Birthing classes?

texasbeachbride

Tell me about birthing classes?  Are they worth it?  I am not planning on trying to go med free and I am in the medical profession (not OBGYN, though I have seen a few births)

Do you have to do them through your hospital or are there independent classes?  I am delivering at SAMC and it looks like the classes are for 2.5 hr for 3 nights.  I just don't want to waste my time if I'm not really going to get a lot out of them.  Thoughts? 

 Also, anyone do the breastfeeding class through SAMC and have any input on these?  

ec3under4

Back when I was pregnant with my first, I took a class through st davids. We hated it. At the time, I had no intention of going med free. I ended up with an emergency csection and looking back, it was probably largely due to unnecessary intervention. It's one of those, "if only I had known then" instances. Although I don't regret my births, I wish I had been more educated. My advice to you would be to maybe take a class that is more than the hospital ones because I really dont think they teach you how your body is supposed to work. I think taking a natural childbirth class that goes into working with your body would be uber beneficial even if you are not interested in going med free. The result of my first delivery paved the way for my other two and looking back I just wish I had been more informed and I would have, no doubt, made other decisions

angelaggie

I'm doing a class through Get Babied and I'm happy with it. They are more med free but don't push it. I'm really liking it. I just like knowing what to expect and DH is liking it too. It's a 6 week course that meets one night a week for two hours. It kinda is more for med free I think though. They do have lots of other classes that are just a day or two. 

Im going to do a breast feeding class through Special Addition, but get babied has that too. GB also has newborn care classes, yoga, doulas...all kinds of things.  

EGMphoto

I delivered at St. David's NAMC and took classes through them (some were also held South... maybe that was the breastfeeding class).

Ditto others, they were not particularly useful in hindsight, but it did make us feel more prepared at the time - like we were doing all we could.