Childbirth Plus

So, I spoke with the Med Center earlier today about Childbirth Plus, the research initiative I mentioned earlier, in which we qualify to participate.

It sounds kind of neat. It's a PSU study they're conducting over the course of a few years to determine whether or not they should enhance their cildbirth classes. In the next few days we'll get a call from Penn State to schedule a prenatal home visit, where they'll come to our house to talk to us for an hour or so. After that meeting is complete, they'll send us a check for $100 and assign Brian and I to one of two childbirth class groups: the "control" group, which receives the current Hershey Med childbirth classes, or the Childbirth Plus group, which receives the regular classes enhanced with additional info about relationship building, post-partum depression, getting an infant to sleep, etc.

If we get assigned to the second group, they give us dinner at each of five weekly evening classes, and we'll have to participate in a second set of classes once the baby is four or five months old.

Regardless of to which group we're assigned, they'll conduct two follow-up in-home studies, one when the baby is about 9 months old, and the final one at about 2 years of age. All in all, they'll pay us nearly $400 over three years to participate, and our experience will help the Med Center design future childbirth classes. Oh, and we get a free breastfeeding class for participating, too.

So now we wait to hear about our first in-home study and group assignment...