Posts Tagged ‘childbirth educator’

July 11th, 2011

Procrastination? I Think So!

I have a problem with procrastination.

Last July I took a three day childbirth educator training course called Passion for Birth. I graduated the program, and got my certificate giving me the title of a Lamaze Educated Childbirth Educator and when I finally sit for my Lamaze certification exam, I will be certified.

Procrastination is what I have done since completing the course last summer. I think I slightly got burnt out on the idea not just because I was pregnant, but because I was writing about pregnancy and birth daily on Being Pregnant. I absolutely loved contributing there for the 10 months I was there, but I just felt like I didn’t have as much to contribute as I used to.

My blog here started out focused around pregnancy and childbirth, and really morphed into parenting in general over the years, but I am back on track in my personal life to accomplish a ton in the next couple months.  Including finishing my entire class (writing my childbirth education class) by the end of August. I told myself originally I would do it by the end of July, but I didn’t want to rush, I wanted to do it right.

And I will plan to sit for my exam in April like I did this time around, but my due date was just too close to the test day. There was no way I would have been able to concentrate the way I needed to.  Plus, they only hold the test two times a year.   October is too soon, at least knowing our family schedule from now until then, with parades, and my husband taking tests, and classes.  I know I wouldn’t be able to properly prepare myself.  I will instead take the winter time, a more calm time for the family, and clearly more time in the house to prepare and make sure I am ready to rock it when I sit for the test in April.   (April and October are the only two times a year the test is offered)

I certainly feel recharged again, and ready to take the project on. Just like I was last summer after I took the actual course, before Addison sent me into a tizzy of morning sickness, and all those crazy thoughts that go along with a surprise baby.  To say I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate would have been a serious understatement.

I can’t wait to be finished and teaching though!

August 2nd, 2010

It is Official! I am Lamaze Educated!

It is official!  I am Lamaze Educated!  I have completed my BIGGEST step towards my certification minus the test to become certified. Today was the last day of my Passion for Birth workshop, and while I am sad to see Teri, and the other women I shared this amazing journey with, I am relieved that I completed it, and now it is on to my next step in becoming a childbirth educator.

It also means I have 3 days with my family, to finish shopping, packing, planning, and then head to New York City for BlogHer, but that is a whole other bucket of stress at this point because I have virtually all my packing and preparing left to do.

So what does this mean?  What is next? Where do I go from here?

Next step?  The lengthy process of writing my class/curriculum, or whatever you want to call it.
A full 6 weeks, and 12 hours of classes, information, games, group activities, role playing, and anything you could imagine that would be a easy way for couples to learn. I read through a sample curriculum today, and while it was only printed on the front sides of the pages, it was SO long!

So my goals for the next couple weeks (starting after I get back from BlogHer)

• Find a local Childbirth Education course that I can sit in on and observe.
• Find at least one pregnant woman whose birth I can attend in the next 3 months.
• Start writing my curriculum
• Create games for learning
• Buy my Study Guide for the Lamaze Certification Test
• Join Lamaze as a Student Member

Most of all I want to continue to be in touch with the women I went through this experience with, especially the ones who are new educators like I am, and will be because we will be working on all of these steps at the same pace mostly, and it will be interesting to connect, look at each others courses, take tips, help each other, and really help each other through it.

I hope more of you out there that read, and would like to become a childbirth educator seriously consider taking a Passion for Birth workshop!

August 1st, 2010

So Far… So Gooooood

I have had a ton of awesome things happen in the past two days when I have been really neglecting my blog, e-mail, family, and thing around the house that need to get done. I knew this weekend would bring long days. Why?

I completed day two of my Passion for Birth workshop today!  I am so over the moon about becoming a childbirth educator again. I really think I needed a kick back into the birth stuff. Lately I have really been slacking for a number of reasons. One of my major ones is BlogHer, blogging, social media, and networking has really taken my main attention in preparation for BlogHer next week. Another big reason is because right now, we aren’t planning anymore children in the upcoming years. So occasionally it becomes difficult to talk about birth 24/7 when its something not going on in your own life, while the desire stays there.

