Childbirth: A Multimedia Cou

Description

From The Seattle Times: "When I saw it, I thought, 'Wow, this is really impressive,' " said Julie McAferty, a Swedish Medical Center childbirth nurse who reviewed the software and found it "really thorough." "It allows parents to go in-depth as much as they want." Dr. David Loren, a neonatologist at the University of Washington & Children's Hospital, found the course layout "very intuitive." "There's a sense of progress both from a learning perspective and how labor itself progresses, I would recommend it to any mom or dad." Childbirth Multimedia is a computer-based educational program created by a family physician who has delivered babies more than 15 years, a registered nurse who teaches childbirth classes, and multimedia developers. Its eight lessons include: 1. Your Last Weeks of Pregnancy (relaxation techniques, breathing, exercises, labor induction), 2. Early, Active and Transition Labor (breathing techniques, comfort measures, timing contractions, medical interventions, fetal monitoring, analgesics), 3. Pushing (breathing methods, pushing positions, episiotomies, forceps and vacuum use), 4. Delivering the Placenta (expelling the placenta, massaging the uterus, cord blood testing), 5. Special Situations (cesarean sections, breech and multiple births), 6. Postpartum Care of Yourself (physical changes, diet, exercise, sex life), 7. Care of Your Newborn (bathing, colic, cord care, diaper changing, sleeping, spitting up), 8. Feeding Your Newborn (breast feeding instructions and demonstrations, expressing and storing breast milk, breast care, formula preparation and feeding, feeding cautions). Each lesson includes: text; images; video clips of physicians and nurses with parents and infants demonstrating key concepts of delivery, infant and mother care; and optional self-assessment. The Resource Kit contains: a dictionary, Birth Plan templates, Doctor visits templates, Baby shower planning, Birth announcements designs, Baby name, and a video of an actual birth.