Here’s a post about one Australian prenatal class. So much to talk about as you read this. Notice the sub-title … we need to talk about childbirth pain prepare for it. Birthing Better would certainly agree with that. The question is what is being offered in this article? And what is being offered in Birthing Better. Here’s a stark comparison indeed.
BTW … this article actually shows that just about anything can help women cope better with the natural occurring pain of labour contractions.
- Statistics comparison: The statistics shown in this article are really good for first-time mothers and like our statistics of over 1000 birthing families (not just first-time mothers) in a 17 years period, skills help families self-reduce the need for medical pain relief, can reduce Caesarean births as well as augmentation of labor. The photo on Facebook pages of our statistics as well as the photo on this article. I honestly don’t know how to convert our statistics into %. If you do please let me know.
- Teacher comparison: The Australian course was a ‘class’ in hospital. Birthing Better is an online course for use in the privacy of your own home. The Australian teacher is a doula. Birthing Better was developed by hundreds of families who you are learning from.
- Content comparison: In the Australian course, it focuses on yoga techniques, doula support, and acupressure points. Birthing Better has two skill sets: prepare your body to open up and create space with simple hands-on skills such as The Hip Lift, Sit Bone Spread, Pelvic Clock as well as birth and birth-coaching skills such as Directed Breathing, Deep Touch Relaxation and how to use the skills in every type of birth.
- Comparison of society focus: In Australia: “In the 1990s the focus of childbirth education classes shifted from natural childbirth preparation to hospital birth preparation, with a focus on medical interventions such as such as pharmacological pain relief, induction of labour and caesarean sections,” Dahlen said. Globally … childbirth education is diverse or non-existent which is where Birthing Better online course exists … everywhere.
- Comparison between medical and complementary: The Australian class is taught within the context of this conflict between ‘medical’ and ‘natural’ birth. It’s rightly now called ‘complimentary’. Birthing Better families never engaged in that conflict. They just wanted skills to birth their babies.
- Comparison of origin of skills: Bravo to the teacher. She learned by working as a doula. Therefore her course is a reflection of herself, knowledge and beliefs … and kudos to her! There are many teachers and authors who you can research with great ideas. Birthing Better was developed by hundreds of families from diverse backgrounds having the full range of birth experiences. Birthing Better skills are about our universal pregnant/birthing body and not techniques based on belief systems. This is hugely important. If you have access to a class such as the one in the article, you’ll find Birthing Better skills fill in the gaps as well as enrich the class content. Techniques don’t work as well as skills. Skills adapt and adjust in every circumstance because they are universal and based on our human body.
- Comparison of fathers-to-be: No comparison there. This teacher feels that fathers need skills. Birthing Better fathers KNOW they need skills.
Is this an article about ‘comparison’? Yes and no.
- NO … Comparisons do not mean something is better or worse as is the conflict between ‘medical’ and ‘natural’ birth.
- NO … This article shows that the next childbirth trend is spreading … more skills!
- YES … We need skills to work for every birth and be available to every family
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/07/14/the-doula-led-prenatal-course-hospitals-can-learn-from/
Birthing Better online birthing classes are housed in Common Knowledge Trust