Occasionally I read that someone is planning to take a hospital sponsored birth class because they feel they will get more “balanced” information. This usually seems to be said with regard to medications “versus” natural birth. There is an excellent discussion about this issue in the book Mother’s Intention: How Belief Shapes Birth.

“Let us look at [the word] ‘balanced’ first…’to make two parts exactly equal.’ What if the two parts are not equal? What if a parent will be making decisions that will affect her and her baby with both short and long term consequences? Is it fair to distort reality so that the information she has to choose from seems ‘equal,’ even though it really isn’t? Why would a parent want information that appears balanced, but isn’t factual?”

From my perspective, independent classes are better able to provide you with truly helpful, accurate, and factual information (even though they might not feel “balanced” towards all interventions/options), because the educator is working for you and not for an institution.