Your health care provider may point you at a childbirth class, or childbirth classes in general. Alternatively, researching or taking a childbirth class is a way to identify a health care provider.
Childbirth classes are to teach you about this topic, which is complex and which you have no prior experience at if this is your first time giving birth (primigravida: a woman pregnant for the first time; primiparous: bearing, or having borne only one child; nulliparous: a woman who has never given birth). Generally speaking, the teachers convey detailed factual information, present choices, support and reassurance, and either implicitly or explicitly supply a preferred program for how to navigate pregnancy and childbirth. Classes affiliated with a hospital accurately convey (hopefully) what giving birth in that hospital will be like. They will tend not to tell you about possibilities and choices the hospital does not support. They will tend to emphasize the need for those options supported by the hospital. Classes taught by the Bradley Method, Lamaze and Birthing From Within emphasize the naturalness of childbirth and techniques for reducing medical intervention. The Bradley Method involves husbands as coaches; Lamaze is famous for breathing techniques (but is not exclusively about breathing); Birthing From Within uses art and other techniques to prepare for childbirth. This is far from a complete list.
Not taking a childbirth class is also an option. Like deciding not to take prenatal vitamins, or deciding not to have an ultrasound unless one is medically indicated, or deciding to decline some prenatal testing, you may discover that sharing this decision with other people really brings out the strong opinions. It is good for people to be able to express themselves, and it’s nice if you can listen to them. On the other hand, if they are annoying you about it, consider expressing your feelings about that, or avoiding them if they are not okay with disagreeing on these ideas. If you cannot reach a compromise with your health care provider on your decision of what class to take or not to take, it would be best to find a different health care provider.
The only marital therapists I trust are the Gottmans and I guardedly recommend their new class, Bringing Baby Home, which over time will probably be added onto other childbirth class curricula and is also available as a stand-alone class in a few areas. They are training childbirth educators with the intention of rolling it out nationally and a book on the same topic is planned early in 2006. The goal of the class is to help couples avoid being in the 70% which experience a great drop in marital satisfaction in the wake of their first child. Their strategies are similar to those in their other books.
In Seattle, at least, there are people teaching classes in Diaper-Free or Elimination Communication. Presumably this next wave of Attachment Parenting (aka Rich White Folk Rediscover What Everyone Around the World Already Knew) will spread bringing such classes in its wake.
There have been breastfeeding classes for a while now, and I've talked to a few people who have taken them. Sometimes, they have a woman come in and breastfeed on the spot, but not always. If you do not care to read, but would rather listen to a presentation, this might be a reasonable strategy. I would certainly encourage you to hang out with people who already have babies and are breastfeeding and absorb what that's like. Staring isn't necessary. Asking questions tactfully. I would expect that many women who are breastfeeding would feel quite strongly that a new mother should breastfeed, and would be both touched and honored with the opportunity to pass on some of her wisdom and experience.
Copyright 2005 by Rebecca Allen
Created May 20, 2005 Updated March 8, 2006