An excellent childbirth education class is worth your time and money! Learning about the path that many have trodden before you is a GREAT thing to do. Evidence-based childbirth education classes help parents prepare for labor and birth by teaching pain-management strategies, while also providing information on informed consent for the pre-labor and labor processes. Classes can help instill confidence in parents’ abilities to cope with labor, which is pretty priceless! Childbirth education helps lower fear and anxiety regarding labor and birth, and has been shown to be a critical factor in reducing early elective delivery by induction. Don’t just take my word for it, read the policy brief that my certifying organization wrote. Not all childbirth education classes are the same, which is great because not everyone learns the same way or needs/wants to know the same information.
January 25th-31st is International Childbirth Education Week
2020 is the very first year of celebration for International Childbirth Education Week. I am so very proud to have helped start this movement & to be one of the first endorsers of this important week. Childbirth educators are special people that love to talk about the pelvis and cardinal movements. We love to dispel myths about childbirth and set the record straight when we hear or read people spreading misinformation. My style is more to pull the listener to the side to say, “you know that’s not really how that works,” and then explain what I know, rather than trying to correct someone’s grandma who just told them to rough up their nipples with a towel. (That’s totally not something you need to do BTW!)
I LOVE teaching childbirth education classes!
Those little A-HA moments are priceless. I love helping students know all their options. Helping people grow their resource list for who to ask and where to go is great too. A skeptical student converted when they try a double hip squeeze is awesome! There is nothing like the faces of satisfied students who feel more confident. Their emails with baby pictures and birth stories touch my heart.
Upcoming classes
I am currently only teaching private childbirth education classes that include 6 very full hours of instruction in my office space or your home. A 96 page binder full of information, handouts, & worksheets is included. Relaxation techniques, massage, movement, positions, & how to use tools will of course also be covered. I promise we’ll practice the breathing techniques that everyone seems to expect from Lamaze too. You can find more information on pricing and contact us here if you are interested.
If group classes are more your thing, in 2020 we have 4 group classes scheduled for “Natural Coping Techniques for Labor and Delivery.” This is a 3 hour class where we focus on how to deal with contractions without pain medication. This is not a “tell you what to do” kind of class. This is more of a “give you some ideas” kind of class. Importantly, it also includes snacks & is only $30/couple. Here are the links to sign up if you’d like to join us for a Saturday in 2020:
- February 8th 9am-noon here (2 weeks from today!)
- April 4th 9am-noon here
- July 11th 9am-noon here
- October 3rd 9am-noon here
Taking a childbirth education class is something that everyone should try. Even if you hate it, at least you and your partner will have something to laugh about on the way home. There are a ton of online options too if in-person isn’t you thing, and FREE ones too. Here is the Lamaze FREE class on increasing labor confidence and here is my friend Alice’s FREE online class Birth A to Z! No matter what kind of childbirth education classes you choose, INFORM YOURSELF!! You will increase your confidence even just to ask more questions, and that’s a good thing!