3 Reasons Why an Antenatal Class is the FIRST Enrichment Class for your Unborn Baby

Once you become a parent, you are always doing everything you can to ensure your baby has the best of everything, especially when it comes to aiding in her or his physical and mental development. There are countless options when it comes to baby enrichment classes – starting right from infant classes and all the way through to the older years. 

But did you know that a baby’s development starts at conception and continues to rapidly change during pregnancy? A baby inside the womb is a conscious human being with awareness, memory, and the ability to learn. Even from inside the womb, a baby is influenced by its environment and responds to it. The primary environment is the mother herself. The mother’s physical health and her mental and emotional health directly affect the baby in her womb. Beyond this, babies already have a sense of connection to the mother, father and the outside world. Babies respond positively to touch, the mother’s voice and in the time that the parents, and especially the mother spends in mindful connection with her baby.

A high quality childbirth program like the Lamaze Early Pregnancy Class or the Lamaze Labor & Birth Antenatal Class ensures that sufficient time is spent in informing couples about the research and evidence surrounding the emotional, psychological, and mental aspects of pregnancy and birth in addition to the physical aspects and how it impacts your baby’s growth and development. In doing so, it empowers couples to take the best decisions for their baby when there is still time to make a change and impact rather than never learning about it or knowing when it’s too late and not much can be done.

Here are 3 ways why a comprehensive antenatal class is the first enrichment class for your precious baby:

1. Your baby gets a head start on physical development – You will learn about the benefits of delayed cord clamping, immediate skin to skin benefits, the effects of drugs used in labor on the baby, breastfeeding benefits, rooming in benefits, to name a few. Pregnant couples are presented with evidence based information about healthy birth practices that directly affect the baby’s health and physical development.

2. Emotional Mental Health of your Baby – A comprehensive antenatal class discusses with couples in detail about the effect of connection and attachment between mother and child on emotional and mental development of the baby. For example, both in class and at home, couples are encouraged to intentionally set aside time to connect with the baby on a daily basis as hearing the mother’s voice, touch, active involvement of the partner in bonding with the baby, and the mother’s consistent practice of relaxation have a significantly positive effect on the baby’s emotional and mental development starting from the womb.

3. Sharpen your Parenting Skills – One of the most important jobs you will do in your life is that of parenting your child. Research has shown that the early years of 0 to 3 years are the most important years in a person’s life. Parents have a huge task at hand because they play a significant role in shaping the neurological development of the child. A childbirth class introduces these concepts to pregnant couples and helps them become aware of the effects, implications, and consequences of their choices and their decisions about pregnancy, birth, and after. 

If you’re pregnant, have you thought of joining a childbirth class? Yes/No and why?

If you have given birth, did you do a class while pregnant?