Preparing for Baby and Birth: Parent Education Classes

Preparing for birth and parenthood can feel overwhelming, especially when you're not quite sure what to expect. In this episode, Dr Rangi is joined by Stefanie Pascolo, clinical midwife at Mercy Perinatal and education midwife with Parent Education at the Mercy Hospital for Women, to demystify parent education classes and explain how they can help you feel informed, confident and prepared for the journey ahead.

Together, Rangi and Stef answer some of the most common questions expectant parents ask, including what parent education actually involves, who teaches the classes, when to book, what you'll learn, and whether your partner or support person can attend. They also explore what makes parent education valuable, how classes are structured, and whether the reality is anything like what you've seen on TV.

Whether you're newly pregnant, deciding if a class is right for you, or simply curious about what to expect, this episode is your practical guide to making the most of parent education and preparing for birth with confidence.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to Prepare, the Mercy Prenatal podcast dedicated to helping parents prepare for the journey of pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenthood. Mercy Pronatal would like to begin by acknowledging the Rawundri Wuiwarung people, traditional custodians of the land on which we gather today, and also the traditional custodians of the lands in which you're listening from today. We'd like to pay our respects to the elders past, present and emerging, and we extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples listening today.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Hi everyone, welcome back to Prepare. My name is Dr. Rangy DeSilva, and I'm an obstetrician and gynecologist here at the Mercy Hospital for Women. And we are so excited to be joined by my lovely colleague Stephanie from our parent education department. So I'm going to let Stephanie introduce herself and tell us a little bit about your background and why you got into this role.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here and really happy to get this information out to people. So yeah, I'm Steph. I've been a midwife for I think about 14 years now. I'm starting to lose track. And I've worked in lots of different areas. So I think hopefully I have lots of bits and pieces of experience for our couples. I got into this role after coming back from maternity leave. I wanted something a little bit less physical because my daughter is a wild one. And she's only three. And she's only three now. And it just kind of clicked with me. I just love the idea of talking to new parents or, you know, parents that just want a little bit more education. And yeah, just I think it fits in really well with everything else I've done as well. I'm also working in Mercy Perinatal at the same time. So I kind of see some of the same patients, which is really beautiful continuity of care as well. Yeah. Yeah, so I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Great. Amazing. So why don't you tell us a little bit about what is parent education here at the Mercy?

SPEAKER_02 2:01

So we're a fairly small department. There's probably about five of us in the department, not very big. We're hoping to expand. That's our goal. That's great. Yeah. So we offer a range of classes to expectant parents or parents, like I said, who are wanting to refresh or get more information around pregnancy, labour, birth, a lot on breastfeeding, and then the care of a baby at home and looking after your family at home. Great. Yeah. We also offer, little known facts, the TENS machine hire. So through TENS Australia, you can just come directly to us, pick up the machine, take it home, and then pop it back in a return paid envelope. So that's a really nice service that we have too.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Yeah, fantastic. Can anyone come and borrow the TENS machine or do they have to be enrolled in their parent education classes?

SPEAKER_02 2:49

No, anybody can. And often we have like second or third time mums coming to get them because they know they worked amazingly the first time. So yes, any absolutely anybody can grab them.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

They must be very popular. They are. And I think they're getting more and more popular, to be honest. Yeah. Yeah. I think they're the best thing about Labour.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Fantastic. That's a good endorsement. So you kind of mentioned there's five people in the team at the moment, Steph. Who are those people? Who runs the classes?

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Yep, so we are all midwives except for our amazing admin person. We all come from different backgrounds, we've all got different levels of experience. Obviously, we give the same information through the classes, but we have just a little bit of a different perspective on it all, which I think is really good. We all learn from each other as well.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Yeah. So a really experienced midwife you'll be hearing from.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Amazing. And is it usually one person that delivers each class?

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Yes. And normally you'll get continuity with each class as well. So you'll get the same midwife from class to class. Sometimes we do switch it up a little bit, depending on sort of when we're working.

unknown 3:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Great. And how long would you say each of the in-person classes are?

