Thursday, February 16, 2012

Considering Childbirth Education.....but not sure it's worth the investment?

Considering Childbirth Education.....but not sure it's worth the investment?

Even in the age of information, in the age of the internet, in the age of media, there is a lot about birth that is not discussed in detail in public forums and even in movies or books you may buy to prepare.  There are web pages that can inform you about statistics and personal blogs where women may chronicle their personal experiences.  There are  parenting and mothering sites that may give you a superficial glimpse at the process of childbirth, but in my professional opinion, the information found there is highly biased and are often  only contributed by those women on the far ends of the spectrum.  We see scary stories about medical catastrophes, botched surgeries, major complications, we see normalized medical interventions even when there is no actual medical need, and an occasional natural birth thrown in for good measure.  We have films now, even some that would be considered somewhat mainstream, like "The business of being born".  A great film, to be sure, but it is not childbirth education.  The intent of the film was to broaden awareness regarding the modernized practice of midwifery in the United States and to give us a GLIMPSE of childbirth in a variety of environments.  There are other films out there as well, "Born in the USA" is a particular favorite of mine, chronicling the real difference between Obstetric care and midwifery care in a variety of practices in the U.S. While I do use films, textbooks and web resources in my class, it takes up a fraction of our time together.  In my class I probably spend 90% of our hours together just speaking and leading discussion.  The information we discuss in class isn't written anywhere.
I constantly have highly educated and well informed people staying after class to ask further questions and comment on the information taught in class that they had never heard before.
Birth is hard work, it IS harder than you think.
It takes conviction and conviction takes information.  You have to know why you want it.
One problem with the media and birth is that it has introduced our society to a pretty picture, but doesn't tell you how to get that pretty picture in your own album.  That's my job.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.