Home Childbirth Education DVD?

[lulu66]

does anyone have any experience with childbirth education dvds? recommendations? any to steer clear of?

i am pregnant w/my first. DH & i live about 45 mins away from the hospital we will deliver at and just cannot make it to weekly 3 hour classes for 5 weeks...but we would both feel comfortable becoming a little more knowledgable about the labor/birth before this LO makes her entrance. DH wondered if there were any quality dvds available that could be viewed in our home. thanks for any help!

 

[Puppmom]

No recommendations but they can't be any worse than the ones they show you in class. The one from my class was from the early 1990s at best!

 

[Skippy123]

I would call the hospital, maybe they will lend them to you? or check with the library? I know they sell them online but they are like $300 or something like that. I forgot the name of the company.

babycenter might have some helpful videos too http://www.babycenter.com/2_live-birth-water-birth_3658855.bc

 

[Loves Vintage]

You can also check to see if perhaps another hospital offers a Saturday only class, if that might be easier to fit in. I think my hospital had a three hour Saturday class. Some areas also have independent education places that might offer these types of classes.

 

[lulu66]

skippy, thanks for the suggestion. i have calls in at the doctor's office & hospital, just waiting for a call back!

lovesvintage, also great suggestions! the hospital does offer saturday courses but they are still over 3 weeks & even longer length. we are in a pretty rural area (hence our hospital being 45 minutes away, so i'm not sure other outside options would be available).

 

[Skippy123]

I did some googling and I found the video series they showed us in class; http://www.injoyvideos.com/ In Joy Videos is the name. They were crazy expensive but I looked at some of the clips because one was a twin pregnancy and I had twins. I actually found the class more helpful but maybe an online class might be offered? That is something else I would ask but maybe they might suggest a hospital that does them??

 

[lulu66]

thanks for the link, skippy!

eta: those do seem a little pricey for our in home viewing...but i see they sell an online course, i'm def going to check and see if our hospital offers one!

 

[lulu66]

just wanted to follow up to this post.

DH & i ended up viewing the baby center online class "preparing for labor & birth." http://www.babycenter.com/childbirth-class it was free to sign up & then we downloaded the course to our ipad. it has 10 chapters & took about 2 hours to view everything. as first time parents, we both thought it was fairly helpful & are feeling a bit more confident about the birth process. DH learned more of the info for the first time; most of the topics i was slightly to moderately familiar with but it was nice to have them laid out in a chronological way. definite pros include price (free) & convenience & ability to skip any sections you feel comfortable with already. i don't really see any cons here except if you hate it, you've wasted 2 hours but, of course, you can stop watching at any time.

 

[Skippy123]

just wanted to follow up to this post.

DH & i ended up viewing the baby center online class "preparing for labor & birth." http://www.babycenter.com/childbirth-class it was free to sign up & then we downloaded the course to our ipad. it has 10 chapters & took about 2 hours to view everything. as first time parents, we both thought it was fairly helpful & are feeling a bit more confident about the birth process. DH learned more of the info for the first time; most of the topics i was slightly to moderately familiar with but it was nice to have them laid out in a chronological way. definite pros include price (free) & convenience & ability to skip any sections you feel comfortable with already. i don't really see any cons here except if you hate it, you've wasted 2 hours but, of course, you can stop watching at any time.

oh that is great!!!