SPEAKER_02 4:01

So there's two main options of getting all the information. So we suggest if you're a first-time parent that you do eight hours of education. And that can be offered through four two-hour classes, which generally run through the weeknights, so five till seven.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

And then you can also do two four-hour workshops, which is often a weekend, but we do some during the weekdays as well.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Cool. Yep. So that's flexible in terms of people who work full-time, maybe can't get here by five, the weekends are always an option as well. Correct, yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

And there's a lot that runs during the day as well. So if you are somebody that can log in from home or log in from work online or even come in on a workday, and they're often far more available as well, which is good to know if you're kind of stuck in that.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Yes. Okay. So if you get far enough in advance, you could potentially organize a day off or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Yeah. And we do offer attendance certificates as well. So you can bring that back to your workplace in the day off. Great. Perfect. So similar to a clinic appointment.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Correct. Important part of your care. Great. And you alluded to the online classes as well. Are they the same topics and given over the same period of time? Or how do they work?

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Yeah, so they can be. We don't do the workshops online because four hours sitting down at a computer, I think, for anybody is a little bit too much. Yes. But we do the two-hour classes every week. So a four-week series. So you could do that to get your full eight hours, or you could do a one-off class in a range of topics. So it might be that you just want to know about induction of labour, 30-minute class. You want to know about water birth, that's 30 minutes, caesarean. Every week, or most weeks, we offer a breastfeeding class. So even if you don't end up doing a full series, you can actually do a two-hour breastfeeding class online, which is really good to know. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a whole range of online stuff as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Amazing. So you can really pick and choose and tailor what information you want to listen to. Yeah. Fantastic. And are they usually all two hours, those classes? No, some are 30 minutes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Up to two hours online.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

And you mentioned some of the topics, so induction, breastfeeding, cesarean section. What are some of the other topics that you can choose from?

SPEAKER_02 6:18

In the online classes, induction, water birth, caesarean, they're probably the main online classes that we offer in addition to the breastfeeding class. Yep. The extra classes that we have that are run in person are a labour refresher slash VBAC class. Oh, great. Which we do not all the time, but maybe sort of once every two months. Okay. And that's really nice for obviously if you've had a cesarean before and you want a bit of information about labour again. Or we've had parents coming back after 10 years. Yes, they've had their baby a long time ago and they just want a refresher on labour. Yeah. And that's a really great class as well, because it's not so much about the content that we have to get through, but there's a lot of questions that we get. There's a lot of talking between the parents as well. And this was my experience. And yeah, I I love those classes. I think they're really nice.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Great. So just on that, the in-person classes I imagine are better for that interaction and question and answering and meeting other parents, particularly for first-time parents. Yes. Do you find that they get the same level of sort of interaction online, or is there an opportunity for that as well?

SPEAKER_02 7:27

We do try. So we have two options online. You can either pop questions or comments in the chat, which I think a lot of people tend to do. Yeah. But there is the option, and I often will say, okay, everybody come off mute and we all have a big conversation together, and everybody just throws out ideas or questions, which does work with some groups, not so well with other groups. It kind of depends on the vibe of the group. But we do intend to do that. So we try to make it as similar to our in-person classes as possible, but obviously it just depends who's there and yeah, how much energy they've got on the day. Yeah, that's right. I've always got the energy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Fair enough. And how many other parents will be in a face-to-face class, for example? So 12 couples altogether.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

So about 24 people in a room.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Yeah. And if you are not with a partner, for example, you can bring a support person along with you?

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Correct, yeah. So you can bring anyone. You can bring a sister or your mum or an auntie or an uncle. Great. Whoever wants to come. I guess ideally the person that's going to be with you through labour and then in the postpartum period would be better. Yeah. Just because they would benefit from getting that information. But you know, if you've got nobody else to come on that day, maybe your partner's working, then we're happy just to have whoever you like there to support you.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

But do people come by themselves often?

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Sometimes. Pretty rarely. A lot of the time it's maybe, you know, partners stuck at work or something like that. Most of the time, if they are a single parent, they'll come with another support person that they know is going to be around for them.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah. Yeah. And we would recommend having a support person in that case anyway. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Online, I suppose it's easier to have a larger number of people. Is there an upper limit to how many people can come online?

SPEAKER_02 9:15

We do have an upper limit, but we don't often reach it. And I think even if we allow 20 people to book in, we know that we're not going to fill that class. So it might be 15 people that actually come to that class. And 15 is still perfectly fine for an online class. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Great. And what are some of the most common questions that you get from parents in or concerns that you get in these classes, Steph?

