Birth Class Question

Shannon526

I just signed up for a birth class at our hospital. This is our first child, so I hope to get the most out of this experience. I was wondering if any of you ladies had already been to one of these classes and if you have any pointers or advice before going to the class :-)

peoples0509

We're in the middle of our classes right now. Some of them are all day classes and knock everything out at once. We decided to do the classes over a span of 4 weeks. This Thursday will be our last class.

I'm also a FTM and I can't say that I've learned anything new in the class, but it's been a learning experience with the different types of people who take the class. You may learn more from the questions that are asked by other parents rather than the material. They go over everything from beginning of your labor until the end, so you'll get all the details. If you have a specific birth plan (natural birth, etc) make sure and keep that in mind when they are talking about other methods of pain control.

We're also taking a baby basics and breastfeeding class and I'm hoping to get more out of those (esp. the breastfeeding) since those are more about the day to day life with an infant.

Good luck! 

Fisherman'sWife

We just finished ours last week.

The best thing I can say is to be open and ask lots of questions.  When we started the class we were planning on a natural birth so didn't pay attention much to the medical topics (c-section, etc).  Come to find out we may be facing some of that so I wish we had asked more questions.  

Amanda&EricB

Just today I got an email from the class instructor. Our 5 week class starts tomorrow evening. One part of the email said that in weeks 2-5 we may need to bring powder/lotion and any non-electric massage equipment that we have at home. I HATE massages, and I am afraid of what this is going to do for us in class. I don't want to be that crazy weirdo in the class not participating, but if the instructor is having everybody practice massages I might just throw up. LOL

Pinaysis86

We just had ours on Saturday. It was an 8 hour class (we don't have time at the moment to do 4 classes since LO is due in 29 days) and it was sooooo long, but I'm glad we had a ton of breaks. I found it helpful though. I took a bunch of notes cuz obviously there is no way I could retain 8 hrs of info. I would just make sure to ask a bunch of questions if you aren't sure of the answer. We stayed for the whole thing even though the last hour consisted of techniques on how to cope with a natural birth. I plan on having an epidural, but it's always good to be prepared cuz you never know! Good luck

Shannon526

Thanks so much for all your advice ladies! We are also doing a long, one day class, as it was the only time that worked with my husband's work schedule.. so I plan on bringing a notebook or something to make sure all my questions are answered, because we all know that our memories may not be at their greatest right now haha :-p

Thanks again! :-)

xloeboo

My advice? Don't waste your time/money. I went for DD and the whole first class was spent explaining how I got pregnant. Uh, thanks a lot for wasting my time. If I didn't know that much, it's too late anyway!!! I dropped out half way through the classes, but not before learning the breathing techniques. So when the big day came, I did the breathing techniques. The nurse asked me, "What are you doing?" "Breathing techniques I learned in the class," I said. "Well stop it. You're gonna make yourself pass out," she replied. Women have been giving birth since the dawn of time WITHOUT useless classes. Save yourself and DH the time and money.