Goals of Childbirth education

· To provide an opportunity for women and their support people to explore beliefs around pregnancy, childbirth and early parenting.

· To present research-based information on the childbearing year and to challenge information that is not research based.

· To dispel fears and increase confidence around the physiological process of labour and childbirth and early parenting.

· To promote realistic expectations around early parenting.

· To encourage consideration and discussion of birthplace options including homebirth and birth Centres.

· To provide information and learning opportunities that enhances the knowledge and skills of support people.

· To encourage informed decision making and increase confidence in parents ability to make good decisions for themselves and their babies by exploring options.

· To protect, support and promote breastfeeding and the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI).

· To support and build confidence, self responsibility and participation in the learning process.

· To facilitate social and community support networks.

· To utilise current theory around adult teaching and group processes including planning, assessment, evaluation and facilitation techniques.

· To have Parents Centres national office assume responsibility for all Childbirth Educator employment-related matters

· To ensure Centres will retain all community-based Childbirth Education involvement

· To ensure that Parents Centres Childbirth Education will be recognised as the best and that Parents Centres will attract, recruit and retain the cream of the industry

· To ensure that Parents Centres is recognised as the first port of call and the number one Childbirth Education provider

· To offer a strong programme support infrastructure through efficient and effective management.

· To ensure that Parents Centres will be the recognised and preferred Childbirth Educator employer

· To ensure that Parents Centres is a best-practice employer that provides effective professional development opportunities

· To ensure that Childbirth Educators will be a cohesive and effective team

· To engage professional Childbirth Educators who are; trained to an acknowledged standard, members of a recognised professional body and associated with an international body in order to keep abreast of trends

· To ensure that there will be a sufficient supply of Childbirth Educators within the industry to satisfy Centres demand

· To set clear, consistently applied standards relating to all aspects of Childbirth Education

· To ensure that Childbirth Education is universally accessible to Parents Centres’ defined (by geography, socioeconomic, ethnicity, flexible delivery mechanisms, relevance and appropriateness) market

· To ensure that Childbirth Education class attendees become Parents Centres members

· To promote and develop opportunities to provide consistent, client focused accessible services.

· To exhibit leadership in defining best practice for the industry across all aspects of Childbirth Education to include content, delivery, teaching and evaluation

· To become a significant market influencer of trends in the birthing experience

· To recognise change over time and adopt strong and robust change management processes to work with all aspects of change relating to Childbirth Education

· To acknowledge that Childbirth Education is the shop front of the organisation and, as such, requires all necessary resource in order to ensure it delivers effectively

· To ensure that Parents Centres Childbirth Education is highly visible and is prioritised in the marketing plan

· To deliver exemplary service to our defined target market.

· To establish key relationships in the government sector in order to influence policy to ensure Childbirth Education is accessible for all New Zealand families.