Allie’s Birth Tip: Childbirth Education
What's one of the best ways to prepare for birth?
Take a comprehensive childbirth education class!
Dollar for dollar, it can be one of the best investments you can make to positively impact your birth outcomes. Studies show that feeling heard, respected, and part of the decision making process are the biggest predictors of satisfaction with your birth experience, significantly more so than other clinical factors like how much pain you experienced or if you had a vaginal or cesarean birth. If you're wondering what to look for in a class, think about the following:
In-person vs. online: There are benefits to both but I think when it comes to birth prep and education, in-person has a little bit of an edge. For one, classes are a great way to meet other folks in the same life space as you and start to build a community for when after your baby arrives (trust me -- you'll need it!), and it's a lot easier to bond in person. For another, learning about things like proper body balancing and alignment for optimal fetal positioning and comfort measures for labor are hands-on activities where proper technique matters and it can be challenging to know if you're doing things right when just watching through a screen.
One-day intensive vs. a multiple class series: A multiple class series here wins hands-down. To truly learn -- meaning to hear, process, digest, reflect on, and retain information -- all the core components included in a comprehensive childbirth class, we need to slow the train down and spread things out. Information overload is a real thing and there is just no way to retain all the information if it's thrown at you in one day, nor will there ever be enough time to put what you've learned into practice in a one-day intensive. If you balk at the idea of a 6, 8, or 12 week commitment, consider that people can recall vivid, detailed memories of their births for decades after the fact. Taking the time now to prepare yourself and stack your deck for a positive, informed experience can pay off for years and years to come.
Specific birthing method vs. broad-spectrum coverage: This one is a toss-up. If you choose to take a course that focuses solely on one type of coping skill, make sure the class also covers broader topics such as healthy lifestyles and nutrition, the stages and phases of labor, risks and benefits of interventions, complications in birth, early postpartum, lactation, etc. As one of my midwives once said: "Birth is crazy and crazy shit happens." A high-quality, comprehensive class will help mentally prepare you for whatever crazy shit might happen, and how to still have an empowered birth in the face of it.
Our bodies know what to do to birth babies, but our current system of birth is broken. Our maternal morbidity and mortality rates are the highest of any other high-income countries, and Black women are over three times more likely to die in the perinatal year. Our C-section rate is over 30% -- 2-3x that which the WHO recommends for decreasing mortality rates. Birth is one of the only areas of medicine where increases in technology have not resulted in concomitant increases in birth outcomes. In fact, we're going in the opposite direction. One of the best ways to prepare yourself for navigating birth in this broken system is to educate yourself. Education is a really low-risk, high-reward investment and there is not a pregnant person out there I wouldn't recommend it for!
Allie (she/her) is our resident birth brain and front office manager extraordinaire. Allie is a Lamaze-trained childbirth educator, a DONA-certified birth doula, and a passionate advocate for better care for people before, during, and after childbirth.
