I really love the childbirth class teaching book Understanding Birth from Injoyvideos.com.
Change is difficult, but the booklet is so well done that after a few more test runs using it to teach my classes I believe that I am going to make a switch.
I had been giving students a booklet that I wrote which included: When to go to the hospital, labor signs, stages of labor, etc.
The Understanding Birth booklet has been around a few years, but I hesitated to use it for my childbirth classes. One of the reasons I did not place it at the top of my list before was it’s main selling point, access to online video clips about childbirth.
My first thought was it is just too much information. I felt that students might be overwhelmed with all the videos.
However, with this latest edition of Understanding Birth Injoyvideos has struck the right balance between information and video clips. Some of the best features of the booklet are:
- It’s user friendly, clean layout, with large print headings
- Photos of women and their families of different ethnicities
- Excellent images of the fetus inside the pregnant woman’s body
- Concisely covers the key points of any childbirth class
- Provides students access to modern looking handouts online
The booklet teaches about doulas, comfort techniques, VBACs, multiples, medications, newborn appearance, and so much more.
I honestly just love this book and I am not being paid to love it.
Where I think the booklet could improve would be to align with the new research showing that active labor begins at 6 centimeters.
Also, I personally dislike referring to contractions as Braxton-Hicks. This term is outdated and confusing to pregnant women.
Lastly, they could include a list of birth tools and positive affirmations.
You can download a free copy of Understanding Birth to preview by clicking here.