Archives

Benefits of Childbirth Education

Dec27

People sometimes wonder what are the benefits of childbirth education. Classes can seem expensive and they wonder what they will get out of them. The main question that researchers have examined is whether classes reduce labor pain (inconclusive). I have a book called Labor Pain that cites research indicating that classes do reduce the need for medication during labor. According to the same book, though study results do not always agree, various researchers have also found:

  • possible decrease in length of labor
  • lower levels of uterine dysfunction requiring augmentation
  • fewer cases of elevated blood pressure
  • “less maternal illness and less use of antibiotics after birth”
  • “more stable heart rate readings in babies during labor”
  • “more involvement by partners”
  • “more positive feelings about birth and giving birth among women attending”
  • less pain during labor
  • “less frequent use of forceps at delivery”
  • “greater awareness at birth”
  • “more enjoyment of birth for women who had attended classes than for those who had not”

Sounds like there are lots of benefits to taking birth classes! 🙂

The Orchestra of Birth

Dec27

I wanted to share a nice quote from Sheila Kitzinger:

“A woman who is enjoying her labor swings into the rhythm of contractions as if birth-giving were a powerful dance, her uterus creating the beat. She watches for it, concentrates on it, like an orchestra following its conductor.”

Rhythm played an important role during my first labor as one of my primary coping tools was humming a song repeatedly–the intensity of the humming increased with the intensity of my body’s work.

During my second birth, which was very rapid, it felt less like a “dance” or a meolody to follow and more like a train that was speeding by very rapidly and in order to stay “with it” I had to “run fast” (mentally) and hop on for the ride!

Questions During Labor

Dec20

One of the things I talk about in birth classes is about avoiding asking the laboring woman too many questions. Questions make her leave “birth brain” and throw off her rhythm and coping skills. I recently read a newsletter from Birthing from Within that touches on this issue in a beautifully articulate way:

“Watching this scene reminded me of what frequently happens to mothers in labor being admitted to the hospital. A mother is mustering up courage and immersed in the profound act of creation and personal transformation–but that is overlooked when she is asked, ‘When did you have your last bowel movement?’ and twenty other questions! When we recognize the hard work and intensity of labor, and stay present to the birthing woman’s experience, rather than blindly following our own agenda, we honor her Warrior spirit.“

New Birth Classes for 2009!

Dec13

In addition to my usual six week class series and the single night class options, as of January 2009 I am offering several new classes to meet the varying needs of families in the community.

  1. A four week series of classes for people who are well-read about birth and their choices in childbirth and/or who are having a subsequent child (the six week series is recommended for people expecting their first baby).
  2. A three week “birth share” series–an informal, Q & A, spontaneous approach to childbirth education.
  3. A weekend refresher series (or CBE crash course) offered on a Saturday and Sunday for 3 hours each day.
  4. A 3-4 week Creative Birth series that focuses on birth art and a personal growth approach to birth education (this series is still under development).

Fathers at Birth Book

Dec11

Today, I was extremely excited to learn about a new book called Fathers at Birth by Rose St. John. I am really looking forward to reading it and I think there is a deep need for a book like this in the birth community. I am mindful of the need to include father-specific information in my birth classes, but I find it difficult sometimes to locate many good resources for fathers, or to develop class content that engages fathers in a relevant and connected way.

I will post more when I’ve read it!

Edited to add: I posted more about this book and fathers at birth here.

Pain-Free Birth?

Dec5

As I’ve referenced before, I have a special interest different theories with regard to pain and birth. The last issue of the Midwifery Today e-news had “Pain in Childbirth” as a theme and there was an excerpt of an article by Ingrid Bauer called “Pain Free Birth?” It was very powerful. She says:

“Inevitably, in discussions about unassisted or natural birth, the topic of pain-free birth rolls around. When it does, I wonder if striving for a ‘pain-free birth’ doesn’t inadvertently miss the potential beauty of natural birth itself. I don’t believe birth is meant to be pain-free, in fact, I believe it’s far more than that! I believe, and have experienced, birth to be downright ecstatically, blissfully pleasurable. ‘Pain-free’ doesn’t even come close to describing that experience. That’s like calling a high sexual union with your mate ‘pain-free,’ or the most breathtaking sunset you’ve ever seen ‘ugly-free.’ I think that as long we’re focusing on getting rid of or avoiding pain, we’re focusing on the wrong area and we’re completely missing the point.”

