I found New Arrival Educators through my OBGYN team at Tufts; there are always flyers at the reception desk there with a full schedule of childbirth, newborn and breastfeeding classes.
As a first-time expectant mom, I figured it'd probably be pretty helpful to take some classes prior to the arrival of my little pup... but at six or so hours long, I was a little hesitant to sacrifice an entire Saturday for a childbirth class!
Flash forward five months, and I'm now just about eight months pregnant, and thinking I can't put this off any longer! I sign myself and hubs up for Newborn Care & Breastfeeding classes, and decide to skip childbirth, figuring I could put a lot of that together through my own research.
To be candid here, I wasn't really sure the classes were going to be worthwhile... was it going to be really basic information?? If I am going to spend six hours in class on a Saturday, I really didn't want much of that to involve watching a video, or to provide me with information I could get easily online or through other sources.
Now, they teach these classes at a TON of different area locations, including Babies R Us, at Tufts, and at different medical offices, so I had some trouble finding the class. If you type Tufts South Shore into your iPhone's maps app, you'll end up in the wrong place, be sure to check the address before you leave home! We almost turned around and didn't make it to class as a result, but I'm really glad that we did!
Our instructor was kind, warm, patient, and incredibly knowledgable! She walked us through the basics and beyond in both classes, and she did so with enough humor to keep us pretty well engaged throughout the two sessions. In addition to instruction in how to keep your baby alive, there are some practical lessons in things like massage and swaddling that were really helpful- while you can learn that stuff at the hospital, or after the baby comes home, it put my mind at ease to get some practice ahead of time.
If you're on the fence about classes, and you don't have a lot of experience with babies, I recommend the two classes I took very highly! They've also got New Mom groups and Infant CPR- all kinds of stuff to help you make the transition from maiden to mother. read more