Some more thoughts:
 
It is not my intention to jump on anyone, I am simply sharing my  thoughts.
I enjoy reading everyone's thoughts. Especially when it offers ideas  and 
thought processes that are new to me, or that differ greatly from mine. This  
offers me the opportunity to reflect and reconsider my thoughts and personal  
beliefs, and often opens a new avenue of consideration, sometimes even causing  
me to think in a new and different direction. (Sometimes your thoughts and 
those  of others are a real "Ah-Ha" moment for me and I change my mind  
completely....)
 
Someone posted that group health teaching works and used childbirth classes  
as an example. Sorry, I don't buy it. 
 
If Childbirth classes were working:
1. The numbers of cesarean births, especially elective c-sections  would be 
down. 
2. Women would not walk into the hospital calling for their epidural.
3. Word would get out about how wonderful they were and mothers would be  
beating the door down to get in (Around here most agencies bribe the women to  
show up.)
 
Maybe we just have really bad teachers here, but I think it has more to do  
with it being a class. It is embarrassing to ask your "real" questions in front 
 of 10 other couples, all strangers. It is easy to "tune out" when there are 
so  many people in the room, and you do not have the undivided attention of 
the  instructor. Especially if she spends long discussing someone else's 
question  which has no relevance to me and in which I am not at all  inerested... 
 
Like all other health teaching, childbirth information is best shared one  on 
one.
 
I realize that this is not always possible. But I continue to think that  
time spent one on one conveys a value and importance to the subject that you  
cannot duplicate in a group setting.
 
On the other hand, Jaye....
I can see where your small group idea could be beneficial for these  parents. 
It would allow them an opportunity to build a social support network  that 
could really have an impact for them. 
 
I am just not convinced that they would learn bottle feeding techniques and  
formula preparation any better in a social (group) setting than if they just  
read the directions themselves. There is too large a potential for 
distractions,  side conversations, and sharing of stories about "how my 
mother/sister/auntie  did it".
 
I think if there was any evidence that this worked we would see  classes for 
parents on
 j-tube, tracheotomy, catheter care. After all, there are many parents  who 
need this information also - more perhaps than some realize.
 
I also think that the reason we see childbirth classes is because it is not  
considered a "serious" issue to "them". But, that is political and shows my  
personal bias against the medicalizaton of birth and delivery, so we will not 
go  there.
 
 
Laura Wright
, BA, LLLL, IBCLC, RLC, CLE
TOLL FREE  BREASTFEEDING HELP IS AVAILABLE 24 HOURS A DAY
CALL 877 4 LA LECHE (877 452  5324). 
Please consider making a donation to the La Leche Breastfeeding  Helpline - 
US at _http://donate2lll.org/helpline_ (http://donate2lll.org/helpline) 



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