Why should I take an independent childbirth education course?

I’ve heard expecting mothers and the people around them make a number of different statements about why they don’t think they need childbirth classes.  As a birth doula, childbirth educator, and mother of five, I’d like to address some of these statements.

Women have been doing this forever.  I’ll just know what to do. 

I have this image of a time long ago, when we all lived in villages and women had babies in their homes, without a lot of ceremony.  Maybe you have an image like this in your mind too.  In this view of the history of women, taking a childbirth class seems like a waste of time and money.  But women who lived in these times witnessed the realities of birth – not the dramatic recreations we see on tv, or even the sweet snippets of peaceful waterbirths we can find on youtube.  Young girls witnessed their mothers, aunts, neighbors, cousins, and sisters labor and give birth.  They may have seen mothers and infants die in the process.  They probably saw women who seemed to cope well with the challenges of labor, and women who struggled and suffered.  They may or may not have been able to identify what factors made the difference between coping and suffering.

Many women today have never witnessed a birth, except made-for-tv-dramatizations.  The stories we hear tend to revolve around doctors and hospital procedures and sometimes, horror stories.  The process of birth is the same for us today as it was for those village women who birthed in the distant past, but our view of birth is very different – mostly because we barely have a view of it at all! Childbirth education provides a clear framework for understanding what is happening in the mother’s body – the physiological, hormonal, and emotional changes that mark the progression from the first contractions to birth.  This understanding helps a mother and her partner translate the physical experience of labor into a journey with mile markers, provisions (tools and skills), and warning signs.  Everybody wants a map when they’re traveling a new road!

My hospital or doctor’s office provides a childbirth class for free (or at a very low cost).  Why would I pay to take an independent childbirth education course?

Childbirth classes offered by hospitals and doctor’s offices tend to be orientation sessions for what you should expect from your care provider and what they will expect from you.  But a good independent childbirth education course typically spans  8 to 16 hours of instruction, covers “normal” birth, variations on “normal”, the benefits, risks, and alternatives to common medical interventions, coping techniques, various positions for labor, laboring with an epidural, and what happens in the event of a c-section.  It will also help you prepare for breastfeeding, caring for a newborn, and transitioning to your new role as a parent.  A great independent childbirth education course is interactive, engaging, and approaches learning from a number of different angles in order to reach parents with the teaching style they are most responsive to.  Childbirth education empowers you to be an informed consumer of the care offered by your doctor or midwife, hospital or birth center.

My doctor or midwife (or doula) will be there to tell me what is happening and what I need to do.

Ina May Gaskin has said this, describing childbirth, “Don’t think of it as pain, think of it as an interesting sensation that requires all of your attention.”  Birth is an experience that calls upon every physical, emotional, and spiritual resource you possess.  Strength, endurance, patience, commitment, love, passion, and courage.  The last thing you’ll want to be doing during labor is getting a lesson on effacement, meconium, how long this will last, and why your legs are shaking.   Find a great independent childbirth education course in your community today!

If you are in the Eugene/Springfield area, I offer just such a class.  Check it out, and register here!


Hi!  My name is Tiffany Grantom and I am InsightDoula. 

I experienced my own five births as transformative, powerful experiences that I remember with joy. I am a mother who is passionate about supporting mothers, because although I’ve had many demanding jobs in my life, mother is unequivocally the hardest of all.  Rewarding, joyful, beautiful, and hard.   I have received amazing support and wisdom from other mothers, and I provide that same grounding, encouraging support to my clients.

Why InsightDoula?

My clients report that my service is highly intuitive.  My business name is “InsightDoula” because at some level, teaching is sharing insights.  At another level, I have witnessed and experienced that birth is a uniquely interior experience.  You tunnel into the well of strength, resilience, perseverance, courage, and faith as you bring forth life.  Along with the treasure of your precious child, you take from the experience a new understanding (insight) of the strength and power within you.  I will support you and your partner in that journey, whatever course your birth may take, and whatever choices you make along the way.

*I am a Christian.  I have served many clients who do not share my faith, and I am committed to giving every family the very best of my service and care.  For those who share my faith, or who believe in the power of prayer, prayer is an element of my service that is available at any time that you may wish for it.