New Resources for Childbirth Educators and Parents

In this column, reviewers offer perspectives and comments on a variety of new media resources for childbirth educators and for expectant and new parents. The books, CD, and DVDs reviewed in this issue''s column address the following topics: natural, safe, and healthy birth practices; doula care; breastfeeding; empowering women to make healthy lifestyle choices during pregnancy; encouraging mothers to bond with their babies before birth; and fathers'' and partners'' supportive role during labor and birth.     

New Resources for Childbirth Educators and Parents

In this column, reviewers offer perspectives and comments on a variety of new media resources for childbirth educators and expectant and new parents. The books, CDs, DVDs, and kits reviewed in this issue''s column include the following topics: the birth experiences of mothers who survived childhood sexual abuse; lively teaching techniques and ideas to help energize and enhance childbirth education classes; breastfeeding in the workplace; expectant fathers; perspectives on motherhood; unique, helpful tools for childbirth educators to use in designing their class content, addressing the stages of labor, and discussing planned cesarean birth; exercises for pregnant women on bedrest; and a compilation of presentations featured at Birthing the Future''s international symposiums.     

The Journey of Becoming a Mother

Nature intends that the physical and hormonal changes of pregnancy insure the growth and development not just of the baby but of the mother. The physical and emotional changes of pregnancy and, then, labor, birth, and breastfeeding play vital roles in guiding women on the journey of becoming a mother. Standard prenatal care and medicalized labor and birth interfere in powerful ways with nature''s plan and, consequently, women''s ability to negotiate this journey. In this column, these issues are explored, and implications for childbirth education are discussed.     

Coping With the Unexpected in Childbirth: A Thematic Analysis

This article reports original research that describes new mothers'' experiences of birth and maternity care. Qualitative data were collected through a survey on birth satisfaction, which included space for women to provide comments about their birth and experience of care. Thirty-nine women provided comments that were analyzed using the thematic analysis method. Two themes emerged from the women''s experiences: “Unexpected birth processes: expectations and reality” and “Coping with birth: the role of health-care staff.” Participants described unexpected birthing processes, their experiences of care, and maternity care staff''s contributions to coping with birth. Implications for practice for childbirth professionals include promotion of physiologic birth, respectful person-centered care during all phases of perinatal care, and the value of childbirth preparation.     

Listen Up: What We Can Learn From Women’s Birth and Postpartum Experiences

In 2013, Childbirth Connection published findings from a U.S. study of women’s pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum experiences, Listening to Mothers III. In this issue of The Journal of Perinatal Education, we publish the major survey findings of both the pregnancy and birth survey and the postpartum survey. This editorial discusses some of the major findings of the childbirth survey. Listening to what mothers have to say about their experiences suggests a mandate to “listen up” to what mothers are telling us and continue to advocate for evidence-based maternity care. Articles in this issue of the journal are presented.     

New Resources for Childbirth Educators and Parents

In this column, reviewers offer perspectives and comments on a variety of new media resources for childbirth educators and for expectant and new parents. The topics of DVDs and books reviewed here include fatherhood, labor-support techniques, optimal labor positions, infant massage, breastfeeding, healthy nutrition during the childbearing year, understanding a newborn''s cues, personal viewpoints on cesarean birth, and postpartum massage.     

New Resources for Childbirth Educators and Parents

In this column, reviewers offer perspectives and comments on a variety of new media resources for childbirth educators and for expectant and new parents. From audio CDs on building one''s birthing business endeavor to books for expectant parents focusing on breastfeeding, calming babies, cosleeping, and supplementing what is learned in a childbirth class, the marketplace always has new resources to offer.     

Helpful Resources for Childbirth Educators and Parents

In this column, reviewers offer perspectives and comments on a variety of books and CDs that address topics related to the politics of midwifery in the United States, preparing expectant parents for childbirth, babywearing techniques, breastfeeding guides, and a child''s perspective of home birth.     

Feature Article—Continuing Education Module—Reimagining Postpartum Support

This article introduces the author''s emerging new paradigm (“perinatal participation”) that re-imagines postpartum support by helping expectant parents have more peace of mind, confidence, self-compassion, and emotional wellbeing over the course of their perinatal journeys, with special focus on feeling more prepared for all that happens after baby arrives. The author''s work rests on the shoulders of her 1992 book, Mothering the New Mother: Women''s Feelings and Needs After Childbirth. Perceiving a new urgent need to support expectant parents three decades later (the need to alleviate the high stress levels in expectant parents she was talking to) the author explored filtering the expectant and new parent''s experience through what she calls a “peace-of-mind lens.”     

Risk,Safety, and Choice in Childbirth

In this column, the author explores current understandings of risk and safety in pregnancy and childbirth. An emphasis on risk management places the provider and hospital in control of women’s decisions related to pregnancy and birth and may make pregnancy and birth less safe for mothers and babies. Accepting that no life is risk free, women can let go of fear and make choices that take into account real, not imagined, or exaggerated risk and, in doing so, increase safety for themselves and their babies. The focus of maternity care becomes enhancing safety through evidence-based practice rather than managing risk.     

