You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know: Why Childbirth Education Matters

You can spend hours scrolling Instagram during pregnancy.

You can save birth posts, follow doulas and midwives, watch birth stories on TikTok, listen to podcasts, read books, and ask Google every question that pops into your head.

You can take an in-person childbirth class or work through an online course. You can even decide to research everything yourself.

There isn't one right way to prepare for birth, but taking the time to prepare matters.

When it comes to childbirth, there are often far more decisions, options and conversations than people realize.

A lot of people go into pregnancy thinking birth is something that simply happens.

Labour starts. You go to the hospital. Your healthcare providers tell you what happens next. You follow their recommendations. You have your baby, but birth doesn't always work that way.

There can be decisions and conversations around monitoring, cervical exams, movement during labour, pain relief, induction, breaking your water, pushing positions, IVs, newborn procedures and much more.

Some of these things may be recommended for very good reasons based on your individual circumstances. Others may be common or routine practices that aren't necessarily appropriate or necessary for everyone.

This is one of the biggest reasons I believe childbirth education matters.

You need to understand the difference.

Routine does not automatically mean bad, but it also doesn't automatically mean it's the best choice for you.

If you don't know something is an option, you may never think to ask about it.

If you don't know that something is a routine practice, you may assume there must be a specific medical reason it is being recommended.

If you don't understand why something is being recommended, it can be difficult to have a meaningful conversation about whether you want to proceed.

Canadian national guidelines for family-centered maternity and newborn care emphasize that women and families should have the knowledge they need to make informed choices and be active participants in decisions about their care. They also emphasize that interventions during labour and birth should have evidence-based reasons, with women informed about the risks, benefits and alternatives.

That doesn't mean you should walk into the hospital determined to refuse every intervention.

It means you should understand what is being offered to you and why.

When people hear "childbirth education," they sometimes picture a class where you learn breathing techniques, watch a video about labour and practice a few positions.

Childbirth education is about more than breathing techniques.

That can certainly be part of it, but I think good childbirth education needs to go much further. You should learn how labour works physiologically, how you can support that process, what can influence it, and what options you may encounter along the way. That includes understanding common hospital routines and interventions and the reasons they may be recommended.

You should learn enough to recognize when you might want to stop and ask:

Why are you recommending this?

Is this routine, or is there a specific reason you're recommending it for me?

What are the benefits?

What are the risks?

What are my alternatives?

What happens if I wait or decline?

Those questions aren't about being difficult.

They're part of being informed.

Take induction of labour. It can be the right choice in some circumstances, but there is a difference between understanding why an induction is being recommended for you and assuming that induction is simply what happens because you've reached a certain point in pregnancy.

The same applies to fetal monitoring, cervical exams, breaking your water, IVs, pain medication and other interventions.

You don't need to decide ahead of time that these interventions are either good or bad.

You need to understand them well enough that when one comes up, you aren't hearing about it for the first time in the middle of labour.

One of the things I wish more people knew before giving birth is that there can be a big difference between something being common and something being necessary for you.

Hospitals have policies, routines and standard practices for a reason. Many are important. Some interventions are absolutely necessary in particular situations, but your care should still be individualized.

The point is that you are participating in the decision rather than simply going along with something you don't understand.

That's a very different experience from going into birth thinking you need to either blindly trust everything or refuse everything.

You can absolutely DIY your childbirth education

You don't have to take one particular course to be prepared for birth.

If you're someone who loves to research, you can absolutely educate yourself.

Read books. Look at reputable resources. Learn about the physiology of labour. Learn about common interventions. Read about the options that may be available to you. Write down questions for your healthcare provider.

You might prefer an in-person childbirth class.

You might prefer an online course that you can work through at your own pace.

You might use a combination of all of these.

The method matters less than actually taking the time to learn.

You can absolutely use social media as part of that research. What I wouldn't recommend is piecing together your entire childbirth education from random 30-second videos.

I love that Instagram and TikTok have made it easier to talk about birth. There are some fantastic birth educators, doulas, midwives, healthcare professionals and parents sharing genuinely helpful information online.

But confidence and accuracy are not the same thing.

Someone can sound extremely confident and still be wrong.

Someone can take a complicated topic and make it sound incredibly simple.

Someone can share their personal experience as though it applies to everyone.

And sometimes two people can make completely opposite claims, and both sound convincing.

If you already have a foundation of knowledge, it's much easier to recognize when something deserves a little more research.

Without that foundation, it can be incredibly difficult to know what is accurate, what is missing context, and what is simply someone's opinion.

Social media can be a great place to discover questions you didn't know you had, introduce you to topics you want to explore and point you toward resources and perspectives you hadn't considered.

Use social media to start the conversation, not to replace the education.

What if you already have a doula?

If you're hiring a doula, you might wonder whether you really need childbirth education too.

I think they serve different purposes.

Your doula's prenatal visits are an opportunity to focus on you—your pregnancy, your care, your preferences, your concerns and the decisions that may come up for you. There is only so much time in those appointments, and they aren't designed to replace an entire childbirth education curriculum.

When you have that foundation of knowledge, our prenatal conversations can go deeper. We can spend less time covering the basics and more time talking about how what you've learned applies to your specific situation and plans.

Maybe you've learned about a routine intervention and want to understand how it may apply to you. Maybe your provider has started discussing induction. Maybe you've learned about different options for labour and realized you have preferences you want to talk through.

That's where doula support and childbirth education work so well together.

The education gives you the foundation. Your prenatal doula support gives you the opportunity to apply that knowledge to your own birth.

I don't need my clients to make the same choices I would make. I want them to understand their choices well enough to make decisions that feel right for them.

You don't need to plan your entire birth

Childbirth education isn't about predicting exactly how your birth will unfold.

You don't need to know whether you'll want an epidural, whether you'll need an induction, or how you'll respond to every possible scenario. Birth is unpredictable, and your circumstances and preferences can change.

Being educated doesn't mean having every answer before you go into labour. It means having enough of a foundation that when something unexpected comes up, you can ask questions, understand what is being recommended, consider your options and make a decision based on the information available to you at the time.

That's what childbirth education is really about.

Not memorizing every possible complication.

Not deciding that every intervention is bad.

Not trying to control every moment of labour.

It's about understanding birth well enough to be an active participant in your care.

You don't know what you don't know. And you can't ask about an option you don't know exists.

So whether you choose an in-person class, an online course, a comprehensive program, or decide to do the research yourself, make childbirth education part of your pregnancy.

Your future self may be very glad you did.

Want to learn more?

If you're looking for a comprehensive childbirth education option, Unmedicated Academy is the course I use with my doula clients and also offer as a standalone option.

It covers the physiology of birth, options throughout labour, common hospital routines and interventions, advocacy, VBAC, partner preparation and more.

If you'd like to learn more about Unmedicated Academy or how I offer it through Fearless Birth MB, let’s chat