Questions?
We have included a sample teaching outline in this booklet, suggesting
what topics to cover between specific contractions. This gives you a basic
format which you can then modify to accommodate your clients’ needs and your
own particular teaching philosophy. You can also download a blank grid and create your own script.
No, contraction length and spacing are the same as a typical labor.
However, there are fewer contractions in each phase.
We intentionally created an unpleasing sound to represent contractions. If
the contraction sound was soothing and melodic, it would be easy to relax to
and would give a false sense of what labor is like. By playing this grating
sound, you give your class participants the chance to learn to relax and
cope with a stimulus that is not pleasant.
Yes. You can play excerpts to show your clients what a contraction pattern
is like at different points in labor. This is more meaningful than hearing “Contractions are 1 minute long and 3 minutes apart”. You can
also start the Labor Simulator halfway through early labor or when active
labor starts. Just be sure to explain to your class that early labor is
usually the longest phase and most labors don’t start with close, strong
contractions.
We do encourage you, though, to explore the possibility of devoting the full
amount of time to the labor simulation exercise. Played in its entirety, the
simulation provides the richest and most meaningful experience to your
clients. You can get an enormous amount of teaching done during the
simulation, so adding this to your curriculum probably won't require you to
remove material from your class.
Labor Simulator is a useful tool for anyone supporting women as they prepare
for labor. As a doula, you can use it during prenatal meetings to give your
clients an example of what labor is like and to focus discussions on what
kind of support you can offer at various times in labor. As a midwife or
doctor, you can use it in prenatal appointments as a teaching tool.
Yes, though in the testing of the DVD we found that the experience was not
as valuable as when facilitated by a childbirth educator. It works best for
self-study if your client is very self-motivated to practice techniques on
their own. We are considering creating a version of the DVD that includes
spoken commentary between contractions, making it more useful as a tool for
self-study. Let us know if that's a tool you would like to see
available--we'll start working on it sooner.
Unlike many commercial DVDs, the Labor Simulator DVD has no region coding,
so it has the potential to work worldwide. However, it is formatted for the
NTSC television standard, which is the one used by--amongst others--the US,
Canada, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, and the Caribbean. Most countries in the rest
of the world--including most of Europe, Africa, Australasia, and the Middle
East--use the PAL or SECAM television standards. It is increasingly common
to find DVD/TV players in those countries that will also support NTSC. If
your DVD/TV player supports NTSC, the Labor Simulator DVD should work.
Except for the initial menus and an image of a mom and baby at the very
end, the simulation uses audio only, so nothing will display on the
screen. In testing Labor Simulator, we found that having something
displaying on the screen distracts from the simulation in much the same way
that watching an external fetal monitor can pull attention away from a mom
in labor! |