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Yeah, we get a lot of I heard on Instagram. Or I heard on TikTok. Or I heard from a friend or a family member. It's good that they're asking those questions. It is good. And I'd rather they come with those questions and get the proper evidence-based information from us, which is just one of the benefits of coming to the hospital for your classes. Oh, there's such a range of questions. A lot of it is around safety, especially partners. Partners want to know, I just want to be able to keep my baby safe. Of course. There's lots of safety questions, which is just beautiful. Labour is more about how do I just get through it? What can I do to get through it? Yeah. People come with a lot of anxiety, people come with a lot of fears. And I think that's probably one of the benefits of doing our class is that they leave having dropped a lot of that fear and anxiety, which is really nice. Yeah. So yeah, there's quite a bit of that.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Yeah. I think that's really an important point. You know, obviously one of the main reasons why we host Prepare is to give people that information and that knowledge and an opportunity to debunk some of those myths and feel more empowered and confident at going into birth however that looks for them. So that fear is hopefully less pronounced.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Yeah, and that's probably the main feedback that we get from people. I don't ever expect to come to education classes thinking that it will change the outcome of whatever happens, because we know that's not the case.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

We can't often control. We can't control.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

We know that we can't control labor, we can't control your baby, we can't control, you know, how your baby responds to breastfeeding or whatever it may be. But what we can control is how we feel about it. And so many times people have said to me, even just exiting the door, I just feel more confident now, and I feel like I'll be able to respond to a situation with this information that you've given me. We used to do um a survey about six weeks post-birth, and people would say, I didn't think I remembered most of it, because it was a lot of information, but at two o'clock in the morning, I remembered that settling technique you gave us. You know, or in labor, I remembered that one particular tool you gave me, and I use that the whole time. So I think the information comes back when it's somewhere there in your brain. So just yeah, having that knowledge behind you is just the best thing you can do going into labor and birth, even if, like I said, it doesn't change the entire outcome of what happens. Yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah, really important. And just being able to be informed in what you're doing, making informed choices, not feeling like you're going in just accepting what's offered to you, because that's how people do end up with trauma at the end of the day, you know, when they feel forced into things. So that's definitely another benefit that we offer. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Knowing all of the options and your choices. Yeah. Fantastic. How uh uh early do you think it is uh is too early to book any of these classes?

SPEAKER_02 12:43

So when you book in with the hospital, so that's probably first trimester for most people, you'll get a range of resources from the hospital, and one of them will be a link to our try booking website. It's probably a good idea around that time to have a look at the website, just see what we offer, decide what you're thinking about choosing, and then we aim to start classes for you at around 27 to 32 weeks, so somewhere in that sort of middle range. Yeah. They come out about eight weeks in advance on try booking. Yeah. Um, so kind of aim maybe for early 20s to look online, see what's open.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Sometimes you'll look on there and you'll think, oh golly, everything's booked out. But some of the classes will say closed. And that just means they're not open yet. They will open probably sometime very soon. Yeah. Click into it, have a check of the date and time that it opens, and put a very aggressive alarm in your phone. Because when that alarm goes off, I say to my manager, it's like a Taylor Swift concert. You have to jump online, you have to refresh four times and book. And especially for our weekend. Our weekend is definitely the most popular classes. So yeah, have a look around the 20-ish, maybe 22-week mark, make sure you've got that booking date ready to go, and then yeah, be online to book it and aim to start it after 27 weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Because if you do it too early, and we have had this happen where people have started classes really early, they get to 36 weeks and they go, I can't remember any of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Or things might have changed. Yeah, correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a really good point because often people might not be thinking about booking classes when they're sort of 20-something weeks in the early 20-something weeks. But it's really important because you want to be attending those classes by the time you get to late 20-something weeks or early 30-something weeks. Correct. Yeah. But you have to think about it beforehand, don't you? To book it in advance. That's right. Yeah. Um and it probably seems a little bit premature for some people to be thinking about labour and birth and some of those things at the end of pregnancy so early, but it is all about just being prepared, isn't it? That's right. Yeah. Yep. As is our title. I think sometimes the idea of attending a class in person about birth, particularly if you're you've got some fears about it or you're just not sure what to expect, can be a bit anxiety-provoking for some people. So can you paint us a bit of a picture of what it might look like when you actually come to a class and what that class will entail?

