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An independent childbirth class is one that is not associated with the hospital you are planning on delivering at.
Most hospitals hold classes for expecting parents that range from Lamaze or Breastfeeding 101 or Newborn Care. The major pro of a hospital-based class is that it is usually more affordable. They are not trying to make a profit solely on teaching classes. Their profit is from patients getting medical care at their facilities. They facilitate classes as a benefit of choosing their hospital to birth in.
With hospital-based classes it takes minimal effort to find or choose a class. It's the first place people look and if your provider's office is associated with the hospital, they are provided with marketing materials to give to their patients.
Sounds great, right?! While there can definitely be quality childbirth classes facilitated by hospitals, there are some things to consider.
The curriculum of their classes have to be approved by the hospital system, have to abide by the policies of labor and delivery and may be taught by an employee that has limited experience with low-intervention births.
... Well, that's interesting!
Independent childbirth classes are not made with a hospital's agenda in mind. They are more likely to view birth as being a non-medical event but just an event that is part of life. The focus is on what and how you can support yourself during labor and birth.
Additionally, there is usually attention on how to navigate the healthcare system, questions to ask your doctor/midwife and strategies on how to handle unexpected scenarios.
Some classes will focus on natural birth or home birth or no intervention. And some will go over possible interventions and pain management options for hospital settings.
Personally, I prefer to include as much of ALL OF IT as I can. If you take a class from me, I want you to be familiar with natural techniques to support yourself in labor. I want you to have resources of methods to mentally prepare for labor. I want you to know your options for pain medication and the risks and benefits of each. I want you to hear of possible interventions that can come up in labor and appropriate questions to ask your doctor or midwife about them. I want you to know about cesarean births and your options in the operating room.
My hope, is that you leave my class feeling empowered to choose what works best for yourself while keeping in mind that birth is unpredictable. Hopefully, if something unexpected or not preferred arises, you will have learned about it in class, your fear will decrease and you can move forward calmly and confidently.
Enough about me!
What does this mean for you?
When choosing a childbirth class, think about how YOU view birth. Do you see it as a medical event that needs to be managed or as a natural life event or something in-between? Is cost and/or convenience a factor? Do you want an less-biased curriculum or does it not matter to you?
You get to choose what is best for you, your baby and your family.
You've got this, Mama!
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