This month’s Brilliant Activities for Birth Educators’ idea offers some creative ways to start your classes with an exciting, light and fun introduction activity. It is nice for the educator to mix things up and families appreciate a great start to their childbirth class. Take a look at these five ideas, and consider integrating one into the beginning of your next class. To access all the Brilliant Activities for Birth Educators posts, follow this link.

Introduction

When a new childbirth class starts, there is an opportunity to facilitate some fun activities that can set the tone for your program and offer families a chance to connect and build community with other families who will be joining them in class. If you have been doing the same old boring introduction activities for a while, consider shaking things up with these creative introduction ideas.

Pair and Share

Pair each family in your class with another family. Instruct them to share a bit about themselves and their journey with each other. Allow about five minutes for them to connect. Let them know that when the class comes back together as one group, they will be asked to introduce their “new friends” to the rest of the class. Invite them to take a brief note if they will find it useful. As a large group, give each family the opportunity to share about the family they were paired with. If you thought it would be helpful, you can give them a set of guiding questions to get them started.

Same and Different

Divide the class into small groups of three or four families. Ask each small group to work together to find something unique to each family and three things that they all have in common. No, they cannot use “we are pregnant” as one of their common things. When the entire class comes back together, ask each group to share with the rest of the class what was unique about each family and what were the three commonalities.  

Two Truths and a Lie

This introduction activity works best when you provide advance notice to the families so they can come prepared to participate in class. Ask them to bring three statements that they will share with the rest of the class. Two statements should be true and factual about themselves, and one statement should be a fabrication. They can put the three statements in any order. During class, invite them to share the three statements and see if the rest of the class can determine which one is the lie. This activity can be done with each person sharing two truths and a lie or the family unit sharing two truths and a lie jointly, it is up to you!

This or That

This is a fun activity that also helps highlight things that the families in your class have in common. It also gets them moving which increases oxygen to the brain, setting them up for a great class. Have a list of topics that include two choices. As an example - who is your care provider – doctor or midwife. Invite people who are birthing with a midwife to move to one side of the room and people who are birthing with a doctor to the other.  Folks connect in their group very briefly and then provide the next set of choices. Choose common decisions or choices that people often make when they are growing their families, or even go with something unrelated to pregnancy and birth. The choice is yours.

Bingo Cards

Everyone loves the competition of a good BINGO game. You can use this template I have created here in Canva, which also gives you full editing capabilities or you can create your own. Hand out a bingo card to each family and invite the class to circulate with each other, introducing themselves to their classmates. Have them find someone who can answer “yes” to a square and put their name or initials down. They should try and complete any five in a row and announce “BINGO” to the class. The winning family can get a small prize from you for being the first to call “BINGO.”

Conclusion

Introductions are a fun and light-hearted way to start your class off right! Mingling with other families and learning more about the other people in the class buildings community, helps folks to feel less alone and demonstrates to everyone that you are an engaging and dynamic educator who likes to keep the class engaged and interesting. Consider trying one of these introduction activities soon. If you have another great way to start a childbirth class off, share in the comments below.
 

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