Education, birthing classes

Books and birth classes can fill you in on exactly how much say you really have in this process. It can be jarring how much this education can feel like preparing for a battle with your health care providers, but these are battles you will never regret. When reading up on a topic—from postdelivery eye ointment to epidurals and the question of whether they can cross your placenta—try to find the actual studies, rather than summaries of them. Too often reporters and writers quoting studies have their own agendas. You may be surprised how different the raw facts are from an article based on the raw facts. 

Educated, middle-class women were also attracted to office work. For them it was one of the few socially sanctioned opportunities to earn a wage office work helped women to bring needed income to their birth families, while maintaining their middle-class respectability. The middle-class presentation of the office also developed conversely as women... 

Excellent childbirth classes can certainly exist in various environments—your birth location (hospital or birth center), an independent education center, or in a series taught by a private educator. As a certified childbirth educator and labor support doula, I know how seriously women should and do take childbirth class, and so I would like to offer some recommendations of my own. 

Typically an in-hospital childbirth-preparation class is the one most families choose. It s conveniently located in their birth location, and it s usually given by a member of the staff familiar with the hospital, which can be reassuring. Unfortunately, that sense of security is often a false one. Many in-hospital classes lack a focus on individual choices and, most important, evidence-based care (rooted in recent studies).These classes have a tendency to educate families about what to expect upon arrival at the birth location, but not about their options and preferences once they arrive. Moreover, some hospital-based classes reflect the institutions policies and are more focused on creating compliancy than on helping patients achieve their individual goals. 

Out-of-hospital childbirth-preparation classes frequently offer a broader picture of the labor and birth process and the choices that are available to laboring mothers and their partners. Often they are run by educators who include evidence-based information in their classes. They teach families about the risks and benefits of a myriad of choices and empower them to make the best decisions in the individual circumstances of their labors and births. Of course, these kinds of instructors can be found in hospitals as well. 

Birthing a child is a natural, normal, instinctive process with which the modern world seems to have lost touch. Today, it is too often seen as something that is done to a woman, rather than by a woman. Childbirth education is essential in debunking that falsehood and critical in helping women and their partners reclaim knowledge and an awareness that was once very common. The goal of a good childbirth class should be to leave you so well informed that you will be able to make decisions confidently—whatever the circumstances. 

Types of Childbirth Education Classes 162 Birth Plans 167 Doulas 168 Packing for Labor 169 Bringing on Labor 170 Episiotomy 174 Pain Relief 179... 

Some confounding variables are simple factual items, e.g. age, sex of child, family size and birth order some are based on well-established classifications, e.g. social class and educational qualifications and some have been measured... 

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