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Yes, so it's probably a little bit different to most of the movies and TV shows that we've seen. When you walk in, logistically, we don't have a huge space. So we can't lay out the big yoga mats and have all the yoga balls. We do have yoga balls. We like people to use them because they're nice and comfortable if you want, just for somewhere to sit. But certainly we don't expect you to, you know, sit on the ground and everybody hold hands and we all do breathing exercises. You can do that, and that is a small part of the class, but most of our classes are informative. So it's a couple sitting on a chair, listening, and then we have a few incorporated activities as we go along. So we might do a little bit of some breathing activities, we might do some changes of nappies for babies, we might do some wrapping of baby swaddling. We do some parts where we're working with the whiteboard and having a look at maybe 24 hours in a day and what that would look like with the newborn. So there's definitely bits and pieces of activities throughout, but the majority of the class is just kind of, you know, everybody sitting and then listening to that information. So it is slightly different to probably what you may have pictured. Yeah, yeah, but that's really good to know. Yeah, in saying that, we do a separate class. This is quite new actually, a separate class that goes for about an hour, an hour and a half called active birth. Okay. So if you are looking for something a bit more active, umware that we do have the yoga mats, and there's only six couples to this class, so it's much smaller. We do a lot of breathing exercises, we do a lot of visualization, a lot of relaxation, a lot of massage. So it is more that physical side of things, which might be a little bit more like a movie, I think. Yeah. So I guess, yeah, if you're looking for that, you can do that. If you're not looking for that and you just want the information, then just the regular series of classes would be the way to go.

unknown 17:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Oh, that's really good to know. Do people need to bring anything along or just themselves to the classes? Just themselves.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Bottle of water. Though we do have a tap. We also have tea and coffee and biscuits.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Bonus.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yep. Um, some people bring a notepad. Yeah. But I think writing things down is not always it depends, I guess, on your learning type. But we give you a whole bunch of resources after the classes. So we actually email you the things that if you need to come back to them, you need to remember. You can just flick back to the email rather than having to quickly write everything down or take photos on the day.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

But totally up to you. If you wanted to bring that, that's fine. Otherwise, we provide everything else.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Great. And do you find that people often have some knowledge before they come, or do people mostly come with a clean slate and just absorb the information?

SPEAKER_02 18:29

It is so varied, and you can tell immediately from the looks on people's faces how much research they've done. Yeah. I think most of the time mums have done quite a bit of research. Yes. But then you've got support people who are looking very blankly at you as you hold up a pair of metal forceps. But yeah, but it's definitely varied. And that also comes down to when they're starting the classes too. Some people that are starting quite late will have done a lot of their own research and information, whereas some that are a little bit more in their later sort of 20-week gestation, they may not have started anything. And so this is all fresh information. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

And really the classes can be booked out, even if you do look very early. I know it's hard to recommend particular resources out there, but there's so much information out there. Is there any advice you might offer for those people or even people who want further information on top of the classes as to how to look up good sources of information or or other classes, other online information sessions that might be available?

SPEAKER_02 19:37

Yeah, I mean you could always listen to prepare. Definitely an option. But but I think any good education class on maybe a website states where a lot of the information comes from. So have a look. Is it evidence-based information? You could always email them, you could always call them, maybe if they have a phone line, and just say, hey, just checking where do you get your information from? Is it evidence-based? Also, what do you cover? Because there are great classes out there, but they maybe focus on labour and birth and natural methods of pain relief. Whereas you may not want that, you may want something different, or you may want more information on breastfeeding or looking after baby. So I think definitely ask what they cover and then where they get their information from. And who's giving the classes. And who's giving the classes, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Good advice.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

But I think you and I would probably both say that as much information as you can get for yourself is important, isn't it? Correct. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

And having something to refer back to for when you do forget things is nice. Yeah. Particularly for support people as well. Yes. And also a good range of support, phone numbers, resources, websites, because again, there's going to be moments where you'll need that help at that minute. So knowing where to go is really important.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Exactly. And I think it's also really important that the classes that we have give you information about pregnancy, labour, birth, but also postpartum, like caring for the baby at home, breastfeeding, and recovery.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Yep. And I say to people, as important as labour is, it is possibly one, maybe two days. But you do have a lifetime with this baby. So where I do push the focus in the classes as much as I can towards that stage because I just think it's in the long run so much more important. And you can prepare so much more for that than people think. Yes. I think a lot of the time they think, I'll just wing it. I'll just, you know, the baby will fit into my life. And breastfeeding will just magically happen because it's all magic and it's amazing. But you do really need to have that information. Yes. Um, and you need to have some things in place and some support in place to make sure you do it the best you can. Yeah. Make sure you feel confident. Yeah, and comfortable. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

