I am a bit behind on posts (was gone for a long weekend) but this one caught
my attention as I was catching up.  All of the talk on where the "fault"
lies - hospitals and medical staff with their rigid ideas or parents with
their rigid ideas.  While much of these recent posts gives all of us many
things to think about and to be upset about the part that really got me was
Besty's (I'm sure she was the poster) comment about the CBE teachers causing
a lot of the parents rigidity.  After all the years I have been teaching
childbirth education I just have one comment to make to every person who
feels parents being rigid on their birth plans is because of what they have
been taught in their CBE class - I WISH I had that much influence!  (Yes I
am yelling on the I wish).

We see parents for 2 hours a week, depending on the type of class anywhere
from 4 to 12 weeks (add it up that is only 8 to 24 hours, divided by how
many couples, plus extra helpers, per class) at the END of their pregnancy.
They have their own ideas and have been seeing, listening, talking with
their HCP much more than us - a few things here and there may click with
them but most of what you see with expectant parents in the birth room is
what we saw our first meeting with them.  Believe me if we had that much
influence on our students as many L&D nurses, OB's Midwives, etc think we do
much of what we are seeing today wouldn't be happening.  We talk, show
research based material and information, boost a mom's confidence in her
ability to know her body and her baby and to labor only to have her HCP tell
her at 38 wks her baby is 'too big' and must be induced, if she really cared
about her baby's well being she wouldn't fight the recommendations, besides
where did her CBE teacher go to medical school, anyway?

So just like what makes parents choose AIM over breastmilk, birthing ideas
and choices are just as complicated.  What people have heard, learned and
grown up with plus what they have learned and been exposed to over their
lives influences their choices and ideas.  Some people are open to new
information and others aren't.  I know I got a bit defensive in this post,
but I have heard this comment more than once and just like the L&D nurses on
this list don't feel like they are to blame for current birthing practices,
neither are CBE's for ridid parents.

Felicia Henry, IBCLC & BCCE (Bradley)

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