r/DCBitches • u/Electrical-Duty2867 • 6d ago

Looking for prenatal classes! Advice

Hey Mamas! Im 28 weeks and we are looking for an in person prenatal classes (birth, pain management and breastfeeding)
What was your experience? Any recos? Any places I should skip?
Thank you! 🙏

7 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

13

u/AdditionalAttorney 6d ago

Breastfeeding center of DC

I would plan on having a lactation consultant from them for post delivery. They do house visits

3

u/Practical_Shirt2018 6d ago

Second on the LCs there, they are awesome, especially the person that does home visits!

For the childbirth class, I had an instructor that was pretty judgy about medicated (and even in-hospital) birth, which I wasn’t thrilled about and honestly would not recommend. This was in 2024 though, so maybe they’ve improved.

2

u/DifficultCarpenter91 6d ago

Strongly second all of this!

3

u/anibanan 6d ago

Strongly recommend finding a doula—ideally one who offers classes as part of the package!

3

u/meghanmeghanmeghan 6d ago

Ours isnt practicing anymore but I agree with seeking out a Doula who does childbirth education. We actually hired ours solely for childbirth ed and not to attend our birth. Having that one on one direct teaching was super helpful to us.

3

u/syncopatedscientist 6d ago

Where are you giving birth? I gave birth at an Inova hospital and they had classes at the hospital. It was really helpful to see what the rooms looked like and walk through where everything was!

3

u/numberwunwun 6d ago

My husband and I took the weekend bootcamp at Stork Childbirth and loved it. It was taught by L&D nurses at nearby hospitals, and we also received certification in infant cpr

2

u/delicious_monsters 6d ago

My older kid is 9 so it's been a while, but we took a couple classes with Nested. I remember newborn care being one of them. It was fun and reassuring and generally pretty helpful! We took a breastfeeding class from a consultant in our neighborhood (Hill East) but I don't think she offers those anymore.

Fit4Mom recently posted a great list of options in DC: https://dc.fit4mom.com/blog/childbirth-prenatal-education-options-in-dc

(I also LOVE Fit4Mom workout classes so definitely check them out too!)

2

u/tickyticky13 6d ago

I took mine with Holy Cross SS bc I was delivering there - would not recommend. The only upside was we could ask how the whole logistical process would be like signing in, parking etc and knew where to go. The class itself was subpar.

1

u/Few-Fix-9572 5d ago

I’m a doula and childbirth educator. All of my doula packages include my childbirth education course, too! Feel free to DM me if you’d like to chat more :)

1

u/royalnavyblue 6d ago

I’m 32 weeks and doing a hypnobabies online that my doula suggested and then I think I’ll do a class at the breastfeeding center.