Birth stories: a way of knowing in childbirth education

Birth stories have a lasting impact on expectant mothers. The purpose of this paper is to recognize the influence of birth stories as a key component of informal communication of knowledge about childbirth for expectant mothers. The review of literature and research is related to childbirth education, anthropological thinking, and applied learning theory with foundational concepts from Vygotsky, Bruner, and Bandura. Implications for childbirth educators are included.     

The lived experience of knowing in childbirth

Research on knowing in childbirth has largely been a quantitative process. The purpose of this study was to understand the ways first-time mothers learn about birth. A phenomenological approach, using a feminist view, was used to analyze two in-depth interviews and journals to understand nine first-time expectant mothers' experiences of knowing in childbirth. The findings demonstrated a range of knowledge that contributed to issues of control and conflict. The participants also described an increased dependency on their mothers and a lack of their own intuition contiguous to the birth process. These findings contribute understanding to how expectant mothers know birth, suggesting that their knowing does not diminish conflict surrounding the event and may even exacerbate it when not combined with learning skills to manage conflict. Childbirth educators may want to include instruction on negotiating power differential in relationships encountered during childbirth in order to strengthen a first-time mother's ability to receive the care she wants. Educators may also want to assess the expectant mother's view of birth and her expectations for birth. Schools of nursing should consider the inclusion of women-centered care curricula at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The mothers' responses in this study clearly reveal that the politics surrounding birthing remain in place and must be removed in order to provide a supportive environment for normal birth.     

Robyn’s Birthing Story

This “Celebrate Birth!” column describes the experience of a long-time childbirth educator who attended the birth of her granddaughter Cora, her daughter Robyn’s second hospital birth. She discusses how Robyn’s instincts and confidence helped to overcome institutional issues to provide a good and safe birthing experience.     

Prevention of child abuse and neglect through early diagnosis of serious disturbances in the mother-child relationship in Italy

At the obstetrical clinic of Modena University and a family center of the same municipality during the first six months of 1980 a questionnaire based on "Risks of Child Abuse" by Kempe, Gray and others was administered to 33 expectant mothers during the third trimester of pregnancy, a few days after delivery, and a month and one-half after childbirth, for the purpose of examining the mother-child relationship. Two principal groups of "risk factors" which may lead to child abuse and neglect appeared: mothers with preceding personal and social experiences, and cases of medical intervention (e.g., prematurity, caesarean). Use of a questionnaire that permitted early diagnosis made possible help in establishing a good mother-child relationship in the first months of life. Such help can be given by the hospital and public centers both before and after birth.     

From Psychoprophylactic to Orgasmic Birth

The assumptions on which educators based childbirth education principles were valid when psychoprophylactic birth became available. Yet, educators and health-care providers have changed their assumptions about birth as they have learned more from the midwifery model of care, how women want to give birth, and how capable the body is to give birth. Educators'' teaching must now emphasize the synchrony of hormones that facilitates birth, the Sphincter Law, and the sharing of woman-to-woman stories throughout the generations if birth is to be set in its rightful place—in the hands of the mothers.     

Creating Change and Staying Connected through Collaboration

In this column, a childbirth educator describes feeling overwhelmed and alone in her work. Collaboration is presented as a key agent to creating change, staying connected, and “keeping going.” The Cochrane Library, the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, the ongoing collaboration of Lamaze International with the Maternity Center Association and DONA International, and birth networks are presented as examples of valuable collaborations. Childbirth educators benefit from these collaborative efforts by being able to access and use evidence-based information and to feel connected with like-minded colleagues.     

Mothers' Worries During Pregnancy: A Content Analysis of Reddit Posts

Qualitative investigations into maternal worries during pregnancy are limited. The aim of this study was to identify the content of women''s pregnancy-related worries by completing a content analysis of posts on Reddit. A total of 217 posts by 196 unique users were analyzed. Most worries related to infant factors (32.6%), individual factors (27.1%), and antenatal care factors, such as medical procedures (25.2%). The remaining worries related to situational factors (10.9%) and the partner relationship (4.3%). Although most fears related to fetal well-being, other concerns included problems with family members, women''s own mental health, and not being a “good mother.” These findings support calls for antenatal education to more adequately address women''s psychosocial concerns.     

Continuing education module-lamaze parents magazine: more than a giveaway

The Lamaze Parents magazine is an annual publication produced by Lamaze International to inform parents and childbirth educators on issues related to healthy birth preparation, normal birth, and parenting. The author of this column introduces teaching strategies for childbirth educators and doulas to use in tandem with the magazine's content in order to enhance their efforts in sharing current, evidence-based information with expectant parents.     

Evolution of the birth plan

Many birth professionals are discarding the birth plan as an outdated and ineffectual document. This column discusses the past limitations and present uses of the birth plan in an effort to enhance current teaching on how expectant parents can write and use this important document. Encouraging expectant parents to prepare two separate, but corresponding, birth plans-the "Discussion Birth Plan" and the "Hospital Birth Plan"-is proposed. Teaching suggestions and possible implications are explored in order to give childbirth educators practical information to share with their class members.