Choices in Childbirth

Our next activity is a class entitled "Choices in Childbirth." I am actually teaching it, since educating women is my passion as a Doula.
A lot of women do not realize all of the options they have when in labor. We are taught one basic routine which includes, go to the hosptial, get hooked up to machines, and get an epidural as soon as possible. When these things don't work as planned, then it can be a scary experience.
This class will inform women about the safety of birthing when low risk, the choices and options they have for comfort and medication, resources to find more information, and the fact that education equals power. When you don't know your options, then you don't have any. The more you know, the more you'll be in control, and the better satisfied you will be with your birthing experience.
The outline is as follows:

Choices for Childbirth Outline:

Options for Birthing
a- Hospital
b- Birth Center
c- Home Birth

How to choose a care provider
a- OB/GYNS
b- Midwives
c- Questions to ask

Choice for Birth Preparation
a- Lamaze
b- Hypnobirthing
c- Bradley
d- Birthing from Within
e- Hypnobabies
f- Doulas
g- Monitrices

Reference list
a- Hospitals, OB/GYN, CNM
b- Midwives
c- Birth Centers
d- Doulas
e- Childbirth Classes
f- Lactation Consultants
g- Birth plan sample (benefits of having a birth preferences)

With these videos:
http://www.injoyvideos.com/mothersadvocate/videos.html

More Mini Class Ideas

Freezer Dinners: People who are interested, sign up and then are put into groups. They meet together and bring ingredients for a dish that can be frozen. They bring enough of the same ingredients for the number of people in their group (say about 5 people.) Then everyone shares their ingredients and makes FIVE meals that they can freeze and pull out on those days when there's just not going to be enough time to cook!

File Folder Games: These can be games for kids for at home, or at church. You can find some fun ideas from preschools, and by googling for ideas. Each person brings enough of their same materials to share with others in their group. Then they all trade and have supplies for different file folder games.

Christmas Music Video

We might be showing this video at our activity. It is beautifully done!

Creative Super Saturdays!

Since it seems we have been receiving cousel to steer away from big activities that cost money for the sisters, we have a ward in our stake who decided to be creative with their super saturdays.
One ward is doing a Humanitarain Aid day. They are getting together at 9 amto do lots of projects, sewing, quilting, etc, then at 11, they will have a small luncheon.

Another ward is doing an "Emergency Prepardness" Super Saturday. They have gathered ideas for first aid kits, etc for those who are interested, and they will meet to put everything together, followed by a small luncheon also.

Plans for our Christmas Activity

We are having a nice dinner, a small musical program and then we are putting together gift baskets for the widows and elderly in our ward. Everyone that is able, will bring some items to put in the basket. We recommend fruit, homemade breads, jams, jellies, nuts, candies, etc. We've actually done this a few times, and the sisters really think it is a great activity.

A Small Video

We showed this little video at one of our Enrichment Meetings. We had gathered items from the Church's Humanitarian Center to make for orphans. They have blankets, nightgowns, toys, etc that you can take to work on, and bring back when you are done. Then they send them to orphanages all over the world. We started off our night with this activity, to put things into perspective. I don't think there was a dry eye. It was really neat...

Learn about your Town/State History

One ward in our stake took tours of museums and other places of interest to learn more about the town's history. They said that they had such a neat time learning about the place that they lived and things that they had never known.