Dear all:

I still remember when Erica Lyons, education director at Elizabeth Seton Childbearing Center and founder of Realbirth said about classes.

First, people learn in different ways.  Some people learn by doing.  Some people learn by listening.  Some people learn by seeing.  I personally do not learn well from merely listening.  It just drifts in, floats around, and disappears.  I need visual cues AND some sort of conceptual model to remember.  I really hate the free form drifting discussions that are not followed by some sort of conceptual model to tie it all together.  

So, she always felt it was important to include many modes of learning in class.  So, I include listening and dialogue -- the chit chat first about their prior experience and expectations, visual -- the video portion -- followed by the tactile which is practicing with a doll.  I always include the partner in the touch, so that the partner's hand is on mom's hand and my hand is on the partner's hand.  I can feel tension, nervousness, relaxation -- through this touch.  And also help the partner notice mom's body and look for points where he or she can help mom relax.  This gives an opportunity to suggest massage, or appropriate starter props like rolled up receiving blankets based on the specific mother's body positions.  

Then I go back to question and answer for "how to know if your baby is drinking well" WITH YES --- I DO USE THEM --- a Keynote presentation that incorporates conceptual models and movies.  Keynote is much more mobile and agile than Power Point which I have always hated.  Long before Power Point there was Harvard Graphics which was far superior to Power Point.  Keynote is the first program that brings me back to the level of freedom I had with Harvard Graphics.

I think the problem with slides is that everyone tries to write too many words.  I don't like lists so I have very few in the presentation.  I have pictures with a key word for various things such as the skin to skin picture or draining the breast picture or the diaper picture which doubles for change it or observe it.  I use these for the discussion on getting into sync with your baby and then scatter them throughout other sections to describe how you can assist your baby in various situations.  As items are discussed, then they see the summary of what was discussed in a logical sequence.  For instance, parents almost always start with "crying" as a hunger cue.  When we finish their ideas of what constitutes hunger cues, these are then organized into "prefeeding cues" which signal you should get ready to feed, "active hunger cues" which signal feed the baby now, and "ravenous" which should be avoided -- but if you miss the boat -- then here are the coping strategies we just discussed.

I also use visual symbols for parents to illustrate how small an infant's stomach is along with the belly balls.  I have a slide of 9 liter water bottles to show parents what 2 ounces at the moment of birth with a 5-7 ml capacity stomach would feel like in adult stomach units.  The liters of water usually have more of an impact on the parents than the belly balls.  I have a picture of two brains to compare the size of the chimp brain versus a human brain on a brain weight to body weight ratio.  And a graph to show the range of time a newborn feeds (which is less than a typical work day and the range of time the newborn is WAITING TO BE FED after they lose the continual feed plan of the umbilical cord.  

Basically, my slides have more pictures than words.

For the sake of the minority of us who are visual learners and for the sake of the minority of us who need conceptual maps, please do try to put at least some visual information and some conceptual organization into your classes.  It doesn't need to be a lot and it certainly can be a very small part of a discussion class.  I hate to say this but I thought my newborn care class was a complete waste of time because it was a completely random discussion with random facts being dispensed.  I threw out my notes afterwards and read a book instead because I couldn't make sense of the skipping from your baby's tempature to diapering, back to vernix is normal to some other topic.

Best, Susan Burger

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