What is Virtual Self-Paced Childbirth Education?
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Kaely Harrod 0:00
Hello welcome back to Kaely daily. I'm Kaely Harrod and today's question is what is virtual self-paced childbirth education. This is Kaely daily, the bi weekly podcast about all things doula tips and tits where we answer one question about pregnancy, labor, postpartum, or lactation, in order to have your journey in this parenting world be just a little bit more informed and filled with consent. Hello there. Welcome back to the first episode of season two for Kaely Daily Doula Tips and Tits. Today I'm answering the question what is virtual self paced education, that is what my classes is, so you've heard, if you've been around for season one, you've heard about the birth prep blueprint, that is a class that I created. So I found some amazing illustration from the educated birth one of my favorite resources, and put together a curriculum that is a comprehensive walk through, the end of pregnancy, the labor and delivery process, the early postpartum time, the feeding options and how to kind of get started on the right foot, no matter how you're choosing to feed. And then some partner information comfort measures, we go into induction and C-section and all of that.
Kaely Harrod 1:27
So it's what's considered a comprehensive childbirth education class, is kind of a class that covers all that sort of stuff, right. So that like general list of topics is what you would want to look for in a comprehensive childbirth education class. Now, how my class is different than a lot of other classes is that it's broken down into modules. Now, some of those modules are broken into two or three videos even. So you can watch 15 minutes at a time, right? Or you can sit down and like watch hours if you want to.
Kaely Harrod 2:03
Part of the reason that I taught it, how I did - The reason I put it together, how I put it together is that I think it's super important to be able to stop if you're feeling overwhelmed, and resume when you're no longer feeling overwhelmed. And I think it's very helpful to be able to revisit previous topics that you've looked at, especially if you're like, "Oh, now that we're like, you know, we did that class, but now that we're at 41 weeks, we're looking at an induction, and I don't actually remember all of the induction information, right." And so then in a self paced class that you continue to have access to, you go back to that induction module, and you dive into that again, and you look at okay, what are my options? What are these medications? And why are they used? Right? What are the different options in terms of tools that aren't medications? And that's one of the benefits.
Kaely Harrod 2:58
I think the other thing is that as a doula as a person, I come to this work from a trauma informed, diverse kind of framework, right? So you probably have heard me use the term pregnant people, you know, that I talk about partners and support people, and I don't use gendered language in that. I also really value diversity in images in terms of size, and, and color and, and, you know, like, couple composition, and all of that kind of stuff. But also, I think it's very important to constantly bring it back to centering the person who's pregnant. And not all classes do that, right. Like some classes don't set you up for for helping advocate for yourself, right. So one thing that's a part of every single module in my class, is going into advocacy, like what does it looked like to advocate during pregnancy? Right? If you're feeling like unheard by your provider? What does it look like to kind of tackle that? Right? How do you talk about that? What is the script? Sort of? And it's not that there is just one way to do that.
Kaely Harrod 4:10
My thought in those advocacy kind of little nuggets in that speech module, is that I want you to have some tools in order to start the process of being able to advocate it's kind of a brainstorming kickoff point, right? Where there's no way for me to give you every example that you could possibly ever feel like you need to advocate about, but by giving you some examples, you for one have some concrete things to look at in terms of, you know, what, what stuff how the language can work, right and what, what your options even are in those moments. But also, I think it helps you start to to center the need for self advocacy when you're feeling knotless Since you are not centered in the process of pregnancy, right? And sometimes it's it's really small things, so to speak, right? Like just saying, like, hey, it really matters to me that you use my correct pronouns, right? Or it really matters to me that you call my baby, they and them or whatever that is, or I want time to sit and talk to my provider, okay, well, then what kind of provider in your area is available that does more than 10 minute appointments, right? Because that's a big part of that, and if that's what you're looking for, but you're at an OB group, or a midwife group that does 10 minute appointments, and you're like, boom, boom, boom, in and out, in and out. And that's not what you want, then how do you go about looking for that, right. And if you're the person that loves those 10 minute super efficient appointments, then that's also something you should look for, right?
