Teaching about pregnancy anatomy in an antenatal setting. One of the first topics I cover during my childbirth preparation classes is “pregnancy vocabulary”.
Pregnancy vocabulary
During an in-person group setting, I often split up the group into two “teams”. Each team will have an A2 poster of either the pre-pregnancy cross section or the pregnant cross-section body and body part labels such as “coccyx”, “uterus/womb”, “sacrum”, “vagina”, “cervix” etc… I explain that these words they are likely to hear during their journey into parenthood and that we will be referring to some of them during the rest of the course. I give them 5-10 minutes to add the labels to their poster (i use laminated cards with blu tack or similar on my PVC posters).
You can download the body part labels for free here:
Pregnancy anatomy changes
Once they are done, we bring the group back together, including their posters and we have a look and compare the pregnancy anatomy images. We have a discussion about common pregnancy discomforts, where they are coming from and how to avoid or minimize them.
During a 1:1 in-person setting, I use either both posters together or my new pregnancy anatomy comparison poster, where all three images are on one poster.
During an online setting I use my pregnancy vocabulary animated slide which is part of my Antenatal Course PowerPoint Slides.
The image above is also part of my antenatal class journals, which I give out in class. I have recently created a downloadable worksheet on that topic, too. Recently, I found that parents-to-be like to take home paper handouts again. They especially rate my worksheets where they are encouraged to colour-in images and take notes. All these things help them focus and retain the information.
Pre-pregnancy vs pregnant body comparison worksheets
I have not had an opportunity to use my new pre-pregnancy vs pregnant body worksheets yet, but I am certainly looking forward to using these beauties! They are available in three skin tones as well as the colouring in version. With and without annotations or lines. So they’d work as handouts, too! I am really excited about these!
These printable pregnancy anatomy handouts are now also available from my TpT store and are included in my BARGAIN growing bundle!
One thought on “Teaching about pregnancy anatomy”