What Does A Childbirth Ed Class Actually Teach You?
Let’s talk about Childbirth Education! We often hear folks ask, “What should I look for in my childbirth education class?”
Focusing on what you *can* control can feel impossible, especially if you have questions such as…
What might go down? When? How long will labor be?
What interventions might I be offered?
How will my partner/doula/birth team support me on unexpected paths?
What can I ask for/ say no to?
We (Roxy & Sue Ann) began teaching our Embodied Childbirth Education series in Asheville, NC in 2022, and since then, we’ve taught over 200 childbirth ed students and their birth partners here in Western North Carolina. We’ve spent the past five years honing and refining our Childbirth Education offering so that it is exactly what a pregnant person needs going into labor, birth, and postpartum.
At the end of the day, our goal is to help you feel EMBODIED and EMPOWERED in your birth, no matter how it unfolds.
So today we’re here to share what we’ve found to be the most effective elements of childbirth ed here in Asheville, NC.
Building Community
Community is number one in our childbirth education class series. We want you to feel connected with our instructors, other participants, with your birth partner, and with yourself.
We also spend time sharing what the perinatal community looks like in our community of Asheville, NC. This helps our students understand what supports are out there, from our doula collective to our prenatal and postnatal classes, as well as trusted providers who can support a range of concerns that might come up throughout your perinatal journey.
Community looks and feels different for every pregnant person, but we work to ensure that you are aware of the scope of your community, how to identify your team, and what roles you envision them serving as you work through this time.
Level the Playing Field
We believe in the importance of leveling the playing field in labor and birth by helping you understand correct anatomical terms and the physiology of birth, so this is a core foundation in our childbirth education series. By teaching you about birth as a hormonal driven process, we help you understand labor and birth in a way that is empowering and embodied.
We do this by breaking down the elements of birth and labor, explaining early labor, active labor, and transitions in observable increments. This makes understanding the steps of labor accessible to you and your birth partner.
Unexpected Paths
Labor and birth will inevitably be full of twists and turns, and we spend time in each class series discussing these unexpected paths that you might walk down. The key here is that we want our students to know how to advocate for themselves and make decisions that feel empowered when birth takes an unexpected turn.
This means that we will share general information about interventions and advocacy in labor and birth, as well as specifics that we know apply to folks who are laboring in Asheville and Western North Carolina. We hold plenty of space for questions and discussions throughout all of our classes, but especially in this space of what might happen.
Pushing and Postpartum
This is the final stage of our childbirth education classes, and we get to the nitty gritty of what pushing is, what the final stages of labor are like, and what to expect. We take you through birth into the immediate postpartum, talking through what to expect and what could happen, all with the goal of helping you feel empowered and connected with your body.
Finally we talk about prepping for postpartum, from how to connect with your support network to checking in with yourself. As a part of the Flow of Life family, you have access to a variety of supports that are there are you in this time and beyond.
We hope this helps to give you an insight into what to expect in our Embodied Childbirth Education series! And, if you’re in the Asheville area or are able to be in Western North Carolina, we hope to see you in class - that’s where the real magic of connection, community, and empowerment happen.