Kaely Harrod 5:53
So the motivation behind that is that there's a variety of different ways someone might want to advocate for themselves in life, in pregnancy, and childbirth, and parenting. And so my class is designed to not only kind of remind you that you have that freedom as an adult consenting human being, right, but also give you some ideas about how that can look so that you're not kind of making it up on the fly, right. So that's a really big piece of, of my class, specifically, the birth prep blueprint, that isn't a part of a lot of childbirth, education curriculums elsewhere.
Kaely Harrod 6:35
The other thing for my class specifically, and I can't speak to every virtual class in this regard, but my class went, once you own it, you own it forever. So if you're on your first baby, and you're planning to have two or three babies, this can be your childbirth class, that really takes you through all of those pregnancies, right? So you don't have to worry about taking this class every single time or paying for it every single time. You buy it, and you own it. That's That's how that works, right? The other thing that's super important to me, is to cover a wide range of educational needs in the midst of pregnancy. And I want to just explain what I even mean when I say that. So what I mean when I say that is that there is a plan around a lot of Labor's right, so let's say someone's planning to give birth at home, or someone's planning to give birth in a hospital, or someone's planning to give birth in a birth center, right? Well, those plans can change. And sometimes they change in advance, sometimes they change in the middle of labor. So I don't really love someone having a plan and only learning about that plan, right? Because I think if it changes, then you're just left in the dark about what to do, like you don't know anything about the process of transition. If you're at home and thinking, Okay, I'm definitely going to have a home birth, and you end up needing to transfer to the hospital, and you know nothing about how hospital labor and delivery functions, you're potentially raising your anxiety levels, you maybe are setting yourself up to not know what your options are or what you want your options to be. Right.
Kaely Harrod 8:18
And I know that I know that there's a lot of thought around like, not thinking you might be transferred, and that like, you know, kind of manifesting the birth that you would like, I think because of my framework of trauma informed care, that means I have clients and friends and colleagues that have had things that they weren't wanting to happen in the midst of birth. Right. And, and it wasn't for lack of preparation, lack of positive thinking or any of those things. And so, for me, I think it's really important that I give my students tools for whatever kind of birth they're planning and also tools if that birth plan needs to change and both of those are equally important in my mind. And so that means this class has been taken by people who do unmedicated home birth, unmedicated birth center birth, right medicated, hospital birth and even C section, like Plan C section. And that full range of folks have found it incredibly helpful. I actually recently well, gosh, recently, that's I think that baby is now like eight weeks old. It's so crazy. I had a home birth client who ended up needing to transfer to the hospital. And one of the things that that client specifically said to me was your class made it very, very much less anxiety producing to transfer to the hospital because I was not in the dark about what to expect there. Right. Like I already knew, if this becomes a hospital transfer, what will my game plan be? Because you talked through that I'm in your class, right? And so that was, like, very heartwarming for me because that's my goal, right? My goal is for students to feel like I was well prepared for this scenario, even if the scenario is what they were hoping wouldn't be a part of their birth process. Right. The other thing for me is that I think a lot of classes are taught from a position of like medical pain options, being either good or bad, necessary or unnecessary, right. And so there's a lot of there's a lot of class curriculums that focus for instance, on unmedicated labor, and do not teach anything about epidurals Right. Or a lot of classes that are that are more like hospital based birth kind of classes that teach as if epidurals are always necessary, you know, and so I don't really think that biased, that like kind of one sided track is helpful for anybody, regardless of if your plan matches up with that philosophy or not. Because it doesn't give you the tools to handle an unexpected change either in either direction, right. And so I teach my class with equipping you with a bunch of different comfort measures and tools that are pain management, options that don't involve medication. And also, I dive into the risks and benefits and pain of actual pain medication, epidurals, IV, IV, opioids, etc. So that you have some idea of what the risks are around those things, what the benefits are around those things. And you can kind of have a framework in your own mind of when that would be something that you want to use. Or maybe the reality is, you never want to use that, right. And then you have some motivation behind why you don't use it. So I don't teach the class from a place of one type of birth is inherently better than any other type of birth. Because that is incredibly important to me. And in terms of just having freedom to make the choices that you need to make in the midst of labor, and taking it as it comes one step at a time. Okay. So that means that's a little bit like very in depth about my class. Of course, other virtual self paced classes are similar in that you can like, stop the module and go back to them, like you can do it on your own schedule, right, you have the freedom to watch a little bit on Sunday and watch a little bit on Wednesday. And you don't have to be at class on Thursday at seven or whatever. So it's very beneficial and convenient for folks who have differing schedules who have like maybe a lot of travel for their work or something like that, or who just find it really hard to block out a chunk of a couple different hours. also really great for folks that find themselves a little overwhelmed about the anticipation of labor, because then you don't have to sit through a three or four hour class hearing about it in that kind of big chunk.