My anxiety went up, and come Friday morning meeting all the women I would be learning with, seeing the middle ground between so many of us, including a SUPER awesome Mom who is local to me, with kids my kids ages, I knew that everything would be ok, the training would be painless, and then came Teri!  Oh Teri!   (For those who do not know the back story, Robin Elise Weiss was scheduled to come out and teach, but had an untimely and tragic death in her family.)  While I am still bummed that I haven’t been able to meet one of my best mentors, Robin… I LOVE TERI!

She is fun, but professional, silly, yet calm, and seriously one of the best educators I have met. Her stories crack me up, and her teaching style makes the workshop energetic and full of laughs. It also helps that our group seems to be a real set of hysterical ladies!

Of course, all won’t mesh, or agree 100% at all times, especially with the vastly different backgrounds. We have two RN’s in our class who are also educators at their hospitals. Heck, one of the women describing her hospital makes me want to up and move two states away because of the amazing feel her facility has, heck, they are just no introducing epidurals, and they have a walk out porch in L&D!  Um, yes please!

It is so interesting to learn and hear about the way things are being done in other parts of the east coast. It is truly amazing how different things can be if you travel a simple 3 hours in another direction.

I love sharing this experiences with these women, and I have learned so much already, and I still have an entire day left!  I think my plans and time line of becoming an educator, sitting for my Lamaze Exam, and the direction towards certification I want to obtain has drastically changed. But in the end, I will still be a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator in the next calendar year.

I can’t wait to sit down, write my course, make up educational games, and get into it.

Stay tuned!

May 25th, 2010

Avoiding Common Interventions in Childbirth

Today, childbirth has become more of a medical procedure than a natural function of our bodies. Many women who do have a desire for a natural birth are often looking for resources and information on how to achieve that experience. A great resource I have come across several times in my journey to becoming a childbirth educator in recent months is a website called Mother’s Advocate. They offer a wonderful plethora of videos aimed to help in the teaching process.

The video I am going to use today is Avoiding Unnecessary Interventions, while writing a little of my own thoughts.

Realistically, if you truly want to avoid the common hospital interventions, the best place for you to give birth is either at home, or a child birth center. In my experience personally, it can be an uncomfortable or stressful fight with hospital staff to avoid simple things like an IV line. But it all goes back to birthing where you feel comfortable.

What are some of the common medical interventions during birth?

• An IV for Fluids
• Epidural Anesthesia
• Electronic Fetal Monitoring
• Pitocin
• Breaking the bag of water
• Episiotomy

Most of which are unnecessary in many of the cases we see them in today, an IV for example. The purpose of an IV could be cut by simply allowing a woman to eat and drink during labor. Recent studies show that there is no need to starve a woman while she is in labor.

Constant electronic fetal monitoring is also overkill in low risk women, in recent years The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has shown that in the 40 years electronic fetal monitoring has been the norm, there has been no improved outcomes in mothers or babies. Of course like anything, there are some situations when necessary, but mostly in high risk cases.

Epidurals for those who choose to use them for labor can be the right fit, but they are not risk free. Epidurals can slow labor, or pose other risks to mothers and babies. There are various ways to help relieve the pain of labor.

Pitocin can cause contractions, but it can also cause contractions that are too strong resulting in fetal distress, or the cascade of interventions.

Episiotomy has been shown in recent years to be medically unnecessary in the majority of cases it is taking place in.

Skipping these common Interventions :

There are several ways you can go about skipping the routine hospital interventions listed above. Some of the ways you can do that are :

• Hire a birth doula
• Write a birth plan, or your wishes for birth
• Talk to your provider about your expectations of case, or practices and procedures you are not comfortable with.
• Take a tour of the hospital you will be giving birth at.
• Research their statistics for intervention before giving birth there.

All of these can help to lower your changes of these common medical interventions having an impact on your desire for a natural birth.

February 26th, 2010

Passion for Birth Training

I want to thank everyone who chimed in on my Journey to Becoming a Certified Childbirth Educator post. Your comments and suggestions were very helpful, and helped me to make my choice.

In the end I made the decision to opt to bring a Passion for Birth Training Workshop to Connecticut in hopes of filling the class and being able to have the $395 fee for myself waived. And the best part of it all is I am going to have Robin Elise Weiss coming all the way to Connecticut to teach the workshop, so it is an even bigger score on top of it!

While I wish I could start the process much sooner, we have set the date for the workshop for late July. July 30th through August 1st to be exact.
It gives people a fair amount of time to sign up, and it gives me the hope of getting my 8 participants for the course in order to have my own fee waived!