Yeah, but for some people it it is that smooth journey and and magical Who are these people? Who are these people? Where c where can we find them? But for most it's it's not. It it does require some knowledge and information and support, doesn't it? Which is fine. Yes. Yeah. Completely normal. How about Steph, other people in you know a pregnant person's life like grandparents? Is there something that they can come along too? Because it's probably been a while since they've supported a a new parent or been a new parent themselves. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

We do have a grandparents' class, which I love. That's so great. Yes. So this is for parents of parents or new parents to be. Or it can be you know aunties or uncles, sometimes they come along as well. Sisters as well, we get sometimes coming. Great. And it's just this beautiful class with all these ideas on how you can be supportive and how to maybe not be overbearing. That's fantastic. I love that. And then it also updates them on all the new information that has just changed dramatically since they had in the last 20 to 30 years. Correct. Yes. So breastfeeding is so different now than what it used to be, and teaching them about that and the expectations around that. And then safety, safe sleep. There's just so many changes. Yeah. Yes. But I think, yeah, the focus is how can they help you? And what are you going to need from them? Yeah, it's just it's so wonderful. And grandparents love it. So great. One grandparent once asked us, where can I get my certificate now to show my brother-in-law?

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Is that something you can give them?

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Look, I could draw one if they really want.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Oh, that's so great. It's really a good resource. And how much does it cost?

SPEAKER_02 23:57

So if you have Medicare and you're coming to our hospital, you can do it for free.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Amazing.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Which is awesome. And so that probably changed the start of this year, which was just such a great thing, and is also why we do book out quite quickly compared to some of the expenses around external classes. Of course.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Yeah. Because some of them can be quite expensive. Is a grandparent's class also free because they're not technically a patient?

SPEAKER_02 24:23

Yeah, so because they're not a patient within the hospital, it is a cost of $50, but that covers two people. At the moment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Yeah. How much does it cost to hire a TENS machine and how long can you have it for?

SPEAKER_02 24:35

So we generally suggest hiring it around 37 weeks and it's $140. And then when you return the kit, you get $40 back. Oh, great. As part of the hire. Yeah. You just return it in a replied paid envelope. And maybe sometime a couple of weeks after you've had a baby would be nice in that first couple of weeks. But we know people have other priorities at that time. So yeah, look, the time is whatever you can do. We kind of say around six weeks. It's often a little bit less or more than that.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Fantastic. Such a good resource. So good. Yeah. Is parent education similar or the same at other hospitals for those listening who may not be booked at the Messi?

SPEAKER_02 25:16

So it may be. I think the content is often fairly similar. Maybe the presentation is slightly different. But what does differ is some of the policies and procedures that each hospital has. So it is definitely, I think, important to get your information, your education from your hospital. Yeah. Often, yeah, what they're teaching you might just slightly revolve around the particular policy for that hospital.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

Yep. Yeah. Which are all going to be, again, evidence-based and in line with the safest practices, but important to know the unique things about that site.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Yes. And also we offer a hospital tour within our in-person classes. Yeah, fantastic. So it's not hospital-wide, but we basically show you where to come in, because that's often what partners want to know. Where do I bring it to the city? It's an important question. How do I get it? Where do we go? Yeah. So we bring them sort of around our emergency department and in through Birth Suite if we get an opportunity. Great. And it's so nice to see that environment where you're going to be so that when you do come in, it's not like this brand new scary environment. Yeah. You can kind of say, Oh, I've been here before. This is okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Yeah. You can visualize what it might look like. Yes. Yes. Fantastic. Great. Awesome. Thank you so much, Steph. It was so great to have you talking about such an important service that we offer here at The Mercy, but all hospitals, whether it's public or private, will offer a parent education service. So really important for listeners, even if they're not booked at The Mercy, to look that up. And be prepared and empowered as much as possible. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

It's been lovely. Every pregnancy is unique. The information provided in today's podcast is for educational and general purposes only. It is not intended to be substitute for professional medical advice. It is important that you always seek the guidance of qualified health professionals with any questions you may have regarding your health, pregnancy, or any medical conditions.