Why Staying Current Matters

For childbirth educators, keeping up with these changes is both professional growth and a meaningful way to serve families. Current, evidence-based content builds trust, reduces anxiety, and makes classes more effective and empowering.

The Challenge of Keeping Pace

Tradition is strong in childbirth education, but medical science and family needs change quickly. Many educators make small, thoughtful updates, such as revising a handout or adding a new comfort measure. While these changes are valuable, reviewing the curriculum as a whole from time to time ensures that families receive information that is both consistent and fully up to date.

A full curriculum review is time intensive, but tools such as curated handouts, professional webinars, updated textbooks, and organizational resources can help you keep your content accurate and effective.

Demographic and Social Shifts Shaping Education

Declining Birth Rates and Changing Families
Fewer people are having children, and many who do have limited experience with babies. Classes often serve as both educational spaces and sources of community. More parents are giving birth over age 35, with higher risks of hypertension or gestational diabetes. Family structures are also more varied, including unmarried partners, polyamorous families, and multi caregiver households.

Increasing Diversity and Inclusion Needs
Parents represent a wider range of racial, cultural, and gender identities. Disparities in outcomes for families of color persist, making culturally sensitive teaching essential. LGBTQIA+ visibility is expanding, particularly among younger generations, making inclusive language such as “birthing parent,” “chest feeding,” and “human milk” important for ensuring families feel seen and respected.

Rural Obstetric Deserts and Policy Shifts
More than one third of U.S. counties lack local birthing facilities, leaving many families without accessible care. Online education and tele-support are critical lifelines in these regions. Changing Medicaid coverage and state level reproductive policies also affect how families plan their care and where educators must focus attention.

Teaching Families to Navigate Information

Parents are inundated with information, much of it contradictory or commercially influenced. Educators play a key role in teaching families how to assess sources.

Encourage them to ask:
- Who is providing this information, and what are their qualifications?
- Is there a financial or ideological agenda?
- Does the content use fear based language or lack citations?

By building critical thinking, families gain confidence not only in pregnancy and birth but also in early parenting decisions.

Shifting the Emphasis: Risks to Protective Factors

Traditional education often emphasizes risks, which can heighten anxiety. A protective factor approach shifts the focus to what families can do to improve outcomes, such as balanced nutrition, safe physical activity, consistent prenatal care, and strong social supports.

This resilience- based model strengthens self-efficacy, helping families feel capable and prepared while still acknowledging individual risks. It mirrors public health trends showing positive, strength-based education is more effective than fear-based messaging.

Key Updates in Pregnancy Care

Pelvic Floor Health
Pelvic floor care includes both strengthening and relaxation. Awareness, breath, and tension release alongside Kegels can improve comfort in labor and recovery.

Nutrition and Choline
Alongside folate, iron, iodine, and DHA, choline has emerged as essential for fetal brain development. ACOG recommends 450 mg per day during pregnancy, though many prenatal supplements lack it.

Weight and Gestational Health
Gestational weight gain targets are now individualized. For people with obesity, the Institute of Medicine range is typically 11 to 20 pounds, with shared decision making to balance maternal and fetal health. Screening for gestational diabetes is recommended for all between 24 and 28 weeks, with earlier testing for those at risk. Low dose aspirin, 81 mg daily, is recommended for individuals at high risk of preeclampsia, starting ideally before 16 weeks.

Labor and Birth Practices

Admission Guidelines
Policies increasingly aim to delay hospital admission until active labor when safe. ACOG defines active labor as beginning at 6 cm dilation. Educators can help parents understand labor patterns and when to call their clinician.

Comfort and Positioning
Mobility and a variety of labor positions, including upright and side lying, are encouraged to support comfort and physiologic birth. Peanut balls and similar tools may also facilitate progress, but the emphasis is on movement and individualized choice.

Pushing and Third Stage
Routine delayed pushing with epidurals is no longer recommended, as evidence shows limited benefit and possible risks. Coached pushing at full dilation is supported for many nulliparas with epidurals. In the third stage, prophylactic oxytocin and uterine tone assessment are standard. Routine sustained uterine massage is not recommended when Pitocin is given.

Continuous emotional and physical support during labor, whether from a partner, friend, or doula, is consistently linked with better outcomes. This reinforces the Lamaze practice of encouraging families to bring a supportive companion into the birth space. Lamaze also encourages upright positions and working with the body’s natural urges whenever possible, even when epidurals are used.

