Childbirth Workshop - Mother/Baby Assignment

Childbirth Workshop
September 24, 2008


The Childbirth Education Workshop definitely proved to be incredibly valuable to my education, and hopefully my lifelong career working as a nurse in labor and delivery. It will definitely prove invaluable when it comes time to assist a woman and support her during such a special time in her and her family’s life.

Although I have two children, I didn’t get any preparation through a childbirth class. Constant preterm labor with my first son kept me from attending every childbirth class I hoped to attend. When labor finally occurred at term, it was nothing but extreme pain and “counting the centimeters” until I qualified for an epidural. I was completely unprepared. After complications and reaching only 5 centimeters in two days an emergency cesarean section was performed. My second son was born at 35 weeks by cesarean section as well after a horrible experience with preeclampsia.

I described my personal experiences because although absolutely nothing went "according to plan" I still view the whole maternity experience in a very positive way. Why? Because there was always that one special nurse each time who had a real passion for her work and was full of wonderful information. Today in the workshop I also acquired some fantastic knowledge and hopefully someday I can make another woman’s experience positive no matter how non-traditional it becomes.

I was introduced to how the process of labor and delivery occur and how the nurse assists the mother, and entire family, to make it the best experience possible. I was especially interested in how the workshop focused on the mother's inner strength and how the nurse can educate and support her so that she can walk away with a positive experience. Pain can be managed and controlled, but the mother must first overcome fear of the unknown with knowledge. That's the first step.

Learning a history of the various childbirth practices was also fun to learn. It’s so interesting to see how far we have come, even in the last 10 years! Supplementing with the videos was also very informative. It showed the best methods of supporting the laboring mother, helping her not feel so alone in the experience, and showing ways to also teach the support person what they can do to help so they feel like they are a part of the process. Giving us the opportunity to experience a brief, yet effective demonstration of relaxation showed us how it felt for us. We, now, have more ideas of ways to assist the laboring mother.

Before today, I felt that I didn’t have great hands-on knowledge about helping a laboring woman. Now, because of the workshop, I feel like I have insight on what occurs during the “traditional” delivery of a baby. I’m ready, more than ever, to go out and help mothers and their families, in the same positive ways that nurses always helped me and it’s so exciting!