a doula reviews a hospital childbirth class

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I had to take a childbirth class through a hospital as a part of my doula certification. I learned a lot (something surprising) and I was disappointed for those mamas. On November 12 I took a childbirth class from Intermountain Healthcare here are my thoughts about it.

Let's start with the good. I did like that the teacher was super passionate about birth, most birth workers are. Most of us get into birth work because something crappy happened to us and we want birth to be better. She was super kind and welcoming. She encouraged questions which was awesome! She did have the balloon activity where you kind of simulate Braxton hicks vs real contractions.

Some things I learned:

• lactmed provides information about different medications, and if they are considered safe to take while pregnant/breastfeeding. Of course, talk to your doctor as well and practice using your instincts.

• if you live in Utah and need some help with postpartum, sex, or couples therapy this might be a good start! The Healing Group

• while in labor, between contractions tense your muscles and relax them. Go through each muscle group... feet, calves, thighs, etc. We practiced this and it was super relaxing!

• a couple of acronyms that will be encouraging for the labor pain.

P pain

A anticipated

I intermitted

N natural

P passageway

P passenger

P powers

P psyche

• use Calm and Headspace apps to help get in the right headspace - my therapist recommends these and I should've thought of it before

• contraction apps to know if you need to go to the hospital - you can just look up "contraction" in the app store and it'll bring up a bunch

• if you don't want an app, remember 5.1.1. rule 5 minutes apart 1 lasts a minute for at least 1 hour
  

Now for the stuff that you probably came here to read… the things I disagreed with. This class was really hard for me to sit through because I wanted to get up and present/answer all the questions. This class reminded me of all the reasons why I’m going to be a doula. She talked a lot about dilation and effacement, and how empowering it was that these couples knew those words now. I knew all those words when I gave birth, and yeah they do kind of let you into the conversation with nurses but not really.

The other thing that really drove me crazy was the way she talked about how these women should interact with their doctor/midwife. She kept talking about how you should just listen to them and if it changes your plans then that’s okay. Alright, yeah it is okay that your birth doesn’t go to plan and you should be flexible, but honestly, the doctors and midwives should be making decisions with you depending on how you’re doing in labor, what’s baby doing, how you feel, what are your fears, what are your goals, etc. it’s not that the doctor/midwife walk in, see something they don’t like and talk you through what they want to do next, and just because they went to med school does not mean they get to make decisions for you. Too much coercion and fear-mongering goes on for that to work. A woman should be able to ask questions, get the whole picture and trust her intuition during birth.

There were hardly any techniques shared to deal with pain other than the epidural... when there are other ways. Being in water during labor is almost as good as an epidural for pain relief. You can use oils, breathing, counter pressure, etc. for pain relief.

There was a little bit of talk about postpartum depression/anxiety but only because the instructor had it.

I did walk away feeling way more confident in myself. I could’ve answered most of the questions that the couples had. I could’ve gotten up there and taught from the slides and I would’ve put my own spin on them. I would’ve added way more about postpartum mood disorders and what to look for, symptoms, and how to set up a support system and find help that you need.

Overall I would give the class 4/10 stars. It is an okay starting point, but I learned a lot of the same stuff from this book and there are lots of really great birthing courses you can get way more in-depth from people who don't work for the hospital.