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| Traci and Nate learning about how baby moves through mom's pelvis in labor |
Childbirth Classes for Growing Families
Options available for one-on-one classes ($20/hr), andsmall group classes ($15/hr)
I use a variety of interactive activities to facilitate
* bonding with our changing bodies and our growing babies,
* learning how to work with our physiologic processes in birth,
* learning how to make informed choices for ourselves and our families!
Classes are usually around 6 hours, broken up into 2 3-hour sessions, and topics covered usually include birth physiology, labor support techniques, positions for labor and birth, pain relief (including pharmaceuticals), addressing fears and concerns, birth plans, breastfeeding, family bonding, baby wearing, co-sleeping, infant care and development, postpartum depression, and creating a strong support network. Written birth and postpartum plans help us navigate this sacred time.
***But my insurance covers the childbirth ed classes at my hospital, why should I take an independent class?***
Hospital-based classes will contain accurate information about the mechanics of birth and some information about coping with labor; they will be able to tell you all about the hospital’s policies and protocols, which is valuable information. But they will absolutely be designed to encourage patients to be compliant with those protocols and follow the standardized plan of care for that hospital’s “ideal patient.” The content of the course, from videos to worksheets to activities, will have been approved by the medical staff, not only for accuracy of content but for adherence to protocol.
By taking a well-designed independent childbirth education class, consumers will gain insight into hospital protocols that hospital-based classes share; but they will also be encouraged to develop an individualized labor coping plan. And a good educator can give you the tools to implement that individualized plan in a way that supports your relationship with your doctor or midwife and the Labor & Delivery unit nursing staff.
** adapted from Larissa at North Star Birth Services
What are people saying about Birth and Family Support
classes?
"We liked Megan as our childbirth educator because she is knowledgeable and flexible. She was willing to teach us a private class to accommodate our busy schedules and let us decide which information we wanted to be taught.We received exactly what we wanted from Megan."
"Our discussions about the pelvis, the pelvic floor muscles, our hormones and her demonstrations of how the baby exits helped me feel informed about my body and that I could physically do it. The videos empowered me and eased the fears that I had regarding childbirth. I felt excited and ready to do it!"
"Practicing birth positions and breast-feeding positions was extremely helpful and we used many of them in our experience. We took a separate breast-feeding class and were very impressed by the amount of information that we had already learned from Megan."
"You gave me a lot of tools that made all the difference."
"It being our second birth, it was really great that we could sort of pick and choose what was most important to us in class content, thus also tailoring the time we needed to invest in the class itself. Personally, I found the hormone discussion to be the most helpful part of her teachings. It was also really great to just be able to share our feelings and experiences from our last birth and get her perspective on how we might help things go differently this time around."
