Not sold on CB classes - Page 2

[Throkmorton]

I'm avoiding the childbirth classes this round. Honestly, the only reason I took them last time was to find out about hospital policies. This time I am just going to take the 1 hour hospital tour, but if I was having a home birth I would probably skip everything.

[guestmama9906]

I'm on baby #4 and have never taken a CB class.

Ironically, I read Birthing from Within and and finally going to take that class this pregnancy, not b/c I need to know what to do, but b/c the birth art looks like so much FUN!

[sapphire_chan]

No experience here (obviously ), but my plan at this point is to read as many birth stories as I can get my hands on.

[NurseLaurie]

This is my first time with the pregnancy/birth experience, but my CNM (who does hospital deliveries) told me at my first appointment to absolutely NOT take a "method" childbirth class... especially the ones taught by the hospital (she called them epidural classes). I'm so glad there are midwives like her out there who will give us mommies who just aren't quite ready for homebirth a good alternative option.
Her two suggestions: Birthing from Within and Birthworks. I can't vouch for either one, but I can tell you that the BFW book is so far amazing.

[merrick]

I agree. The only thing I got out of my hospital childbirth classes was learning the hospital policies. Of course, they didn't even go into natural childbirth techniques in depth at all anyway. I didn't go natural last time, so I wasn't concerned with it anyway really to be honest and everything else they went over was things I'd already read in my pregnancy books. The bfing class on the other hand was very helpful and I would recommend that to first time moms. I had read tons of bfing books, but it really helps to have a doll and someone there to help you learn the positions as well as tell you the little things they don't tell you in books, like what pumps to avoid and which are best in which situation.

[KatSG]

We took the hospital-sponsored birthing classes, along with the baby care and breastfeeding classes and even though I'd been reading Ina May all along, I found them to be really helpful for these reasons:

1. It was a comfortable way for my dh to get familiar with the process, be around other dads, and ask questions of someone besides me, which gave him some sense of power and equality in the experience.

2. We're really busy people and this was a few hours out of the week where we dropped everything and focused on our coming baby. After the class we'd go to dinner. It was a special time for us.

3. We were with an OB, then switched to a mw, then ended up in the hospital. I was glad that I was so familiar with that hospital and its philosophies. I live in a part of the country where natural birth is supported, even in hospitals, and I was glad to know that so I didn't go into the hospital feeling super defensive. We also got exposed to the book Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn in our class, which is an excellent, balanced text on things everyone should know about having a baby. We bought our own copy and I routinely recommend it to friends.

4. We did lots of reading, and there were still things I learned in our class that I'd never read before. The thing that stands out for me is transition. I hadn't read about "the calm before the storm," when the contractions slow down before transition, or really heard from someone who'd been through it what to expect from transition. I've heard a lot of women get scared and ask for drugs at that point. For me, even though it was really intense, it was really exciting because I knew I'd be pushing in an hour! That was really important for my stamina and sense of control over the situation.

If you still don't want to take a class, I don't blame you. Sounds like you're really comfortable with what your plan is. I would still recommend you tour the hospital you would transport to in the event that you need to, just so you know what to expect. That really made going to the hospital a lot easier for me and I still had a great birth.

[Snowdrift]

I've thought about doing a hospital tour, except that I'd have to tour two hospitals. There's a well-equipped but widely reputed to be fake-birth-friendly less than ten minutes away. By fake birth-friendly I mean that they advertise their 'birthing center' all over the place, but have a reputation for very inflexible, despectfut doctors, staff, and policies. That is where we would go in the case of serious emergency (cord prolapse or quick hemmorhage). If it was some other problem like bleeding doesn't stop or a serious tear to be repaired or it looks like CPD, we'd go to the osteopathic hospital that 30-45 minutes away. My old ob-gyn works out of there and she is pretty cool, and it's all osteopaths, and they tend to be less obnoxious than MD's, so it'd be worth the drive if we have time.

Touring two hospitals though, just seems silly considering there's a very small chance I'll use either one.

I talked to my midwife about the classes yesterday and we decided that we will probably skip them. Well, I told midwife we would skp them but on further reflectin will re-asses how prepared DH is in a couple of months. He seems to be getting up to speed pretty quickly.

Seems like a lot of you ladies seemed to find that the major benefit of classes was realized by the DH, but with me taking night classes, we'd rather use the evenings left to us to talk alone.

We'll see how it goes.

[lilyka]

I also was not at all sold on traditional childbirth classes. bradly is the in thing here and that is so coutner to how I birth. I turn on the heavy metal and get moving.

what I did find useful, since I was birthingin the hospital, was the hospital class. Not that it helpd me birth but it gave good insight into what to expect inthe hospital (and my childbirth educator was an undercover hippy natrual birther. she was hillarious in her loose interpretation of what the hospital wanted her to teech. as in passing around the internal monitor and having people feel how sharp that is. "see it will go right in yuor baby's head. just make sure they know where his eyes are. it hardly ever happens . . . . and it hardly ever gets infected . .hardly ever . . . " and then she passed out the consent foprm for the epidural blown up in big one inch letters. ya know, so you could readit and sign the informed consent ahead of time. of soures when one inch bold letters are staring at ou heart attack, stroke and maternal and infant death seem a lot scarier) but anyway it allowed me to get a feel for the hospital and what they expected and what I needed to adress ahead of time and what wasn't going to be a problem. It was intresting the difference between what I was told by my firends, my midwife, the nurses, the childbirth educator and what hospital policy actually was. It was nice to go in with my eyes open. I didn't get anything from the child birth and prenting classes but it did give me an oppritunity to ask some well placed questions that may have ipened the mind of some parents (stuf about berastfeeding, cloth diapers and intactness. the instructor and I became good friends )

[waterbaby9503]

It sounds like if there is anything you could benefit from, it is reading.
Check out a variety of books. You'll reject plenty of them, and that's the beauty of it. You don't have a set of classes to continue to attend, an obnoxious but well-intended and incorrect instructor, or if you do the library, any less $$ in your pocket.