Labor Practices: Past vs. Current This aligns with the Lamaze practice of letting labor begin on its own and avoiding unnecessary interventions. This reflects the Lamaze practice of moving and changing positions in labor, supporting both comfort and progress.

Induction of Labor

Induction rates are increasing. For some conditions, timing depends on age and health status. Many with well controlled diabetes deliver at 39 weeks. People aged 40 or older may be offered delivery at 39 weeks. For twin gestations, timing is based on chorionicity and clinical factors, often between 37 and 38 weeks.

Educators can prepare families to ask about cervical readiness, expected length of induction, and the support needed for longer processes.

Newborn Care and Feeding

Immediate Care
Delaying the first bath at least 24 hours protects the skin barrier and helps with temperature regulation. Pulse oximetry screening for critical congenital heart disease is now standard.

Feeding Practices
Inclusive language such as “chest feeding” and “human milk” is recommended. Breastfeeding education emphasizes laid back positioning and self-attachment. For bottle feeding, paced feeding supports healthy feeding behaviors.

Lactation Science
Blocked ducts are now reframed as inflammatory processes. Best practice is gentle care, cold compresses, NSAIDs when appropriate, and avoiding deep massage. 

In the past, nipple pain during breastfeeding was often assumed to be caused by yeast, and antifungal medication was prescribed as a first response. Current evidence shows that many cases of nipple pain resolve on their own or are related to other causes such as positioning, latch, or inflammation rather than fungal infection.

Observation and gentle supportive care are now recommended before turning to antifungals. This approach reduces unnecessary medication, avoids potential side effects, and helps families focus on practical strategies such as improving latch, ensuring frequent effective feeds, and using comfort measures.

Postpartum Care and Mental Health

ACOG now recommends contact with a provider within 3 weeks postpartum and a comprehensive visit no later than 12 weeks. Those with hypertensive disorders or gestational diabetes may need earlier or more frequent visits.

Educators can normalize the wide range of postpartum experiences, including physical recovery, changes in intimacy, and mental health challenges. Encouraging open communication and self-compassion helps families build resilience. Awareness of resources gives families confidence to navigate this complex period.

Practical Teaching Tips

- Provide handouts highlighting what is new compared to what is well established.
- Use activities to compare induction methods or labor positions.
- Show diverse video demonstrations of labor and infant care.
- Offer hybrid or online formats for underserved families.
- Stay current through webinars, journals, and organizational updates.

Conclusion

Excellence in childbirth education comes from keeping curricula current and evidence based while staying rooted in what matters most to families. Childbirth education must continue to evolve with new research, shifting demographics, and the realities of diverse families. By embedding critical thinking, highlighting protective factors, and presenting inclusive, evidence-based updates, Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educators can ensure their teaching remains both relevant and impactful.

The true goal is to provide the latest science backed information and to walk alongside families in ways that leave them feeling capable, supported, and confident as they step into birth and parenting.

Update your curriculum with the latest evidence-based information right HERE.

References

ACOG. (2024). First and Second Stage Labor Management Clinical Practice Guideline. https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/clinical-practice-guideline/articles/2024/01/first-and-second-stage-labor-management

ACOG. (2023). Nutrition During Pregnancy. https://www.acog.org/womens-health/faqs/nutrition-during-pregnancy

ACOG. (2020). Gestational Diabetes Mellitus. Practice Bulletin. https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/practice-bulletin/articles/2020/02/gestational-diabetes-mellitus

ACOG. (2018). Optimizing Postpartum Care. Committee Opinion. https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2018/05/optimizing-postpartum-care

ACOG. (2018). Physical Activity and Exercise During Pregnancy. Committee Opinion. https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2020/04/physical-activity-and-exercise-during-pregnancy-and-the-postpartum-period

ABM Protocol #36. (2022). The Mastitis Spectrum. Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. https://www.bfmed.org/protocols

AAP. (2024). Delaying Newborn Bathing. HealthyChildren.org. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/bathing-skin-care/Pages/Delay-Newborns-First-Bath.aspx

AAP/CDC. (2018). Critical Congenital Heart Disease Screening Using Pulse Oximetry. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/heartdefects/cchd-facts.html

March of Dimes. (2023). Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the U.S. https://www.marchofdimes.org/research/maternity-care-deserts-report.aspx

Discover the six simple steps to a safe and healthy birth. Enroll in Lamaze’s Safe and Healthy Birth online class and take charge of your birth experience.

Published: October 16, 2025

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