In order to answer this question I have to go back (almost) eleven years to my first pregnancy.
It was 2012, I was 25 and I had no idea what I was doing. I heard tons of stories from other people who had had babies, and a lot of them weren't exactly positive. I knew that I didn't want to have a negative experience but I didn't really know how to make it a positive one either. I should also state, that when we were in Michigan we had met with a midwife. We didn't jive super well with her, but didn't look further for midwifery support. Instead, we moved to Texas and ended up working with the first provider that would take us on their case load this late into the Pregnancy. (We relocated at about 22 weeks pregnant.)
Anywho, I didn't want to rock the boat too bad with the provider so I intended to be the "perfect patient". At this point in my life and career I have learned that there is no such thing as the perfect patient. Just patients that ask questions and patients that ask more questions. I took the recommended childbirth ed class offered through the hospital I was planning on birthing at and thought that would be good enough. It was good enough. I learned about what I could expect during my stay at the hospital.
While this is super important information, I could have also used more information about position changes, different comfort measures and what to expect in those early postpartum days and weeks. To be honest, I was so young that I didn't even to think to look up additional childbirth education or comfort measures or positions for labor. Until I had my first baby I had never even seen a baby be born! (this isn't that uncommon by the way).
Obviously my first birth went as well as could be expected and I have no complaints (except for that one nurse, but that is not a story for today) I'm sure that at some point I'll post my birth stories but for now I'll just state that it was an induction due to high blood pressure, I spent all of the labor in bed, got an epidural super early in the process and ended up pushing for a few hours and got an episiotomy towards the end. Not terrible!
When we decided to have our second baby I didn't seek out childbirth education (I didn't seek anything out with my third either) but I did however do a lot more internet sleuthing to learn more about pregnancy and labor and delivery. My second and third labors were each progressively better. After my third kiddo was born was when I decided that I enjoyed all of this birth stuff. I continued reading and devouring information about everything that goes with pregnancy and birth that I bit the bullet and dove into Birth work. May 2019, I became a birth doula! I didn't get the opportunity to witness my first birth until December of 2020. Also, a post for another day.
Ok, back to education. Between May 2019 and December of 2020 I did a ton of learning about birth, completed an in person educators seminar, birthed my fourth kiddo, and completed a certified lactation course. Looking back on it, I guess I was a little busy.
I knew that I wanted to teach childbirth ed. I knew that I wanted to give people the education that I needed with all my babies. The timing just always seemed off for me to start teaching my own classes. (Not to mention the daunting task of writing a curriculum!) I did notice that my prenatal appointments with some of my clients were a little longer than ideal. So, I took to teaching my own classes!
While I had the background in childbirth ed, I didn't have the patience or time to write my own curriculum. So I took another Childbirth education training. In this training I learned so much about myself and different things to teach and resources I wanted to align myself with. Again, I loved this course and would recommend it to anyone who asked. But I still needed a little more to get over that imposter syndrome. I took another class (yes, three classes just so I could teach my own classes, and no, I don't think that if I just took the third class that I would feel confident in my teaching abilities. I think taking all three of them contributed not only to the educator, I am but also to the doula that I am.) This third class did provide me with a curriculum but also the reassurance that there is space for me in the childbirth ed world. That I have things to talk about and can help educate a
new generation of families in a way that encourages them to birth in a way that works for them and their families.
So, if you take a class with me, not only will you learn about birth, the stages of labor and how and when to utilize the best comfort measures for you. You will also see glimpses of the trainings I took. Learn about some of my personal births as well as some of my experiences with clients. We'll talk about birth plans and postpartum plans and I'll provide you with area resources to help provide support from pregnancy and throughout postpartum.
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