Hi Naomi,

Interesting question (do breastfeeding classes actually help?).
I teach a breastfeeding class which is 3 hours (spread over two evenings)
of a 14 -hour childbirth class.  It doesn't actually make the "sponsoring
institution" any money at all, as the whole shebang is free to parents,
while the hospital pays the nurses & me our wages and buys the materials.
I've had varying success depending on how good a job I managed to do (I've
been doing this every 8 weeks or so for two years now, and it goes up and
down).  However, I've often had interested, interesting questions and felt
I could clarify some real misconceptions that were floating around, or just
satisfy people's curiosity.  Most of the ones who attend childbirth class
do plan to breastfeed at least for a while, but some don't.  Generally I
feel I established a good rapport with the parents and left them
understanding what a big topic this is, and I think I transfer some of my
sense it is also a very important topic.
But no, I have no evidence that it increases breastfeeding rates.  I do
feel sure that a quiz on basic breastfeeding knowledge would easily
separate my parents from those who hadn't attended.  I find that when I go
to help first-time moms who were in class, I get to start a lot farther
down the road --they might not remember how to do a football hold or how
often to nurse the baby, but they've been exposed to it before, and they
"latch on" a lot quicker than the first-time moms it's all new to.  And no
mother here has ever asked to "see the LC" sight unseen -- if a mom I've
never seen, in class or prenatally, is in trouble, it's the nurses who call
me in.  If it's someone I had in class or saw at the clinic ahead of time,
the nurse says "she was asking for you".  This I feel is a good thing.

So...all anecdotal!
I think it would be tough to generalize about "breastfeeding classes"
overall.  As we've seen, the quality of teaching varies *a lot*.  And so
much depends on that.

Elise

At 08:36 AM 6/29/2004, you wrote:

>It's been fascinating reading people's accounts of breastfeeding
>classes. Here's my quesion: Is there any evidence that breastfeeding
>classes have any benefits? Do they increase bf initiation, duration,
>exclusive bf? They make money for the sponsoring institution, but does
>anyone know of any research about any other benefits?
>Naomi Bar-Yam

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