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Educator's personal experiences

One of the issues that arose during the workshop in Ireland is the way that personal attitudes, beliefs and philosophy affect the content of the program that an educator facilitates.

Women today have been sold the idea that labour is so painful that an epidural will be needed. In providing the full story about epidurals and other ways of handling the pain of birth, a childbirth educator needs to be able to “sell” other options, such as the use of water, movement, creating an effective environment for birth etc. Getting these ideas across is much easier if they stem from the experience of the educator herself, and if she is familiar with the way these alternatives work in practice.

When an educator has had a difficult birth, or has been the victim of a rigid medicalised birth system herself, it could be hard for her to be confident about using these alternatives or convincing in her “selling” of these ideas. Tied up in this could be an unwillingness to be seen as a “failure” herself and a concern about creating expectations that women can achieve a non-medicalised birth when her own experience tells her this is very difficult or impossible. Whilst this approach may be understandable from a personal emotional perspective, there is a risk that with holding information may serve to perpetuate a brutal system that exploits women during the birth process.

In making these comments, I don’t mean to imply that only women who have natural, non-medicalised births should lead prenatal programs. My point is that educators need wide experience, and this can be gained by attending births, acting as a support person, visiting hospitals and birth centres and by talking to women to have had a variety of labour experiences.

Educators who have unresolved feelings about their own births must recognise that they have unfinished business that needs attention, to avoid their feelings unconsciously colouring the messages they give others. Women seemingly delight in recounting horror stories about labour to each other, and this is something an educator must avoid doing at all costs, even in a subtle or subliminal way, when she is facilitating a program for expectant parents.

Some of the comments that were made in Dublin by some of the educators indicated that they had personal issues around their own births that may well be affecting what they are saying to pregnant women. Many had little current experience of labour ward practice and most had never seen anything other than routinely actively managed births. Their attitudes and beliefs were reflected in the language they used, the comments they made and their reactions to my suggestions for teaching strategies. I felt that many found my ideas a little uncomfortable, and therefore they would not be pursuing them.

Parents gather their ideas on labour and birth from many sources and they respect that their childbirth educator as a professional with expertise on the subject. It is therefore the responsibility of the educator to put personal feelings aside and to strive for the best educational opportunities for the parents in their programs. If this means the educator stepping outside of her comfort zone to gain a wider appreciation of birth choices and options, then this is something she has to undertake. It won’t be easy in the Irish context, but every effort needs to be made, if the system is to be challenged as it surely and sorely needs.

Posted by andrea at April 26, 2005 09:31 PM