Refresher
Why Refresher Course?
If you didn’t take classes the first time around, why miss out this time? There’s always the opportunity to have them for second or subsequent babies. After all, it’s never too late to become a pro and improve on previous performances! Or, to truly understand the miraculous nature of birth – even if it’s your sixth!
A refresher course is, perhaps, even greater fun because you’ve been there, done it and know what to expect and now you’re in a ‘reappraising and re-evaluating’ mode to look with a discerning eye at your previous birth(s).
Perhaps you felt last time you didn’t move around enough or try enough upright positions during labour. Maybe you could have used more breathing techniques to help with contractions. Do you feel you should have used different pain relief and therefore may choose differently during this forthcoming birth? Possibly you now realise you and your partner could have worked together more to ease the labour.
And, while after your last birth you didn’t want to talk about it, now you feel differently, able to look at it more objectively and assess what was good, what wasn’t so good and what could be improved. In the right frame of mind it’s amazing how much you remember and, most importantly, how much you can change this time around.…..
These are some of the things we would be discussing in a Refresher course:
- Debriefing the first/last birth – was it what you had hoped or planned for, how can we use your insights to positively affect this birth?
- Was it a vaginal birth or a caesarean? Are you hoping for a different outcome this time?
- How to prepare and be accepting of whatever type of birth it turns out to be
- How can I love another baby as much as my first? How will the newbie change the family dynamics?
- How did your relationship with your partner change with the first baby? What can you promise yourselves to do for each other this time?
- Do you remember the three stages of labour? What about positions, movement, breathing this time – need to recap some of it, all of it!
- What do you know/feel about this new baby? Is it different to last time? What were your emotions at birth last time – any feelings surprised you? What can we learn from that?
- How did you cope with contractions and labour? What could you do differently? Know more about pain relief, what would you go for this time? Pain? What did it feel like the first/last time? And was it what you imagined? Anything you would like or NOT do this time?
- How did your partner feel and cope? What would they change this time? Is there anything they would change or facilitate in order to create a different environment for a better birth?
- Would you communicate with the midwives differently? So, how can you change that this time and make sure you tell them how you are feeling and what you want?
- How easy was parenting – Can you imagine parenting two children! What might you do differently this time around?
- How did baby-feeding go last time – what have you learned from your first, and previous, experience and what will you do differently?
- How did you cope postnatally with the ups and downs – How can you improve the situation if you feel down again, and who can you call upon to offer support?
Why not take the chance to get the best birth possible second time around. And if everything was amazing, well work out what you did so well and repeat it!
Where do I Teach
Usually in my home in North West London where I make it warm and cosy so you’ll feel comfortable, relaxed and able to open up in a confidential and safe atmosphere. Also, lots of TLC and yummy biscuits supplied!
I also do classes by zoom and, actually, it works remarkably well! Nothing replaces face to face but zoom is a very good second best option.
Refresher Course
(5 x 2.5 hour classes)
£250
