Is Lamaze all about breathing?

Our goal is to increase women and their partners’ confidence in their ability to birth their babies.Couples learn simple coping strategies for labor, including focused breathing. But breathing techniques are just one of many things that help women in labor. Movement and positioning, labor support, massage, relaxation, hydrotherapy, and the use of heat and cold are some others.

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Does Lamaze promise painless childbirth?

The fear of pain is common in many women. Our classes explain the nature of the pain and how and why contractions become intense and how pain is a normal part of childbirth. Responding to the pain of contractions - by changing positions and moving, by massaging, - actually strengthens the contractions, helps the baby settle into the pelvis and move through the birth canal, and reduces pain perception. Women, while pregnant, are already responding to what they are feeling. They move or shift in response to a discomfort or pain. Our classes help women understand the value of pain and focus on the positive aspects of labor. Our couples learn how to respond to pain in ways that both facilitate labor and increase comfort.

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Does Lamaze childbirth mean you can't have an epidural?

Our classes provide information about natural pain relief options as well as epidural anesthesia. Eliminating pain completely makes it difficult to respond to contractions in ways that facilitate labor and birth. Lamaze education will assist women in making personal decisions that are right for them.

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I’ve heard that Lamaze doesn't work?

Lamaze that "works" has nothing to do with feeling pain, taking or avoiding medication, or developing complications that necessitate medical interventions. We educate women and their partners that nature has designed birth simply and close to perfectly and that women already know how to give birth. Lamaze is working if women trust the natural process of birth, have confidence in their ability to give birth, have the freedom to work with their bodies as labor progresses, and are supported by health care providers, family and friends who wait patiently for nature to do its incredible work. Lamaze "works" if birth is allowed to work.

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Is Lamaze for everyone?

Women have always prepared for the birth of their babies. Until recent times, women learned about birth from their own mothers and sisters. Birth took place surrounded by family and wise women who provided comfort and encouragement through labor and in the days and weeks after birth. Today, our childbirth classes provide the knowledge, skills, and support that help women give birth with confidence and joy as they have done for centuries. We have taught women of all ages and cultural backgrounds. Her partner could be a spouse, boyfriend, mother, sister, lover or a doula.  Lamaze preparation is for everyone!

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