More Tech for Birth! Google Hangouts!

Tired of social media just including Facebook and Twitter?  

Frustrated that Skype is just 1-1?  

Enter Google+ Hangouts!

Google+ Hangouts is a free video chat service from Google with unique features that allows 1-1 chats OR group chats with up to 10 total people at a time.  This can be valuable for birth organizations who wish to save money and use video conferencing for staff/board meetings, childbirth classes, interviews, demonstrations or even consultations.  Friends or family out of town?  Let everyone Hangout together!

Hangouts can be used on laptops as well as desktop computers and Android/iPhone mobile devices. Video chats can be recorded for anyone who missed the meeting.  Users need only to go to www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangoutplugin to download the free Plugin, which literally downloads in seconds.  Mobile users need to download the Google+ app.

I found this extremely helpful tutorial to help you set up for a Google+Hangout!  Get started today and join me for an upcoming Google Birth Hangout (GBH)!  Email me at info@birthsource.com if you'd like to be included in an invitation for a GBH!

What Parents Need and What They Want in Childbirth Classes: Is there a disconnect?

My experience as a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator has given me the opportunity to teach in a variety of venues.  I began teaching at an adult school affiliated with a high school in a rural California, to a community college on the Atlantic coast of Florida, to private classes in Los Angeles, to volunteer teaching on an Air Force Base, to teaching for three hospitals, and finally back to private teaching now in Ohio.  From my Lamaze Seminar Trainer, Harriet Palmer, I learned that being able to empower women and families through research based information (or the truth) was the most valuable teaching tool.  And even though I had to leave one of the hospitals because I wanted to teach the truth and resisted censorship, I can still look myself in the mirror and be proud of the educator that I am.  I personally and professionally have fought against co-optation.

Birth professionals who have been active since the 60s and 70s will no doubt remember the writings of Eugene Declercq in the Birth & Family Journal (now the BIRTH journal) and Polly Perez and myself in Lamaze's Genesis, pointing out the side effects of co-optation....when former community based childbirth education classes become part of the hospital revenue stream.  The fear then was that childbirth education classes would be censored, restricted, condensed and basically not resemble anything close to childbirth education.  They would be, in a sense, what to expect from THE HOSPITAL while you are in labor.

The time arrived and co-optation did occur as predicted and in most (yes, I say most because there are still a few hospitals who value evidence-based uncensored childbirth education classes) cases, there have been censorship, restrictions, and condensed versions.  In most situations, labor and delivery nurses are asked to teach childbirth education classes and I must tell you that nursing school does not prepare you to teach childbirth classes.  While it does prepare you to do snippets of education at the bedside, childbirth education is another animal altogether.  And in many cases, these labor and delivery nurses are not required to become certified childbirth educators in order to teach classes.

Why does this all of this matter?  It matters for several reasons:

• Co-opted childbirth classes are not in the best interest of the expectant parents.
• Certification DOES matter.
• Teaching informed decision-making and evidence-based information impacts everyone.
• Birth matters to the baby.
• Birth matters to the mother/parents.

Midwives are particularly suited to add childbirth education to their repertoire of services as they have had the emergent and normal/physiologic side of childbirth in their education....nurses typically do not receive the normal/physiologic information in their classroom studies.  Midwives can take the time to teach and explain thus empowering their clients to achieve and enjoy this once in a lifetime birthing opportunity; to not be rushed through a process which can leave a lasting imprint on a woman's heart and soul.

Educating expectant parents of today takes more skill and cleverness, resourcefulness and constant marketing.  Today's parent needs to be exposed to something nearly 10 times before acting on it, as opposed to the 3-4 exposures for parents in the 1980s.  Educators must make their classes timely, evidence-based and truly innovative to meet the ever changing learning needs of parents.  Parents still need the information, the evidence and the facts, but they need all of this in a concise package with minimal fluff and tricks ~ otherwise they get very bored very fast.

Get certified.

Become well-versed in social media marketing to reach the parents of today.

Write your own curriculum - tedious, yes but more valuable than you can ever imagine!

Evaluate your curriculum including the dates of the evidence for topics as well as the teaching strategies.  

Remember we aren't in Kansas anymore Dorothy and the bottom line is we can't teach like we are!

The Technicalities of Teaching Childbirth Education Part 8: Motivational Skills

I have assembled 10 key principles of teaching effective childbirth education classes, and am briefly addressing them in this blog.  In no particular order, they are:

1. Know how to teach
2. Preparation of a dynamic course lesson plan
3. Being Organized
4. Evidence-based knowledge base
5. Learner Assessment
6. Critical Thinking
7. Robust teaching techniques
8. Motivational skills for engaging students
9. Compassionate listening 
10. Problem solving

Consistency in attendance and desire to learn are the two most important considerations of any childbirth educator.  How do we keep them coming back for more AND how do we keep them engaged in learning?

Let’s be honest…people do not have to attend childbirth education classes.  These days, they can glean information from the internet and television and even from apps. As childbirth educators who are passionate about our profession, how can we keep people coming to the classes we love to teach?  What can offer in a live classroom setting that they cannot get from apps, TV or the internet?

Here are five principles we need to understand when developing classes:

1. 1)    Adults need to develop and intrinsic motivation – an internal energy that emerges and connects the person with the need for this knowledge.
2. 2)    Adults need to desire the information and insight and skills we can teach them.
3. 3)    Adults’ attitude influence their behavior and their motivation.
4. 4)    When adults find significant meaning, this will facilitate sustained involvement.
5. 5)    Adults seek to be competent in a skill set and continued confidence building enhances competency.

To accomplish these principles and keep a motivated class, our childbirth education classes need to include activities for visual learners, auditory learners and kinesthetic (or tactile) learners.  This means we cannot rely 100% on PowerPoint presentations and videos.  Nor can we just lecture.  Our classes must be entertaining, surprising and fun.  If you must lecture for a long period of time, be sure to ask participants to think how it could relate to their birth plan (for example, medications).  Frequent feedback and reinforcing the positive, help build their confidence and create a great learning environment.

Practice and reinforcement are also important elements – when adults find they are competent in a particular skill set, they are more likely to use it not only for the birth experience but also for other situations (such as breathing for birth and for other stressful life experiences).

Potential Barriers

Just as an attitude can positively influence behavior and motivation, it can also have a negative impact as well.  If a participant feels that childbirth class is not going to be of help or has been told such, their attitude may not be one that will motivate them to complete the childbirth education class.

Other barriers to motivation include the childbirth educator’s attention to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (especially safety and love needs, which can include both safety at going home at night/being in a parking lot with dim lighting to acceptance in the class with educator or other class participants) and clarity of roles, particularly those of the labor support person/partner/spouse.  By paying close attention to the various aspects of Maslow’s Needs and how they pertain to childbirth education classes AND making the role and skills of the labor support person clear, the childbirth educator can eliminate the beginning growth of these motivation barriers.

We can assume that we are not only “competing” for clients between ourselves as educators but also competing with the electronic media (TV, internet and apps).  In the marketing that we do for our classes, this should be addressed by mentioning the benefits of attending an in-person childbirth education class.  These benefits can include 1-1 interaction, immediate attention to questions, observation and confirmation of skill set accomplishment, and crafting the class curriculum to meet their specific needs.