http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/the-end-of-childbirth-101/

excerpt:
Women who enroll in a childbirth class are more likely to have quit smoking,
keep prenatal appointments and to breastfeed after birth, the magazine
notes.

Interesting responses on the Mommy-blog regarding breastfeeding.
Judy Ritchie

Pregnant women are cutting childbirth class.
Although women are more obsessed than ever with health during their
pregnancies, they seem to have lost interest in learning about the end of
pregnancy, also known as childbirth, reports the November issue of Fit
Pregnancy magazine.
"Fewer women are taking classes,'' said Jeannette Crenshaw, president of
Lamaze International. Ms. Crenshaw told the magazine that she believes
several issues explain why women aren't as interested in learning about
childbirth. Many women, she says, are convinced they can't deliver a baby
without epidural pain relief.

Snip
 
But today hospital-based classes tend to focus more on a tour of hospital
facilities rather than techniques to cope with labor pain. The magazine
argues that women's declining interest in childbirth classes is worrisome
because it's happening even as childbirth has become more "medicalized''
than ever. During childbirth, a number of variables can arise and women have
to make informed decisions about procedures like epidurals, episiotomies,
induction and C-sections. "That's where you reap the dividends of having had
a teacher who explained each possible intervention and showed you how to be
your advocate,'' the magazine reports.

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