Bradley Plus Hospital Class?

katharine25

DH and I are taking Bradley, and delivering at a baby friendly, natural birth friendly hospital. I did the hospital tour already on my own while at the hospital "open house", and am planning on bringing DH back sometime in the early 30's.

At the open house, the women were pushing me taking the hospital's birthing class run by lactation consultant.  They were saying I should take it in addition so I'm aware of induction & c-section procedures as well, just in case....

I'm reading Goer's book, "The Thinking woman's guide to a Better Birth", and  she really covers so much ground in regards to interventions... is there any real benefit to taking the hospital's class, or is this just overkill?

tokenhoser

Personally, I'd say "overkill", but I also wouldn't want to lose another day to classes if I was already doing Bradley. I'm sure you're aware of interventions.

aylafsu88

IMO I would not take it.  I took the Bradley class and one of the classes focused on C/S and inductions. I also read Henci Goer's book.  I thought the book and the lesson in our Bradley class were enough for me. I think the hospital staff are just trying to push their class.

CRLSMC2011

aylafsu88:

IMO I would not take it.  I took the Bradley class and one of the classes focused on C/S and inductions. I also read Henci Goer's book.  I thought the book and the lesson in our Bradley class were enough for me. I think the hospital staff are just trying to push their class.

Still waiting on this kid to get here, but I would agree with this.  Bradley covers interventions and complications.  Also, if you read and are informed, you'll be fine.  You don't need to pay for and spend your time taking yet another class. 

We did the hospital tour and met with the birth advisor, but did not take any of the hospital classes including the bf class.  They do offer a free bf class every morning for those who have just had a baby the day before.  I'll take that (it's mommy and baby only).

LokiLahve

It would depend on 2 things for me. 1. Is the class meant to teach you about cs and interventions or to go over the hospital's policy and proceedures? 2. Is it free?
If its to review pp's I would consider going just to be as prepared as possible for how things could go at the hospital. If its educational, I'd stick to what I learned on my own and in Bradley classes.

ec0983

Stephw32:

It would depend on 2 things for me. 1. Is the class meant to teach you about cs and interventions or to go over the hospital's policy and proceedures? 2. Is it free? If its to review pp's I would consider going just to be as prepared as possible for how things could go at the hospital. If its educational, I'd stick to what I learned on my own and in Bradley classes.

i totally agree with this.  i think it's important to know what your hospital's policies are, and their class is a great place to find out- plus you can ask questions that you may have about how they handle natural births.  of course, if you already had those questions answered (or you don't have any) then it may not be as worthwhile. 

Hyaline

I found it helpful.  But--our "class" was more of a casual three-part discussion with an LD nurse.  So really, it was a great time to talk standard procedures, what deviations from that are normal, and get a really good sense of what would be problematic in terms of going against policy to achieve the birth I wanted.  Honestly, it's also a good thing to get the input from the other side of the table--in which intervention is the norm.  It helped me anticipate knowing what I would need to ask for.  Had it been a three-hour-long formal lecture...maybe it would have been less helpful.

It's also helpful, I think, to be aware of all the policies regarding the stuff you don't plan on, like c-sections, so you know how to make even a less desirable birth experience what you want it to be.  (As in, I would have known exactly what to ask for in terms of skin-to-skin and post-op procedure had we ended up with a c-section.  I would have been pretty lost without that class.) 

Requirement?  Not really.  But if it's inexpensive, I'd say go for it.  More information is always better than less, right?