Childbirth Education Archives | Page 2 of 3

4 Ways to Prepare for Baby’s Arrival

Two things can happen as you get closer to your baby’s arrival date. You feel the urge to nest, or prepare your home for the new baby. You might set up the nursery or clean the house. You also might feel overwhelmed and anxious about getting everything done. Here is an overview of four ways you can prepare for baby’s arrival.

Set Up Your Home

The first thing that new parents usually think about is where baby is going to sleep. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies “room in,” (https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/sleep/Pages/A-Parents-Guide-to-Safe-Sleep.aspx) or sleep in the same room as parents, for the first 6 months. Make sure that the crib or bassinet is away from windows, heavy shelves, and electrical cords. Other things you might want in the nursery or in your bedroom are a diaper changing table, chair for feeding, a dresser for clothing, and places to store extra diapers and toys. Consider buying natural or greenguard items to prevent off-gassing, or buy them used or well in advance of baby’s arrival.

Get the Gadgets

Some gadgets aren’t really gadgets at all: they are necessary tools. For example, you can’t leave the hospital without a proper car seat. Many new parents opt for car seat/stroller combos, where the carrier snaps into the car seat or the stroller, for a variety of functions.

Additionally, a baby carrier or babywearing device can be worth its weight in gold. Babies are soothed by being nestled close, while parents enjoy having their hands and arms free. Slings, wraps, and packlike/structured carriers are all great options. Often families will opt to have a couple carriers to choose from depending on who is wearing the baby and whether they are on for a walk (or other outdoor activity) or if they are trying to get chores done around the house. Check out this list of babywearing devices.

Another popular product we’ve seen lately is the Snoo smart bassinet. Many new parents swear by their effectiveness. So much so that some employers (like Under Armour) are taking notice and now provide a 6 month rental Snoo bassinet for their employees. The bassinet responds to a baby’s cries with swaddling, shushing, and swaying (part of the 5S theory). It does this by rocking and playing white noise to soothe the baby. It also ensures that babies sleep on their backs with a special sleep sack.

Clinical Decisions to Consider

Less exciting than preparing the nursery or getting everything ready, but just as important, are the clinical decisions to consider before baby arrives. While you’ve been working with a doula and midwife and/or an obstetrician, once baby is born, they’ll need a pediatrician. Ask your healthcare provider for recommendations and get a pediatric care provider. Similarly, begin thinking about childcare providers. While you may have time off from work, consider who will take care of baby when you head back to work. Lastly, consider options available at the hospital for your newborn such as cord blood donation or delaying cord clamping, erythromycin eye ointment, vitamin K injection, and circumcision.

Take Care of Yourself

In the excitement and nervousness you may experience before bringing baby home, it’s easy to forget to take care of yourself. You can take time to appreciate your friendships, your romantic relationship, or your relationship with your other children through special trips or outings. And make sure to get adequate nutrition and rest – things that might be in short supply in the coming months.

You can learn more about how to prepare for baby’s arrival through our Baby 101: The 4th Trimester, Birth Basics or Complete Childbirth Education classes. Click here to learn more.

4 Lessons from Childbirth Education that Helped Us Get Through COVID

Childbirth Education, Doulas of Baltimore, Other

At the very beginning of our Complete Childbirth Education classes in Baltimore, we ask you to fill in sentences about how you feel about birth. While “I am nervous about…” is definitely not the same for everyone, over the last year, COVID-19 has made expecting parents nervous. And it brings up lots of questions for new moms: What does coronavirus mean for a hospital stay? Could baby meet grandma and grandpa? Who will be able to help me after delivery?

Although 2020 was totally unexpected, at Doulas of Baltimore, we’ve tried to keep the safe, nurturing, and smart perspective we’ve had serving you for the last 7 years. As things are slowly getting back to normal, we wanted to share how 4 lessons from our CBE classes helped us get through this past year.

Need to Make a Decision? Use Your B.R.A.I.N.!

Use your B.R.A.I.N is a philosophy we use in class. When making a decision, think about benefits, risks, alternatives, intuition, and what would happen if you did nothing. At the very beginning of the pandemic, we used this philosophy to think about what services we could safely offer to you all. While we’ve always known the benefits of comprehensive support, there were many risks involved in continuing in-person classes and doula support. Our intuition (and clients and friends who work in medicine) helped us make the call to move all of our support to an alternative – virtual classes and support – until it was safe to be in person again.

Confidence and Support Help Get Us Through

Doulas are experts who provide steadfast and nonjudgemental support to you and your family during pregnancy, labor, and after baby arrives. While our classes continued with all of the regular topics, we also dealt with the most pressing issue: navigating the obstacles of COVID. What is the absolute need-to-know information? How can we help make this a less stressful situation in a very stressful climate? Like in all of our classes, we focused on evidence-based information and provided straight talk about birth and postpartum care in the pandemic. We also used that same evidence-based information to make decisions about how to run our business and what we could safely offer to clients.

Take a Deep Breath

Was that a contraction? A real contraction? Or just pre-labor? In our classes, we always go over the stages of labor and how to tell the difference. Over this past year, each time a wave of infections started coming down and businesses started opening up, it was almost like Braxton Hicks contractions. They are stressful, because you are trying to figure out if they are real or not, but ultimately, they are not the real thing.

When we went virtual, we wanted to wait until it was safe and realistic to provide in person support again, and we wanted to know the difference between pre-labor and real labor. The last thing we wanted to do was tell a client, “Yes, we can be with you in the hospital,” and then back out. Now, as vaccinations are available for everyone, case numbers remain low, and hospitals have permanently re-opened for professional doula support, we can offer in-person support again.

