wrote in message
...
Hiya, Maybe you can help. I was wondering what kinda of classes that
I need
to take and the wife needs to take and the both of us need to take?
At what
week should we start looking at classes and/or start them? Thanks for
the
input.

Mark
EDD 11/03

Childbirth classes are probably the most common; you'd take them
together. If you are planning on a hospital birth, the hospital most
likely offers them. You can also find out about local classes through
your OB/midwife, organizations such as Bradley, and local doulas (some
of whom may offer private, personalized childbirth education, even if
you are not using their services).

Whose class (if any) you need or want to take will really depend on what
kind of information and instruction you are looking for. This can be
very important because each method will tend to have its own agenda, and
some can be pretty, erm, adamant about their way being the only way.
Make sure you're taking something that matches or covers the kind of
birth you want (natural? medicated? what kind of pain management
techniques are you most interested in? how involved will the husband be
in a coaching role? are you planning to breastfeed? etc.)

I think there are probably a lot of people who take breastfeeding and
parenting courses as well.

Childbirth classes can run quite a few weeks (though many offer longer
classes on weekends to crash the timeline), and most places will
recommend you take them in the 2nd trimester. We didn't take
instructor-led childbirth classes, but I moved back our childbirth
education into the 3rd trimester simply because I knew that if we did
something earlier, my husband would never remember it all when it
counted :-).

Jen