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Childbirth Educator Training
October 21, 2011 - October 23, 2011
The Childbirth Educator Training is a 6-day course. The curriculum includes:
- Reproductive anatomy and physiology
- Elements of prenatal care
- Women’s experience of pregnancy and labor
- Nutrition and exercise
- Massage, relaxation, and breathing techniques
- Stages of labor
- Comfort measures for labor, including pain medications
- Birth-planning and informed choice
- Medical procedures
- The postpartum period, breastfeeding, and newborn care
Students learn not only what to teach, but how to teach it. The instructors model a variety of teaching techniques including lecture, use of audio-visual aids, role-playing, and small group activities. Students apply their learning through practice teaching sessions, which offer each student a chance to give a short presentation to peers and receive an experienced childbirth educator’s feedback.
Since most expectant parents plan to give birth in a hospital, most opportunities for childbirth educators involve teaching about hospital birth. Therefore, the class focuses primarily on how to teach about hospital birth, although out-of-hospital birth is also addressed.