Childbirth Class

sparklingdiamond

The hospital we will be delivering at offers the following classes:

Prepared Childbirth, Baby Care Basics, Breastfeeding, Car Seat, Infant Safety and CPR

Which classes did you take (or which ones do you think would be useful to take) and when did you take them?  I am due in May and they have some in both Feb and Mar.  I think April would be cutting it a little close.

JLyn821

As I haven't actually gone through them yet...I don't know how helpful this will be.  But we signed up for....

- Baby Basics: Meet the Pediatrician:  This is offered through the hospital but connected with our pediatrician of choice.  We'll get to sit down with the pediatrician in this one.

- Preparing for Childbirth-Lamaze:  Since I want to go natural during delivery, I chose the Lamaze option for this.  (Our hospital has an option that talks more about epidurals and such, too.)  We'll also get a hospital tour through this class.

- Baby Care:  This is where DH will learn how to diaper, bathe, etc the baby.  I know how to do these things but he's never even held a baby and really wanted to make sure we did this class.

I'm due April 5th and we'll be taking all of these in January.  We'd have normally taken the Preparing for Childbirth class in February, but DH will be gone the weekend of one of the classes and so we opted for January instead of March.

We'll have to get the car seat inspected as well.  My hospital doesn't offer a BF class, but they do have lactation consultants in the hospital and we have a local place that I could always go to.

sparklingdiamond

Is your DH going to all of them with you?

Lynn0514

We took prepared childbirth, breast feeding, infant care, and CPR. I'm glad to have taken all of them, but the breast feeding class was especially great. All of the classes were spaced out from October to early December, so I think I was in third tri for almost all of them. The exception was CPR, which we got out of the way early. For prepared childbirth, they recommended you take it around 30 weeks.

bobcee

My hospital had a labor and child care class that was combined into one class that I took. I also took a relaxation class that taught coping methods to help get me through labor. I would've loved to take infant CPR but it just didn't work with our schedules.

I think I knew enough about car seats just by going to get it checked out by a certified installer at the hospital. She gave us all the rules/tips etc that we needed. I don't know what more would be needed.

iwalktheline

Things changed a little for me when I was put on bed rest... I was originally planning to take child birth, infant care, infant CPR, and breast feeding (between 33-34 weeks).

However, I'm not allowed to be up for all of that, so my dr gave me the ok to do one 2hr class per weekend. So we did infant care and breast feeding. I really wanted to take the child birth class, but it was a 9 hour long day, so that one was nixed. And the CPR class is a little too physical for me to do at this point.

I honestly think taking any of them is great, but I don't think they're absolutely necessary either. Do whatever makes you feel comfortable and prepared.

sgautschi

Our hospital offered those first three, and we only took the baby basics class. DH had never been around babies, ever, so he was nervous about what to expect. I took it so he would feel like he wouldn't feel like I was telling him how to care for his daughter when she got here. I think it helped his confidence a lot.

I didn't take the childbirth education class because I didn't want to overthink the process. I was afraid it would trigger anxiety, and I was fine giving birth without it.

If our hospital had offered the infant safety and CPR, I would've taken that one as well. There have been two times that A has started choking and it scared the living sh*t out of me. Instincts kicked in and I was able to get her breathing again, but I was so scared she wasn't going to. I would've felt better having that class under my belt, and may still find somewhere to take it.

ETA I took the classes in July and August, with an early October due date. I was glad I did them early because I never would've survived a class in the last month or two of pregnancy.

LittleLady77

I'm taking as many classes as I can.  My work doesn't mind and hubby and I need all the help we can get.  We are totally clueless.  (How do I know SO MUCH about TTC and nothing about babies?!?!)

sushilover0214

We took baby care basics. Lamaze, breastfeeding, hospital stay and the hospital tour. It was a busy November but really good.

JLyn821

sparklingdiamond said:

Is your DH going to all of them with you?

Yep!  He'll be at all of them.