Birthing Classes

[Julie Doula]

New Active Birth is great! Reading that was a light-bulb moment for me: the working uterus likes to tilt forward when it contracts - that's why many women instinctively lean their torso forward during contractions - if you're lying down, the uterus has to tilt forward uphill against gravity --- ahh, so that's why it hurts more! Lots of other good common-sense stuff in there, too.

It was written as a rebuttal to the "Active Management of Birth" obstetric model that was popular at the time, developed in a Dublin hospital - to use drugs and technology to make sure all women dilated one centrimetre per hour, with time limits on how long you were "allowed" to push, and rapid cutting of the cord and delivery of the placenta. ("Mothers aren't humans, they're machines, didn't you know!? I'm sure there's a way we can impose mechanical rhythms on natural ones and over-ride mother nature! We have the technology!")

Here is a place to see a few positive birth images:

Birth Montage General Discussion #1

[Mum0809]

Thanks for the info everyone.

[Yael]

I did (private) hospital classes - utter waste of time & money.

If you had read a single book about labour you knew most of the stuff, and lot of the labour class was just about pain relief ('cos apparently thats "all most women want to hear about"), and they had some other one which was how to dress your baby. Good if you had no experience what-so-ever around children, or had no time to read anything, but i just felt annoyed at wasting my time. The only semi-decent class they had was a 3hr breastfeeding one, but i'm sure the ABA could have done a better job!

Wish i had done some independant classes that were geared to the type of labour i wanted!

[Ozziehoffy]

JoJo, I was petrified of natural birth until I did a hypnobirthing course. It was the BEST thing I could've done to prepare myself. Like Becmc said, it's about visualisation, relaxation etc. It worked a treat for me and I had a drug free VBAC which was my goal I hope you find what works for you and all the best

[little_Miss_Chez]

i was wondering if someone could give me some advice as to where i could look for the private classes meantioned - im in Tasmania and the Hospital where the Anti Natal and those ones are based is an hour n half away ( and so is the birthing centre so thats going to be intresting when the time comes ) Was looking for something closer to home and a little better set up havnt heard the greatest reports about the public hospital ones here - Is there an organisation or a group is should contact for the right information instead of blank faces from the ppl i ask .
ps i dont live rural they just stoped Babys and emergancy at the hospital half hour away .

Thanks

[blue daisy]

you could google childbirth educators...but Im not sure of any in Tassie

another option is to perhaps do a hypnobirthing course....such as calmbirth or birthskills

hope this helps

xx yogababy