is no expiration date.
Do I need a background in neuroscience?
No. The training is in plain language.
Can I use the handout with my clients and students?
Yes. It is yours to use in your own classes and prenatal visits.
Rhythm, Receive, Rest™
A micro training for birth professionals
40 minutes, on demand, with the full demonstration and the nine-page handout.
Participants in this training receive $10 off the partner model, Recognize, Respond, Regulate™, when it releases.
Rhythm, Receive, Rest™ is part of the Birth Coherence™ framework. This and other models build off of and complement each other and are taught in full in the Nona Birth Coherence™ Doula Training and the Birth Coherence™ Yoga Certification. A childbirth educator training is in development, and you can email me to join its waitlist.
Questions: [email protected]
Erica Kroll, LPC, E-RYT, RPYT · Nona® Birth Education & Counseling
