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laura3462
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Northwestern classes for new parents? Useful?
laura3462
member
I am curious if you took the classes offered at NW for new parents:
Great expecations
Infant safety/CPR
Infant basic care
BF 101
If you did were they helpful? If you decided not to...any specific reason?
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Re: Northwestern classes for new parents? Useful?
We took all the classes. We are first time parents and knew nothing about babies besides from what we read in books. Here's what I thought (sorry, my response got a little long!) -
The Infant Safety/CPR class was very helpful. I'm actually considering seeing if we can take it again since I feel like I'm forgetting it.
The BF class was pretty good, although it still didn't truly prepare me for how difficult BFing was going to be.
We took a two part Great Expectations class, and it was just ok. I didn't feel like our instructor went into a lot of detail about labor and delivery. It was very general. They did go over the steps for checking into the hospital and where to go when you are in labor, so that was nice. When we were at the BF class (on a saturday), another Great Expectations class was going on and it seemed much more interactive (couples were practicing breathing, different positions, etc.), so it might just depend on the teacher.
The infant basic care was pretty useless. A lot of what they go over is very basic (lol, I guess that is in the title). But even as a first time mom to be, I felt like I already knew a lot of what they covered - like put the baby to sleep on their back, here's a swaddleme and this is how it works, etc.
What about the Pediatric Care class? That one was pretty informative to me. It was an open forum where people ended up asking a lot of questions about feedings, sleep, when to get immunizations, etc. I don't know if he teaches all of them, but Dr. Weissbluth (the author of Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child) taught our class, so it was interesting to hear his thoughts.
Looking back, I'd probably still sign up for all the classes. Isn't there a little discount if you take them all? That might cover some of the cost of the Infant Basic Care class. HTH!
We did all of the classes- in 2008, there was a discount if you did all.
Infant Care was a bit basic- but I remember getting a few freebies from that class- so it wasn't a total waste of time.
We did the one-day Great Expectations- it was informative but since I planned to have an epi (and had already met with the anesthesiolgy team about that bc of pre-existing conditions), I didn't get as much out of it. If I had planned to go for a natural birth, the little bit of breathing, positions that they showed wouldn't have been near enough to get me through labor. I'm still glad we went- especially that DH was with because I forgot about not holding your breath during contractions and kept doing it without realizing it.
Breastfeeding 101 was good for us- bring your DH! If nothing else, he learned that it wasn't necessarily easy from the get-go and was great support during the first weeks when the baby wanted to eat a ton. Plus, I loved that they told him to bring me a glass of water every time I sat down to nurse- you need to push fluids and it was a good reminder.
I'd also do the car seat check.
We did the Great Expectations class and the CPR class. I'm glad we did both.
Great Expectations was mostly review for me (I ended up answering most of the questions haha) but I think it was helpful to my husband. I also liked the hospital tour the best. It's a REALLY nice hospital!
Infant CPR was practical and I'm glad we did it, even though I hope to never have to use it!
we didn't because they were much too expensive. we looked to see if there was anywhere else more affordable, but it was pretty much the same price everywhere. ultimately, we decided we didn't need any of the classes... and our baby is happy, healthy, and 'perfect' according to our pedi from lakeview pediatrics
My husband and I were actually disappointed in the Infant/CPR class. For the same price that Northwestern charges you can take a course from the American Heart Association to become infant/child/adult CPR and Choking certified.
Our instructor didn't even watch both partners to ensure we had the technique correct on the dummies. Granted it is informative, but I would have rather been tested to know that everything I was doing was correct, and received the certification.
Infant basic care and the pediatrician courses were useful, taking GE and BF in the coming weeks.