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!

Building A Curriculum: The nuts & bolts

As discussed in an earlier blog post, curriculum development is a time consuming process but one that allows the presenter to become intimately familiar with the topic AND smooth the presentation style.


If you use the form generally accepted for curriculum development (see below), this will help you with development.  With this form, you can also use the Four Steps to Curriculum Development: Planning, Developing, Implementing, and Evaluating.  In Planning, an assessment is usually done prior to development to see if there is a need for the presentation or course.  If there is a need, then the planning for content continues.  During Development, measurable objectives, timing, and teaching strategies are assessed for maximum utilization with a broad spectrum of learners.  With Implementation, the presentation is actually put into practice several times to make sure of logical flow of topics, clarity of content, and to become familiar with the content.  Evaluations can be used to project the success of the presentation and assess for updates.

Identify the first topic and select the objectives that relate to that topic.  (Planning)

Format an outline of discussion points for this topic and then practice presenting this information.  
Time yourself a few times to make sure that you are confident in the length of time it takes to complete this portion of the topic.  

Then select 1-3 teaching strategies with which to present this information. Remember you are teaching to a wide variety of learners: audio learners, doers, visual learners, and those who like to have all of the input! (Developing)

Once you have put all of the topics and objectives together in this format along with the timing and teaching strategies, you should have a solid curriculum.  If you use this presentation numerous times, reorganization and updating become part of the routine.  A great presenter never presents the same twice.  Tweeking is expected, especially in the business of maternity care where evidence based information is refined frequently! (Implementing)

One Type of Likert Scale Evaluation

Is this all there is to it, you may be asking?  No, one more element is crucial to a great curriculum and that is a great evaluation tool.  You may choose the Likert Scale as the format for your evaluation tool.  This Scale was developed by Rensis Likert in 1932 and requires the individuals to make a decision on their level of agreement, generally on a five-point scale (ie. Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree) with a statement. The number beside each response becomes the value for that response and the total score is obtained by adding the values for each response, hence the reason why they are also called 'summated scales' (the respondents score is found by summing the number of responses).   (Evaluating)

While we do not like to have critiques of ourselves that could be deemed as negative, an evaluation is a useful too to refine the presentation and improve it for the future.  Understand that you will not please everyone all of the time, however if the majority of the individuals find that their expectations where not met, then you may want to re-examine your objectives to hone them more to what you are presenting.

In addition to the Likert Scale Evaluation, you may also want to make available to the evaluater a few lines that they can use to put into their own words some suggestions for future presentations.  These suggestions may further improve your presentation with specific indicators.


Are you designing a curriculum for use in maternity care?  Would you like someone to take a look at it between the Development and Implementation stages?  If so, contact me at info@birthsource.com.  

Building a Curriculum: Top 10 Things to Consider

Are you inspired to create a presentation?  Do you want to speak on a topic that you are passionate about but don't know where to begin?  This is the first of several basic tutorials on curriculum development adapted from the Birthsource Lamaze Childbirth Education Seminars that I teach.  

First, read through the Top 10 Things to Consider below.  If you would like a practice worksheet for this, please email me at info@birthsource.com.  

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In maternity care, there may be many opportunities to create courses for continuing education.  How does one begin to put together a curriculum and what are the first common steps?

Decide on Basic Topic ~ this may not take a lot of brainwork especially if you are passionate about something to begin with!

Name the Presentation ~ you may have to brainstorm on this one to get a catchy, trendy title!  Avoid sarcasm, off color remarks or inappropriate jabs at individuals/organizations.

Include speakers and their CVs/resumes ~ if more than one person is speaking, you will need to include copies of the curriculum vitae or resume.  Need more info?  Click here.

General time allotment for presentation ~ basically, how long do you have for this presentation?  Minutes? Hours? Days?

Topic list in logical order of presentation ~ first write down all of the topics you want to include in this course and then put them into a logical order.  “Logical” order may be chronological, alphabetical, or in order of appearance (as when each one builds on the previous ones).

List of teaching strategies ~ what types of strategies will be employed to get your point across to the various types of learners in your course? Make a general list.  Read about adult learners!

Define basic objectives ~ what are the basics outcomes that you would like to see students achieve?  Need more help?  Click here.

Will the students do any pre-attendance work? Any advanced reading or forms to fill out?

Required or recommended reading lists? Will there be books, magazines, or web-based information that will enhance their attendance at the course?

List of references used in creating the course.  Be sure to write these references in the proper format.  The proper professional format is the American Psychological Association Style.  Purdue University has a wonderful APA Formatting and Style Guide at owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Once you have completed the above, you are ready for the next step -

 that will be writing the curriculum!  That will be our next blog installment!