If you live in Connecticut, or even in the tri-state area, and are interested in the course, you can e-mail me and I will be sure to pass along the full details of the class itself.

I am anxious for the summer now, as if all the snow we have been getting isn’t enough already.
I am looking forward to the new path this will take my life on, to become a Childbirth Educator, especially through Lamaze is something I have wanted to do, I just didn’t know if it would ever be something within reach.

On a side note, my first article was published in a major Connecticut new’s source yesterday, and on top of it, they asked me to continue writing for the same publication, as well as other offers from local media outlets for freelance work.  I am officially going from a SAHM to a WAHM. I am not sure how I feel about it yet, but I certainly know this will help to ease the money burden around our house, and take a good amount of stress off of my husband.
We are still playing catch up from when he was laid off, although right now we are “caught up” thanks to our tax return.

You can check out my article here : The Born Ultimatum

February 23rd, 2010

My Journey to Becoming a Certified Childbirth Educator

When the year started, I laid out a set of goals that I wanted to accomplish for 2010. Some were easy pleasey, and others were more difficult, or a process that may span longer than just 2010, but as long as I got some effort made towards them, I would feel comfortable checking them off as part of my 2010 goals.

My biggest goal that I included was starting the process of becoming a certified childbirth educator, and there are a ton of reasons this is the path I want to take at this point in time. One being time and availability. Because of my fail safe childcare plan crumbling mid summer last year, it kind of put my plan of going back to taking on doula clients on hold. Which for me is not completely heart breaking because it is enabling me to further my education during this time.
But there are so many reasons really why taking on this challenge is important to me :

• The lack of reasonably priced childbirth education classes.
• I am able to schedule classes around childcare availability.
• I already have a location in which I can teach.
• There is a HUGE need for childbirth education nationally, and recent studies on patient education on pregnancy and birth show this.

Ok, so it all sounds pretty cut and dry right?  WRONG! There are so many different programs with so many different options, approaches, and prices!  It almost makes my head spin when trying to narrow down which option I want to look into and commit to!  It is hard enough getting me to commit to spending a large sum of money (you would have seen my hysterics and buyers remorse over our recent sectional purchase, as well as my digital SLR.) but when I have a half dozen reasonable options to spend the money on, all within the same general price range, it is like watching a chicken with its head cut off in my decision making process.
And I don’t dare approach my husband about this before making a final decision on which program, path, and price!

So what am I looking into?

• Passion for Birth weekend Workshop – If I get 8 people to commit and take the workshop with me, it is free for me, which is a huge selling point, along with the fact that Lamaze training and teachers in my area is really numbered. I would love to work as a Lamaze teacher because I really like their approach. But the only worry I have is the 8 people. In this area, it doesn’t seem as though there is much interest in spending money to further training in things like the birth field.
• CAPPA Distance training – $600 and a do it myself course. I like the option of being able to do it myself, on my own time (two year period to complete the training) but two steps in the certification process are more out of reach than I would like to admit, and those happen to be the required birth hours (childcare issue again) and recording 2 hours of teaching time, which I do not have a way to record something like that (my digital camera cuts off at about 2 minutes making that a really long 2 hours).
• Birthing from Within – I was talking with a local midwife here about becoming a CBE and we really agreed that there is a serious lack of Birthing from Within teachers and that would probably the best route. The only problem is finding a workshop that I can actually drive to. It seems like the next year they are all booked on the other side of the country, or way too far for me to make a weekend trip.
• ICEA – Short for International Childbirth Education Association, problem?  The price.  My husband would probably keel over and have a heart attack if I told him I needed $1300 for my certification when the majority of these other programs are $600 or less.
• Birth Works International – The only hang up on this is actually having to make my way out of state to a workshop. It may be the cheapest option as far as the workshop itself, but in the long run it may end up being more work than I can put into it at this time.

So, you can see what a pickle I am in.

If you have any suggestions, recommendations, or input I would really appreciate it all. This is a choice I have been thinking about since the start of January, and I still have no idea what to do.
At this point, I am leaning towards the first option with Lamaze, mainly because I can easily book a date with the awesome Robin Elise Weiss to come out and teach, and be able to actually meet her since we have worked together for about 6 months now. She invited me to write for Birth Activist last year and she has been an awesome mentor.

But please, if you are a CBE, chime in!