Navigating Your Birth: Secrets from a Doula
Class Curriculum
Week 1: Preparing for Birth
Week 2: Early Labor and Inductions
Week 3: The Hospital Experience
Week 4: Communication is Key
Week 5: Staying in Control
Week 6: Finishing Strong
- Choosing your birth space/care providers
- The importance of birth plans for all births
- Eliminating fear around birth
- Building a birth team
Week 2: Early Labor and Inductions
- What to expect in early labor
- Your options for induction
- Having a positive induction
- End of pregnancy: myths vs facts
Week 3: The Hospital Experience
- Creating a supportive and peaceful birth space
- What to expect during your hospital stay
- Understanding hospital “buzz words”
- Active labor and birth hormones
Week 4: Communication is Key
- How to ask the right questions to your care team
- What informed consent is and is not
- Your choices in birth
- Staying calm in a hospital setting
Week 5: Staying in Control
- What to do when your birth plan changes
- Benefits and risks of common medical interventions
- How to facilitate labor progress with an epidural
- How to let your body be your guide during labor
Week 6: Finishing Strong
- Following your body’s natural urges to push
- Your options for pain relief
- Partner/doula support during labor
- Moments following birth
