What childbirth prep classes to take?!

[9jawife]

Ok, I am a little over halfway through my pregnancy and completely overwhelmed! I want to take some sort of class series to help me prepare for a natural/low intervention birth, but there are so many to choose from! Just a few I've heard of...

~Lamaze
~Bradley
~Hypnobirthing
~Birthing From Within

Can anyone tell me some of the advantages and disadvantages of each? My main concern is pain management, since I'll be foregoing an epidural. Thank you so much!!!

 

[NaturalMomma]

I didn't take any prep classes, but all of those classes will focus on pain management, that is mostly what those classes are for. Lamaze and Bradley focus a lot on breathing techniques, Hypnobirthing obviously focuses on self hypnoses, and Birthing from Within I believe focuses on fears in childbirth and working through that (and yours would be pain). I don't think you can go wrong with any of those

As a side note, Nigerian Italian!? That is an exotic mix! I have 3 kids (all from the same dad) and 2 of them are red headed Italians, it's going to be interesting

 

[9jawife]

I didn't take any prep classes, but all of those classes will focus on pain management, that is mostly what those classes are for. Lamaze and Bradley focus a lot on breathing techniques, Hypnobirthing obviously focuses on self hypnoses, and Birthing from Within I believe focuses on fears in childbirth and working through that (and yours would be pain). I don't think you can go wrong with any of those

As a side note, Nigerian Italian!? That is an exotic mix! I have 3 kids (all from the same dad) and 2 of them are red headed Italians, it's going to be interesting

Thank you; as of now I'm leaning towards Hypnobirthing, at least purchasing a CD set if not taking the classes. I have heard some remarkable stories about how it reduced pain drastically!

Yep, lol, my husband is Nigerian and I am actually 50% Italian (my dad was born and raised in Italy) but I might as well be full-I have the dark hair, olive skin, and European features. I'm so excited to see how cute this baby will be. :-D

 

[BellarinaBaby]

My husband and I took the Bradley classes and we loved it. Bradley focuses on relaxation techniques during labor and your husband is your coach. Since it was our first birth, we also hired our Bradley teacher to be our doula. I ended up having a completely unmedicated hospital birth and it was such an amazing experience. The Bradley classes take 12 weeks, with one class per week. I would recommend talking to a local Bradley teacher in your area and see if it's a good fit for you.

 

[MindUtopia]

I would highly recommend hypnobirthing. I didn't do that specific method, but I did use hypnotherapy for my birth and it was so tremendously helpful (I got to full dilation and through transition to pushing at home with just my husband before the midwives even arrived and all of us were surprised I was that far along because it was so manageable, I had a home birth and didn't use or need any pain relief). I didn't take any of the other classes (we don't have them here) but have the BFW book and it's very compatible with using hypnotherapy techniques.