14 DAY TRIAL // It’s been long that soon-to-be mothers and fathers started taking special antenatal classes, meant to teach future moms how to breathe and relax as the baby is brought into the world. As many must know, there are even special yoga classes for expectant mothers, also with the same purpose. Yet none of this works, since women who do take special classes and those who don’t as well have similar birth experiences, the Daily Mail informs.
According to a new study conducted in Sweden, antenatal special classes have little to no impact on the birth experience, whether they focus on breathing or on relaxation. About the same percentage of women have painful births or require the use of forceps in both categories: women who take classes and those who don’t. This means that, as the study says, whether labor is painful or the birth complicated is dependant on other factors than whether the future mom took special relaxation classes or not.
“The findings of this study are contrary to what many of us would expect. The lack of benefit is disappointing, and suggests that parents’ experience of childbirth is affected more by their personality and previous psychological orientation than by the relatively limited training that is possible during pregnancy. An alternative view is that standard antenatal classes are ‘good enough’ and therefore represent an effective use of limited resources.” Professor Philip Steer, editor-in-chief of BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, where the paper will be published, says, as quoted by the Mail.
The study ran for more than a year at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and included 1,087 first-time mothers and 1,064 of their partners. It was commissioned and supervised by the Department for Woman and Child Health – although British health experts are now arguing that what holds true in Sweden is not entirely accurate in the case of the UK as well.
Belinda Phipps, Chief Executive of the National Childbirth Trust, is one of these experts who believe the findings of the study only apply to Sweden, where it was conducted. “This limited study in Sweden compares two slightly different types of antenatal education and does not look at the more common situation in the UK which is no or limited antenatal preparation. NCT antenatal classes are valued by parents and cover many topics including parenting, baby-feeding, physical skills for labor and information about the birth as well as relaxation and breathing.” Phipps explains for the Mail.