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So most of you think you know what I am going to say. Childbirth classes are going to teach you how to labor, go “natural”, and some other - oh your attention drifted away already, right? Let me address Prepared Childbirth Classes from a different viewpoint.

This is time that is special for YOU, your PARTNER, and your BABY. In essence, your new family. Classes are the first time you get to practice any sort of harmony or exercises - just the 3 of you. Instead of looking at it as a chore to go to class, look at it as an investment for your relationships with one another. You will learn about the stages and phases of labor, comfort measures, coping mechanisms, pain medications or alternatives… but you will also learn about EACH OTHER.

Good childbirth educators are the first step to noticing how new parents will interact with one another. Your first baby together is an absolute marvel, but there will be some nerves. How will it affect your relationship? Who will change more diapers? How can we grow closer together when we are sleep deprived? Childbirth educators look for emotional signs of nervousness or anxiety and gently try to address those. One of the most powerful exercises that can be taught in a class is to have each person write on an index card what they most FEAR about the upcoming birth and what they most look forward to about the upcoming birth. The answers are then read aloud, but the person attached to the answers are not revealed, your partner has to guess which is your answer.

The exercises for comfort measures, such as relaxation, practicing positions for labor, timing contractions - all of these are designed to make you more comfortable with the thought of trusting your body, and trusting one another. The mother in labor who hears her partner lean in and say, “You’re doing a great job, honey, this contraction is almost over.” has far more confidence if they have practiced together. The partner trusts the mother laboring as she needs to, maybe even crying, changing positions, expressing her needs — if they have practiced together.

Together you can make the class be a beautiful learning experience, a memory you cherish, a fun adventure, an extension of childbirth itself.