Prenatal Education

• Prenatal / Childbirth Education
• Private Sessions
• Refresher Sessions

Childbirth is an intimate experience which is why Individual Private Sessions make good sense, to focus on your needs and as preparation for the ‘big day’.

What is Prenatal / Childbirth Education

Childbirth education is preparing the pregnant woman and her partner for the birth of her baby. Commonly known as prenatal classes, they can vary in their names (antenatal classes, prenatal classes, childbirth education, birth preparation, active birth classes, Lamaze, etc), according to who is teaching them and place of teaching, with sometimes a variable and diverse approach and content.  It’s useful to check that the classes will suit your needs.

Classes aim to equip you with useful information and practical skills for use during labour, pregnancy and the postpartum period. A mixture of information and practical skills is the kind of content that is most useful as birth preparation. Individual private classes focus specifically on your needs and offer a more intensive and personalised approach to birth preparation.

Choice of Birthplace

Most women will birth their babies in a hospital with a tiny percentage, choosing to birth at home. Choice of birthplace in a hospital may be either the Labour Ward / Delivery Suite or the Birth Centre or Birthing Room, if the hospital facilities are smaller. Your choice of hospital may be determined by whether you are a public patient or a private one. Most women attend their nearest public hospital and give birth in either the labour ward or birth centre. This care is normally free.

Your antenatal care will be provided by the midwives at either the Antenatal Clinic or the Birth Centre clinic. If you are not happy with a particular midwife or obstetrical registrar offering you care, it is important to understand why and what to do about it. A lack of rapport with a midwife or other professional caregiver can erode a woman’s confidence and trust in herself and in her chosen birth environment.

Private patients will attend their professional caregiver’s private rooms or clinics for their antenatal care. If you have chosen a professional caregiver (obstetrician or independent midwife), your hospital choice will be determined by your caregiver’s ‘visiting rights’, a form of accreditation with that hospital.

Choice of professional Caregiver

Women choose a professional caregiver for various reasons, but the main ones are to ensure a consistency of continued care with the same person and to ensure they have professional medical help in the event they might need it.

It’s important to choose a person that you have some rapport with, as often, many caregivers allow little time to discuss lists of questions that you might have during your antenatal appointments. Do some research about the person in order to be more informed in your choice. Ensure you know what you are paying for regarding fees for various services that might be extra.

Also, bear in mind that you can change your mind about the person and seek to disengage them as your professional caregiver if you choose to, even at a late stage in your pregnancy.

Individual Private Sessions

These are for couples that prefer to have classes all to themselves. They want to extract the maximum amount of pertinent information in the least amount of time possible. The focus is on you; your particular needs, how you both think and feel, cope with stress, discomfort and pain and your desire to create a truly transformative birth experience.

A single 3 hour session is perfect for individual couples or for the single woman with or without an extra support person. Private Sessions with extra options also available.

Cost – $450 per couple

What does this include?  3 hours of private instruction covering –

• Childbirth specifics
• Effective breathing patterns and techniques
• Active birth positions
• About partners and how to offer loving and helpful support
• Discovering your zone of ‘focus’

• Also includes an extra 1 hour follow-up session towards the end of your pregnancy or  early postnatal
• Also an add-on option of a 1 hour pregnancy or postnatal massage.

• Session times – these can be 2 x 1.5 hr sessions or a single 3 hr session

• The extra 1 hour follow-up session is an extra option specially designed for you after your baby’s birth as a followup session, when you are more likely to need support and reassurance. This supports you in either debriefing your birth experience if needed, or in adapting to parenting and your new baby. This can be a helpful option, especially for couples without extended family nearby or are new to the area. You may elect to use this session in late pregnancy instead. 

Refresher Sessions

Refresher sessions are also private individual ones but with a different emphasis in that the focus is on a new birth experience based on a prior one. These classes are shorter in duration and are often a single session or more if required. A single session is an hour and half and focusses on what the couple want to achieve this time round, from the perspective of having birthed before. Ideally, both parties attend and an extra support person is also welcome to attend. Sometimes, it may be the woman herself who attends because her partner is unavailable or she is going it alone. In this case, another support person may be recommended, but is not always necessary depending on the woman’s wishes. Above all, it is what she wants that matters.

Reasons for refresher sessions

• VBAC – (Vaginal birth after caesarean)
• Difficult previous birth experience
• New partner
• Refresh birth preparation for a new addition to family

Cost $250 per session (90 minutes)

What does this include? A refresher session may cover –

• A birth review of previous birth experience
• Childbirth specifics to undo from a previous birth and / or work towards for the current pregnancy and labour/ birth plan
• Effective breathing patterns and techniques
• Active birth positions
• About partners and how to offer loving and helpful support
• Discovering your zone of ‘focus’

• Online support or phone support is also included as a follow-up after your baby has been born
• Also recommended is an add-on option of a 1 hour pregnancy or postnatal massage

The Healing Practice
7 Albert St
Forest Lodge (Glebe)
NSW 2037.
By appointment only.