about
Zina Sarah Irwin Aghdasi is a childbirth education expert and lactation counselor, who specializes in non-pharmacological approaches to the management of labor, and practices that support physiologic breastfeeding initiation and breastfeeding beyond infancy.
Zina's perinatal training includes Healthy Children Project's Lactation Counselor program which is based on the footprint of the World Health Organization/UNICEF Breastfeeding Counseling Training Course, the Lactation Educator Counselor Program at the University of California San Diego, and the HypnoBirthing Institute's childbirth educator certification. She is currently an International Childbirth Education Association certification candidate.
In early 2016, Zina founded Boston Births (formerly Boston HypnoBirthing) with the aim of providing high quality perinatal education and support to families and healthcare providers in the Greater Boston Area. She has worked with families and caregivers affiliated with Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital, Tufts Medical Center, Mount Auburn Hospital, the Cambridge Birth Center, South Shore Hospital, Newton-Wellselsy Hospital, St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Plymouth, Sturdy Memorial Hospital, and Emerson Hospital. Additionally, she offers local home visits and consulting services.
Birth Experiences:
With her first pregnancy in 2011, Zina found that her award-winning obstetrician practiced a heavily interventionist style of medicine and had a startling cesarean rate. Worried that her healthy pregnancy would culminate in unnecessary interference or end in a cesarean with no medical justification, she switched to a freestanding birth center run by midwifes at 35 weeks pregnant, giving birth naturally to a healthy baby boy a few weeks after. Two and a half years later in 2014, she gave birth to her daughter en route to the birth center on the side of a road, an unexpected but equally empowering birth experience. In late August 2016, Zina gave birth to her third child at home while her other little ones were sleeping.
Zina's perinatal training includes Healthy Children Project's Lactation Counselor program which is based on the footprint of the World Health Organization/UNICEF Breastfeeding Counseling Training Course, the Lactation Educator Counselor Program at the University of California San Diego, and the HypnoBirthing Institute's childbirth educator certification. She is currently an International Childbirth Education Association certification candidate.
In early 2016, Zina founded Boston Births (formerly Boston HypnoBirthing) with the aim of providing high quality perinatal education and support to families and healthcare providers in the Greater Boston Area. She has worked with families and caregivers affiliated with Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital, Tufts Medical Center, Mount Auburn Hospital, the Cambridge Birth Center, South Shore Hospital, Newton-Wellselsy Hospital, St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Plymouth, Sturdy Memorial Hospital, and Emerson Hospital. Additionally, she offers local home visits and consulting services.
Birth Experiences:
With her first pregnancy in 2011, Zina found that her award-winning obstetrician practiced a heavily interventionist style of medicine and had a startling cesarean rate. Worried that her healthy pregnancy would culminate in unnecessary interference or end in a cesarean with no medical justification, she switched to a freestanding birth center run by midwifes at 35 weeks pregnant, giving birth naturally to a healthy baby boy a few weeks after. Two and a half years later in 2014, she gave birth to her daughter en route to the birth center on the side of a road, an unexpected but equally empowering birth experience. In late August 2016, Zina gave birth to her third child at home while her other little ones were sleeping.
