…of me doing anything and everything that I want, regardless of what you want, since I AM THE ONE IN CHARGE OF YOUR BIRTH!!
Finish the sentence, dude.

I would have to agree with the dr here if it were a hospital sponsored childbirth class that grooms new mothers to be “good little patients” *pat on the head*.
A real childbirth class would empower the mother to actually question her OB and stand up for the birth she wants *gasp*…

I’ve heard that many hospital classes basically steer the patient straight to the epidural, so I bet you’re right, Bonita.

“It will just get in the way” must translate to “Because you’ll know more than I do, and we don’t want that!”

When I mentioned to my OB which class I was looking into she said, “Don’t take that class, they make bad paitients who ask too many questions!” here’s a list of classes at our hospital.

I was amazed at my first (hospital-sponsered) childbirth class when the instructor asked if anyone was planning a natural childbirth and I was the only one who raised my hand. She asked if anyone was open to natural childbirth but wanted to keep their options open, and no one raised their hand. She then asked how many were going to be asking for the epidural in the parking lot, and everyone else raised their hand. I was the only one who asked any significant questions during the whole 8-session class.

I eventually took the class and now have been a CBE in that method for over ten years. I need to write my OB a letter and thank her for starting me on this path!

And stay away from those pesky books too. We want you as uneducated and compliant as possible.

I think my OB with my 1st born gave me a list of possible classes, not sure, but it had to come from the office somehow. The class I took had a great instructor that I recall encouraged us to wait as long as possible before going to the hospital, drinking and eating in labor, and said to try going another 15 minutes after you just cannot handle it anymore before asking for an epidural. If it doesn’t get any worse, you might already be in transition. I was told I probably wouldn’t need an epidural if I got to 8 cm dilated. So, when I did have my first baby, I did drink all night long and ate in the morning, and went in to the hospital after laboring all night. I was only there 5 hours before the baby was born. I didn’t take an epidural. The only real flaws in my mind (since I wasn’t educated enough even with my good birth educator) was that I was given an episiotomy (needed on only one stitch…weird), and that baby was on the warmer instead of my arms at first. But I was walking around during labor, and the nurse helped me a great deal when I panicked in transition. The doctor was there with time to spare and sat in my room for a while before the baby came. She turned my op baby and I birthed easily without an epidural, then when I was holding my baby (she stayed a while after the birth) she leaned her head on her hand and asked me if I was going to have another because my birth was so nice. I think the childbirth education I got that first time impacted all my births. I have never gone to the hospital with more than 5 hours before the birth, most of the time it’s about 2 hours. I’ve had 7 births, so that’s not too bad.

My husband wants to take a class and I really could care less. Of course this is only his second (and his first is 21), but it’s my eighth, including breach twins and one born unassisted. I like to think I’ve learned a thing or two already

I didn’t do any classes but I read like made, asked heaps of questions, watched videos on Youtube and googled everything and ended up with an unnecessarian.
And my mum told me that I “set myself up to fail because you thought you knew too much instead of just trusting the doctors to have your best interests at heart”. End result, scar and PTSD, and my comment back “no mum, I would still have ended up feeling this way but I would have blamed myself instead of knowing that I was lied to, bullied and set up to fail by an incompetent OB who should be out of practice”.
Oh, I just hate it.

I wouldn’t take a hospital class either. HOWEVER, there is an AWESOME video that I would encourage EVERY mom to be to watch!!! I learned more from that video than the class I took and felt like I was more in charge of my births using what I took from the video than I did what I got from the child birth class. The class pretty much taught us that epidurals and pitocin were necessary. I. Think. Not. I got “Laugh and Learn about Childbirth” from the local library and vowed that someday I would own it. I have check that movie out so many times, and recommended it to so many moms, I should own it! I have had two very natural births (both hospital births) using what Sherri taught me!

After being in on 4K to 5K births in my career as an L&D RN…the moms that do the best are the ones prepared – classes that give choices and give coping skills. I can see why the moms on here are hostile…after working in the USA I was horrified with how women are made to deliver. I prefer it in B.C. Canada where MOST of the time one is allowed to labor as they please, and home deliveries are encouraged. I hardly EVER see a scalp electrode here…

In all honesty, I never took a childbirth class. I read Ina May Gaskin’s books. I figure if ALL those women could do it, there was no was I couldn’t.

While my midwife, husband and I were walking the halls when I was in labor with my son, we were chatting, and we brought up the childbirth class to her. We had taken it, but hated it. One whole class of the four was all about the epidural (and other pain medications, but all hail the epidural!) and they taught us how to lay on our backs in bed. We learned what our vagina was and where it was located (Thank goodness! I had no idea!) and that sperm and an egg = a baby.

I wanted to shoot myself in the head.

She said if she could get away with it, she would tell her patients to avoid it, because “all it is is a class on how to get an epidural”. Unfortunately, all the people who want the epidural give the teacher high scores on their surveys at the end. I didn’t. I guess I’m mean.

So I would understand this comment…. if it wasn’t Jen’s crazy OB.

Technically the doctor has a point. The vast majority of childbirth classes are not taught by independent instructors, but by hospital employees, professionals kept on retainer by the OBs themselves, etc. Those sorts of classes are only good for teaching a perfectly healthy expecting mother how to be a fragile, submissive “patient.” What a great way to get in the way of birth.

Independent instructors are out there, and can be a lot more empowering. OBs hate them.

I never saw a need either way. I have a tall five-shelf bookshelf stacked double-thick with books about pregnancy, birth, reproductive health, etc(most acquired AFTER my disastrous hospital VBAC, I’m afraid) and I think I understand how birth works and how my body works. I never felt a need for a class to learn a method. Then again, many methods seem to focus on how to cope with/relieve pain, and I never considered that much of a priority. I get migraines. Birth never scared me.

The OB’s words are definitely the red flag of a paternalistic control freak, though… “Do everything I say. I don’t want you to know anything except what I tell you, because it might make you harder to manipulate.” Eew.

Wow. I think I might have punched him. I’m so blessed to have an OB that not only encourages classes, but actually provides them free of charge at her clinic, taught by a certified Lamaze instructor that steers patients away from the epidural and other interventions. My OB also offers parallel care for women planning to deliver at home with a midwife (like I’m doing), and asked me to bring in my birth plan so she could sign off on it in case we had to transfer to the hospital. She reassured me that I could birth in any position I wanted, even if it meant she had to get on her hands and knees on the floor to catch the baby. After my first birth ended in a C-section, the first thing she said to me was “Next time you’ll have a perfect VBAC!” She’s just an amazing woman. She spent the past year fighting and beating an aggressive cancer and was back at her practice the moment she was able because she believes in healthy normal birth so strongly. There are other doctors like her out there, if you’re willing to do your homework. You can ask local doulas and midwives what doctors they like working with and choose an OB that fits your philosophy – you don’t have to just take whomever your insurance provider assigns you. It’s worth the extra effort to get the birth you want!

I have to say that my hospital birth class was a pleasant surprise. It included a model of a contracting uterus that was knitted, so that you could actually see the uterus working the model baby out, and advice on counterpressure and other needle-free techniques. If, IF IF IF, my likely attending physician hadn’t been such a condescending, fat-phobic, pessimistic jerk–I might have gone to the hospital to give birth.

OTOH, she was very honest about the likelihood that we’d end up strapped to monitors with hep-locks in place.