Interview—The Story of Ferris Urbanowski: California, Here We Come!

Although childbirth educators may not all have known her by name, the lovely redhead who was the star childbirth educator in the 1970s film The Story of Eric was a familiar face. After viewing the film numerous times in our classes, early childbirth educators all felt that we knew her. Ferris Urbanowski was an early crusader for the Lamaze method of childbirth preparation in California in the 1960s. She worked to convince physicians in the Los Angeles area of the merits of the method, to establish classes for expectant parents, and to start a chapter of ASPO (now, Lamaze International, Inc.) in Los Angeles. Her book about yoga illustrated how additional methods of relaxation could benefit pregnant women. Today, Urbanowski attributes her past involvement in childbirth education to her current professional role as a teacher and counselor in the field of stress reduction at the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.