Kaely Harrod 13:15
And so that can be super beneficial. So that's a little like tidbit to start us off about the birth prep blueprint specifically. And then virtual self based, self paced classes in general, this first number of episodes in season two, I say number because I haven't decided exactly how many we're gonna have, I may do one more guest interview and add that in. This is all going to be about childbirth education for right now. So I'm going to talk to my dear friend who's a hypno birthing, who does hypnosis she has a beautiful program that she and another amazing doula put together, I'm going to interview a friend who teaches from the Bradley method. I'm hoping to interview someone who teaches level amaz kind of philosophy and method. And so you can get a get a feel for what those different things are, and how they are distinct, right? Because I think that's helpful in terms of distinguishing which class will be most helpful to you and kind of fits with the philosophy that you have, and the desires you have, etc. So, the birth prep blueprint specifically, is linked in the show notes or the description, and that you have a 10% discount code to because it's my class and it hosts this amazing podcast. And so I get to give you that amazing discount because I want to and so that class is in the show notes and also the discount code is or the discount link is there that'll just take you to the discounted cost. And so if you have questions about that, feel free to shoot me a message I would love to chat with you about the class. I also will link in the show notes some I've done some highlights on my Instagram, about, like different parts of the modules and stuff like that. So you can see what the class looks like. And also hear some of like how I teach and that sort of thing. So all of that I'll link in the show notes as well. So you have that. And then please do send me questions. So all of season two is not completely finished in terms of what questions are going to be answered, etc. So I would love to add your question in. And so please send that to me. Shoot me a message, hop over to Instagram and follow me there. And then let me know kind of what would be most helpful to answer because I do love hearing from you and I love answering your questions. So until next time, I wish you well informed consent filled births. These episodes are edited and produced by Kaely. Harrod, as I'm sure you can probably tell, and our amazing music is credited in the shownotes as well. So we look forward to seeing you on the next episode, and in the meantime, have a wonderful and consent filled births.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Childbirth Education or a Birth Class is an important step in your preparation for labor and birth. Because of that we are kicking off Season 2 with a whole series on different types of Childbirth Education and are starting off with Virtual Self-Paced Options. Specifically The Birth Prep Blueprint is being highlighted today!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Keys reasons The Birth Prep Blueprint is unique:
Is broken into smaller pieces to be easier to take in
You can stop and start as often as needed to avoid overwhelm
It highlights self-advocacy in each module to help you practice how to
Has diversity and inclusion in language and graphics
RESOURCES
FREE OXYTOCIN GUIDE:
6 Ways to Increase Oxytocin for Labor Progression
https://www.harroddoulaservices.com/free-guide-6-oxytocin-tips
CONNECT with Kaely on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/Harroddoula/
This podcast is hosted by the Birth Prep Blueprint - comprehensive Childbirth Education for expectant parents to feel calm, prepared and confident about labor and birth. Podcast listeners (that’s YOU!) get 10% off! Use the link below to get that great deal!
https://thebirthprepblueprint.com/offers/884d5a56-9089-4482-a944-6bb7c26c9b04
If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @harroddoula
Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
