Chilbirth ed & homebirth

[JenMidwife]

For those of you planning homebirth (or have in the past), do/did your midwives recommend that you take childbirth ed classes privately or did your midwives sort of do a little childbirth ed @ each of your prenatals, making actual classes irrellevant?

Mine really encourage their clients to do seperate classes. I'm not sure what we're going to do... since I've studied midwifery & have done a lot of personal growth & reflection type classes/retreats, I would only be doing the CBE classes for the social aspect (to meet other preggie parents-to-be). DH & I are very bonded about this baby, so I don't think the experience of doing classes together would really bring us any "closer". He's really Mr. Go-with-the-flow & is not anxious at all about labor, so I'm not sure that he'd really get that much out of the classes either.

Any advice? Thanks!

[rere]

my midwife strongly suggested a class.i really didn't want to take one and neither did my husband.he too is very laid back and i really wasn't concerned that he needed to take a class.at the time the only classes i'd ever heard of were bradely lamaaz and hypno.and non of those were for me."husband coached" sounded awful.i really didn't want to expect my husband to do anything because i didn't want him to feel pressure to do things he didn't feel natural doing.i figured that's what the rest of the labor support is for.it turned out the rest of the labor support left the two of us alone for most of the time because we were a much better team just the two of us.

back to the subject.....we ended up taking a birth prep class.there was no method just information.the two of us both really enjoyed it.and i think that it's part of the reason we were able to do so much of the laboring by ourselves.my husband didn't have to question what was going on and could just be there with me for every push for all 12 hours of pushing.it was great!

[KBinSATX]

By the time we picked the MWs we had already signed up for a Bradley Class. When I told the MWs they said they really liked the instructor and two of their current client couples were taking it. So while it wasn't MW recommended, they do seem to think it's very compatible. Eventhough we are taking Bradley (lots of husband involvement) the MWs are working as a team and if DH feels like he can't do it, he doesn't have to. :)
I know Bradley leaves some people feeling a little turned off. But DH is my best buddy, the one I trust, etc. and if I do get scared or stressed there would be nobody that could make me feel better than DH. For that reason I would like him to be an integral part of this and I think Bradley will work well for us. ;)
We are looking forward to the classes (starting this Saturday! :D).

[JenMidwife]

Thanks rere! How did you find out about the birth prep class? How long was that class?

[JenMidwife]

KBinSATX, that's great. I hope Bradley works well for you guys! I feel like Bradley would be good for us if we were planning a hospital birth, you know so we could feel more in control. But for home, we feel that we don't need a "method" & want things to be spontaneous. I dunno... I wish I could fast-forward 4 months & ask you who Bradley worked for you guys in hindsight! :)

[KBinSATX]

From what I've been reading so far I view it more like 'tools' for a more comfortable labor than a method to deal with hospital staff. :) Relaxation, etc. knowing what happens in each stage and what to expect, etc.

[renaissanceed]

Our MW did not suggest that we needed a class but we did take one & I think it helped if only because talking about our homebirth plans in front of all these folks planning (mostly) dr led hospital births was really confidence boosting in a way. Aside from that I think the class helped DH more than me because he didn't read any of the great books I did before the birth. It reinforced the idea for him that childbirth is a natural process & he did great at the birth!

[*guest]

My midwife practice offers classes taught by a student midwife who is also a doula. I don't really feel like I need them, and the midwife didn't have a strong opinion one way or another, but I like the instructor, and I think it will be good for my husband since he's not as up on his reading as I am. The other options were Bradley or Hypnobirthing or the "here's when to get your epidural" class offered at the local hospital.

[rere]

Thanks rere! How did you find out about the birth prep class? How long was that class?

i told my midwife about our feelings towards classes and she recomended this wonderful place in our area that has classes doula services and all sorts of recources for pregnant and postpartum women and their families.i think the class was 8 weeks.the place is:
http://birthwaysinc.com.
if you just want to check them out.i'm sure it's not in your area but if you want to see what they're about.

i hope you find something that works for you and your husband!

[Baby Makes 4]

We are lucky to have a centre in our area that does CBE classes for midwife clients. It was so nice to meet other couples who are using midwives and nice to have a class that focussed on home birthing, natural pain relief, breastfeeding and only skimmed the topics of fetal monitoring, pain medications etc just so we would know what they were if the subject came up.