Birth etc classes at UMC or St Joes?

Mystery2B

Has anyone gone to the ones at UMC or St. Joes? 

I could go to the ones at UMC for free through my insurance (I think, need to double check) or I could pay for the ones at St. Joes (around $100) which is where I will be delivering. Any feedback on either set of classes? I was specifically looking at the birthing, breastfeeding, and comfort measures classes.

The hospital tour at St. Joes I'll do either way. 

Thanks! 

kimmiebeeaz

I attended all three of those classes at St. Joes this past year...

Birthing class - there is a 8 week version and a cram it all into one day version.  We did the one day class.  You do learn some good information about the hospital and its poilicies and maybe a thing or two about child birth you didn't know before.  I found the pain management section useful.  I would say out of the 8 hours of class about 2-3 hours was useful information.  They spend about 1 hour going over how child birth use to be - that was interesting.

Breastfeeding - Again, you may learn a thing or two about breastfeeding you didn't already know.  What I found most useful was learning about the various resources the hospital has, such as being able to meet with the lactation consultant.  The Q and A session is also good so you can ask whatever is most important to you.  They provide dolls so you can practice the various bf'ing holds.  In this class, they spend about 45 minutes telling the same story about what it was like to give birth in the olden days... eh, interesting enough to hear twice I suppose...

Comforts class - I knew we were in trouble when the class started out with about 1.5 hours or so of what it was like to give birth in the olden days.  OK I GOT IT  --- things are much better now!!!  They proceded to show us videos - as in on VHS video tapes --- of natural child birth coping methods that look like they were filmed 20+ years ago...  Gee for a hospital that says they are progressive, their class media material seem a bit out of date.  For the second half of the class you practice what you saw in the video on the floor with your coach, a chair and a birthing ball.  This is probably the most useful part.  Then when you are done with that, its back into the class room for about 2 more hours of out of date video and graphic birthing footage... IMO I got enough of that watching TLC's Baby Story...

Knowing what I know now - I would skip the classes and rent a DVD...  Or in your case, try the free ones out.  I doubt the ones at St. Joes are any better than what you can get at UMC.  Out of the three, the bf'ing one was the most useful. I would recommend going on the hospital tour!!!  That is free and they will be able to answer many of your questions.

Hope my very opinionated opinion helps!!!

Mystery2B

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate the warning on the repeats of what it was like...I don't need to hear that anymore (have gotten it plenty from my mom and her friends about inductions with pitocin but WITHOUT any epidurals).

Maybe I'll just get some video's from the library...or I just found out my OB's office does a childbirth class as well and it's only 5-6 hours so we might go for that one since it's shorter. 

And I will for sure do the hospital tour