I have this image of a time long ago, when we all lived in villages and women had babies in their homes, without a lot of ceremony. Maybe you have an image like this in your mind too. In this view of the history of women, taking a childbirth class seems like a waste of time and money. But women who lived in these times witnessed the realities of birth – not the dramatic recreations we see on tv, or even the sweet snippets of peaceful waterbirths we can find on youtube.
Young girls witnessed their mothers, aunts, neighbors, cousins, and sisters labor and give birth. They may have seen mothers and infants die in the process. They probably saw women who seemed to cope well with the challenges of labor, and women who struggled and suffered. They may or may not have been able to identify what factors made the difference between coping and suffering.
Many women today have never witnessed a birth, except made-for-tv-dramatizations. The stories we hear tend to revolve around doctors and hospital procedures and sometimes, horror stories. The process of birth is the same for us today as it was for those village women who birthed in the distant past, but our view of birth is very different – mostly because we barely have a view of it at all!
Childbirth education provides a clear framework for understanding what is happening in the mother’s body – the physiological, hormonal, and emotional changes that mark the progression from the first contractions to birth. This understanding helps a mother and her partner translate the physical experience of labor into a journey with mile markers, provisions (tools and skills), and warning signs. Everybody wants a map when they’re traveling a new road!