Adapting is Key

If you’ve been in one of our classes or been pregnant, you know: labor takes many paths. And what you want to do is know the unexpected situations and what to do about them. No one knew what 2020 would bring us or when, and adapting to the ever-changing scenarios has become key to keeping our support going. We were able to bring classes to a virtual space, and some aspects of online meeting and learning are great (including no commutes on weeknights!). This is one reason we plan to continue to offer some classes online in the future. However, some things such as comfort measures, are hard to teach over Zoom. And, a big part of what we do is supporting you during and after birth, in person. So, we are adapting again. This fall, we will be offering a few classes in person in addition to our online Complete Childbirth Education class, and we have begun working one-on-one with families in person again for both birth doula support and in-home postpartum and newborn care

You can find out more about our classes here and contact us to find out more about in person doula support this summer and fall.

A Letter from Doulas of Baltimore

Childbirth Education, Doulas of Baltimore

Greetings DOB family,

You may have noticed that we have been pretty quiet over the past year. As doulas and entrepreneurs we are well-versed in being flexible and living in the moment, while always keeping an eye on planning for the future. All of that still did not quite prepare us for living through a pandemic. Like so many small businesses (and families), the past year did not look anything like we had planned for. We hunkered down with our own families, continuously evaluated and reevaluated how we could be of service to expectant parents, and simply made it through as best we could.

We remain committed to what we do, while adapting to how we do it. We want to share with you how we shifted our business over the last year, and what we are planning for the rest of 2021 and into the future.

In the early days of March 2020, while watching and listening to former clients and friends who work in medicine and epidemiology, we decided not to wait for the inevitable decision to be made for us and opted to suspend all in-person support and classes.

We set to work immediately, transitioning doula clients to virtual support and fashioning internet-based childbirth classes and parenting workshops. We knew that between the news cycle and long days of working from home, we could not expect people to have the same attention span. We distilled our usual content down to the truly “need to know” information and provided students with videos and other supplemental materials.

Our classes also dealt with the most pressing issue: navigating the obstacles of COVID. How can we help make this a less stressful situation? As is always our approach, we focused on evidence-based information and provided straight talk about birth and postpartum care in the pandemic.

We did not want to add more uncertainty into the lives of our clients (or our doulas) by going back and forth between in-person and virtual doula support. We knew that the situation was ever-changing, so with few exceptions, we have only been offering entirely virtual support over the last year.

At the end of 2020, we did not know what the future held for DOB. Like many other small business owners, we asked ourselves, how much longer can we do this? We had some serious and difficult conversations. In the end, our commitment to Baltimore families felt bigger than our struggles. Thanks in part to grants and other pandemic related support, we’ve been able to take the time to think about what we offer and how we offer it, and plan for the future.

The real turning point came this spring, when our doulas were able to be vaccinated and hospitals began allowing an additional professional support person in labor and delivery again.

We have fine-tuned our popular virtual Complete Childbirth and Baby 101 classes. We are planning a couple of limited-size in-person classes later in the year. With hospitals allowing professional doula support in addition to a partner, we have doulas who are fully vaccinated and are available to attend a birth in person for this summer. And our in-home doula support and newborn care has been re-worked with COVID-19 safety protocols.

Take care and thank you for continuing to support us as we help Baltimore families thrive,

Emily & Debbie

Childbirth Classes Your Partner Will Love

Childbirth Education

We’re talking to you, the one who is pregnant. You are having a ton of new sensations. Your mind doesn’t let you forget that you are pregnant for even a little bit, because, wow, you’re growing a human! Eating seems to have a whole new set of rules. Sleeping is turning into a disaster, and your energy levels may have you wondering why no one told you just how tired you were going to feel ALL. THE. TIME.

However, we’re talking to you, because most likely, you are also the one consumed with looking up information about your coming birth. Maybe you were gifted the one parenting book most birth professionals wishes would go away (What To Expect When You’re Expecting, if you were wondering.) Maybe there was a pamphlet at your provider’s office that talked about childbirth education. Maybe, you read a blog called, “Things To Do Before Your Baby Comes”

Or, maybe you’re terrified, so of course you’re going to find someone who can help you feel more prepared.

Childbirth education classes are sometimes seen as a necessary evil.

Childbirth classes are stereotyped in shows and movies as boring with old videos and booklets with information that is somehow both TMI, and not that helpful in edging out panic as time gets closer to your delivery. Oh, and breathing. Don’t forget to practice breathing!

It’s no wonder that most partners admit that they will go to a class if they have to, but they don’t want really want to go. We are happy to share our childbirth education is more of all the things you want. And less of all the things you don’t.

Our instructors make good use of the time together, so you feel prepared for labor and better connected with your partner at the end of your class. A big part of our focus is on ways to communicate, both before and during labor, and with each other and your medical team. We understand that you and your partner are both having unique experiences that are overwhelming. Our goal is to make sure you are both have the tools to discussion fears, options, and feelings really is an important tool for birth.

We want to encourage you to consider our childbirth education because we cater to families who are busy and value the knowledge our experienced team has curated over the years.

Here are a few specific things about our classes that couples have liked:

Time frame – options to match their need
Direct communication with partners with class material specific to their experience
An easy start to meeting other couples with similar due dates
Education that is unbiased, with evidence and options being the focus
Humor – it is a fun class!
Knowing that if there are questions, Doulas of Baltimore is just a call away

If you are unsure if taking a childbirth class is for you, or if you are looking for reasons to choose an out of hospital childbirth class, take a look at our post speaking directly to that.

We’d love to have you and your partner in class. You have already navigated so many important milestones in your pregnancy. We can help build your, and your partner’s, confidence going into meeting your child!

Birth Plan: Getting on the Same Page