I love this! Language is so powerful. I like how Hypnobabies educators often refer to “easy, comfortable birthing” and other people who refer to birth as “pleasurable birth” or “joyful birth” or “ecstatic birth.” How much more descriptive than “pain-free” or “painless” that is. Painless or pain-free to me communicates a loss of sensation or awareness–a “deadness” or “dullness” to the fullness of birth.

Personal Mastery and Birth

Nov29

I wanted to share a link to a post I wrote recently for the ICEA blog. In this post I discussed some research from the book Childbirth Education: Research, Practice, & Theory:

The book also shares the research that when mothers were interviewed postpartum who had had epidurals, their comments following birth focused almost totally on the baby. Women who had relied on relaxation and other non-pharmaceutical coping methods talked about the baby AND about the emotional and psychological benefits of their birth experiences. Women in both groups expressed satisfaction with their birth experiences, but for those in the epidural group “the element of personal accomplishment or mastery was missing in their comments.”

I believe that starting out the parenting adventure with a sense of “personal accomplishment and mastery” is a tremendous gift and I wish all expectant couples had the opportunity to experience birth in this way. In my classes, I strive to emphasize that both process (giving birth) and product (healthy baby, healthy mom) are important!

As long as I’m discussing posts I’ve made elsewhere, I wanted to also link to my CfM blog post this week which was about what are we thankful for? (in the “birth world”). I have a lot to be thankful for and hope you do as well!

What’s at the root?

Nov19

On a discussion board this week in the birth professionals section (doulas, midwives, birth educators), someone asked the question “what’s at the root of your love of birth?” I was still for a moment and let my intuitive, heart-felt, gut level response come to me and it was this:

Women.

Women’s health, women’s issues, women’s empowerment, women’s rights.

Social justice.

…..

And, that feeling. The “birth power” feeling–that laughing/crying, euphoric, climbed-the-mountain, glowing, rapture…feeling. The transformative, empowering, triumphant, powerful, I DID IT, feeling.

I want all women to have the chance to experience that.

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As I look at my list above and invert it, it becomes my “tree” of birthwork–with women as the root and then spreading up to blossom with that birth-power-feeling. 🙂

To any birth professionals reading this, how about you? What’s at the root for you?

Who is your birth link?

Oct29

There is a survey up on the Independent Childbirth blog asking who your “birth link” is—your primary connection to information about birth. Traditionally, women learned about birth from other women—informal, woman-to-woman birth sharing. Culturally, we’ve moved away from this as our primary information source (often to our detriment!).

Of course, I think independent childbirth educators and independent birth classes are great “birth links” 🙂

Thinking back to my first pregnancy, my primary birth link was the newsgroup misc.kids.pregnancy. I learned so much there and they really shaped my attitudes and beliefs about birth. I have a very birth-positive mother, but I didn’t really go to her for birth information. I felt the need for my “peers” and I found those most readily online. My other link was reading (of course!). I read voraciously and always have. It was hard to transfer “book learning” to really feeling *prepared* to actually give birth though.

I also took an independent birth class. Since I was so extensively read, I do not remember feeling like I learned many new things from the classes.

During my second pregnancy, books were huge again, but this time around my in-person friends were also a very valuable birth link. I am lucky to have a wonderful network of birthy friends who can talk about birth with me for hours on end. One friend in particular was very inspiring to me as I worked through some “issues” I had from my first birth (the birthing itself was tremendously empowering and beautiful, but afterwards I had sequestered clots and a painful manual extraction of those, a pitocin shot, and also tearing that was traumatic for me for some time to come). My friend is a fabulous example of someone who really “trusts birth” and it was so great to talk with her during the course of my pregnancy <waves to Shauna…>