Birth prep class for 2nd (or later) pregnancy?

[elyen]

I'm 18 weeks along with #2. We did Bradley with #1 (almost 2 years ago) and found it very helpful and were able to pretty much have the natural birth we wanted.

We would like to take another class to prepare for this baby. A local birthing education place offers a 4-week class for "experienced" parents based on the Birthing from Within philosophy. (They also offer a 6-week Birthing from Within class for 1st time parents).

So, I have 2 questions:

1. How helpful do you think it is to go through birth prep class for 2nd or later pregnancies?

2. What do you think of the Birthing from Within philosophy?

[yogamama]

We did a Bradley class 4 years ago when we were expecting baby #1. I thought is was good, covered alot, good overview...

We just did a HypnoBirthing class during this pregnancy (baby #2 is due in early June). I thought it was good and helped us focus on this baby and this pregnancy. It would have not been good if it was our only childbirth class ever - very little on fetal development or nutrition, etc.

I also considered doing a Birthing From Within class, I really liked the idea of doing birth art, but we decided to do HypnoBirthing since we liked the idea of listening to tapes, etc.

I probably agree with the philosophy of Birthing from Within more than the Hypnobirthing philosophy, but I just take what I like and leave the rest.

[Mallory]

I thought the best part about taking classes the second time was just a chance to go spend a few evenings with a room of pregnant ladies and a time to focus on me and the baby not just my toddler.

[elfinbaby]

I'm in my 3rd pregancy right now and I haven't decided what I'm going to take. With #1, we did Bradley and I loved it. So I became a teacher:) Then w/#2 I thought there was no reason to take a class. I had a homebirth and everything went just fine but it would have been helpful for me and my dh to take a class just so we could focus on the pregnancy, have time to be with each other, be with other pregnant couples, and have a time devoted to talking about what we think or how we feel about the labor, birth, and being parents again. I think we just needed to connect more and I needed to be able to express what I might want during the birth.

So...I'm looking at Hypnobirthing and BFW, too. My husband is great support during my labor and I learned more about what I need from him after #2 was born. I need to focus more on the mental, emotional aspect of relaxation. I have extremely quick, intense labors - I jump from prelabor straight into late first stage/transition so I sort of start at the point "I can't do this anymore!" I thought maybe Hypnobirthing would be the best for that. Any opinions?

To Elyen: I think taking another class is a fantastic idea. I wish we had. Even though I was with a midwife and my husband does great in labor, I know we would have benefitted in all sorts of ways by taking the time to take a class. I also love the BFW philosophy. I'm not sure about it for a first time class only because I think it's important to cover exercise, nutrition, physiology, etc. but, since you have covered that info, I think BFW would be great. I read the book cover to cover when I first got it.