As educators, we may decide to venture into testing new parent education topics. Some new classes never take off, and others become surprisingly successful and popular. One of these surprises for us was our Partner Preparation class, titled "Partner Prep: The Manual for Labor and Birth Support". This class has illuminated a need to provide education for modern day partners. As an educator, it's been refreshing and inspiring to see so many curious, hopeful, and helpful partners decide to learn more about providing great support through the pregnancy and birth journey. In this session, we will discuss the process of creating the class and the surprising revisions that needed to be made. We will discuss in more detail the class content and the benefits gained by both the class participants and the instructor.

Objectives: To increase awareness of the importance of including and educating partners in the experience of pregnancy, birth, postpartum recovery and parenting for better physical and mental health outcomes and for the future success of the family.

There is evidence that having positive support from partners can improve:

-birth outcomes

-maternal mental health

-BREASTFEEDING RATES

-overall family relationships

-parenting

Also this presentation aims to share ideas for educators to create their own classes in their communities.