I have met many of the local childbirth educators and I’m fond of all of them. At this point, I think you have to choose a class that fits your schedule. We’re all good. There’s no “right” way to have a baby. My class is just really, really funny.
- I teach a series of 9 extremely intense, focused classes.
- Classes are a major commitment. You are expected to do reading, writing & research; interview your care provider to make sure she is an ideal match for you; examine your diet and be prepared to make changes; participate actively in class; prepare snacks to share based on foods important to pregnancy; examine your emotional readiness for birth — both mother and partner; and do regular physical exercise — both mother and partner.
- My curriculum and workbook reflect the state of childbirth practices specific to the Puget Sound region and include references to up-to-date websites and articles. When my workbook makes a factual assertion, it is backed up with a reference to a reliable, up to date medical study.
- I rely on diet information out of Bastyr University.
- I pull in relaxation exercises from a variety of sources.
- My class is laugh-out-loud funny, and often profane and R rated. Dads will stay awake for this class.
I differ from all the area hospital classes in that while we share a goal of Healthy Mother, Healthy Baby … I prefer to flip the 90% epidural, 10% unmedicated (usually by accident) ratio on its head. I can’t claim that 90% of my clients go completely unmedicated. But I do have about a 70% unmedicated rate and a 20% cesarean rate in my clientele. I can vouch that every single cesarean in my clientele was absolutely a life-saving one, not an “Oh crap, we’re bored, we don’t know what’s going on” one. I believe that 95% of the epidurals among my clientele are also evidence based medicine. There are one or two lingering doubts in my mind, but I’ll never know.
Now that I have extolled every other class in Seattle except mine, what makes my class stand out?
- It’s really funny.
- It gets the coaches/partners/dads/grandmas/roommates/whoever is supporting the mom really involved, excited, and activated.
- It thoroughly prepares the couple for whatever may come down the pike. You are ready for the glorious, messy, smelly, powerful, overwhelming unmedicated birth of your baby. You are ready to breastfeed on demand and protect your baby’s umbilicus. You are ready to catch the baby on the side of I-5 with nothing but a clean t-shirt and a bottle of hand sanitizer and a cell phone. BUT, you are also ready to make informed decisions about almost every intervention that could be presented to you, up to and including epidural and cesarean.
- You understand the concept of evidence based medicine and intuition. You know when to trust your birth team, when to question them. But more importantly, you trust yourselves as partners to work through the birth together and come out the other side as parents, together.
