First childbirth class.

[rivka]

Last night we started our six-week childbirth preparation course. There are four other couples in the class, all clients of our same midwives, all roughly our age, all city dwellers like us. (That's a particularly nice touch, given that around here many people treat the post-children move to the suburbs as a natural law, not a personal choice.) We meet in the instructor's cozy and relaxed open-plan kitchen/family room.

We were all given a binder full of handouts and a copy of Penny Simkin's Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn, which Michele (the instructor) says is the best book out there. I'm pleased, because I've recently discovered that my Dr. Sears pregnancy book is a little sparse in its discussion of birth itself, probably because there's also a Sears book exclusively devoted to birth. We can borrow from her vast library of other childbirth and parenting books for a $20 deposit. We're also rotating a copy of a video called The Happiest Baby on the Block, which has strategies for soothing a crying baby and has been highly recommended on misc.kids.pregnancy. This class is definitely going to feed my inner information junkie.

We began with a review/discussion of pregnancy restrictions and symptoms. She passed around a tote bag and had each person (men as well as women) pull out an item. She asked us why we thought our item was included, and we discussed the symptom or restriction in question. I drew a beer can, and said that women are advised not to drink at all during pregnancy but that, as far as I could tell, the research only indicated that daily drinking or binge drinking was harmful. (She agreed.) Michael drew a toothbrush, which mystified him because he doesn't actually watch me brush my teeth and so hadn't realized that bleeding gums are a routine pregnancy symptom. Most amusing item: a plastic crab. Michele said, "When men draw this, they're like, 'I don't know, is there a shellfish restriction?' And I'm thinking, 'Come on, you're just afraid to say it.' Women come right out and say, 'this is because I'm so crabby.'" New information to me: women who consume more omega-3 fatty acids have a lower risk of preterm labor and postpartum depression. I may start taking supplements.

We reviewed the anatomy of pregnancy and delivery, using a set of full-color charts and a plastic model of the pelvis. I was familiar with the basic outline, obviously, but hadn't looked much at visual aids (I've been more interested in visual depictions of fetal development), so this part was very helpful. It's one thing to know intellectually that you're having heartburn and shortness of breath because your organs are all squashed up by the baby, and another thing to actually see where the organs all are in a third-trimester torso.

Then it was time for a bathroom-snack-and-chatting break. Hard to tell, yet, if I'm going to be friends with any of these women.

After break, we talked about signs of preterm labor, the difference between a Braxton-Hicks contraction and a labor contraction, and what to do if we seem to be in preterm labor. (Surprisingly, the answer is not "panic.") We passed around a plastic model of cervixes at different stages of dilation. Then it was time for a video on stages of labor. She prepared us for its explicitness and warned us that just-being-born babies are not attractive, or even especially humanoid in appearance. And then we watched.

The video was... graphic. Lots of flinching and nervous giggles from the class. But it also had excellent animations showing what happens to the cervix, uterus, and baby during each stage of labor, which was the main reason why she had us watching it at the first class. And it was helpful to me to actually see women in different stages of labor, after having read about them. After the video we reviewed the stages orally, and then it was time to finish with a 10-minute progressive muscle relaxation exercise.

Mmm, progressive muscle relaxation.

Our homework: give each other a ten-minute massage with verbal feedback. This is apparently to encourage us to start communicating explicitly about what kinds of touch feel best.

I think it's going to be a great class. A lot of what we covered in the first meeting was review for me, because I've been reading about pregnancy and delivery, but I still feel as though I learned plenty of new things and developed a better understanding of the things I already knew. And I'm guessing that, from here on out, the ratio of new information to old will be much, much higher. Yay.

Comments

Omega-3 fatty acids

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Flax seeds. A tablespoon (always ground in a coffee grinder) mixed into your breakfast cereal every morning. Then you don't need supplements. :-)

Also, remember how the concept of childbirth classes made me giggle? Well, childbirth classes with *homework* ...

-J

[papersky.livejournal.com]

When I went to one, in the ten minute bathroom break, all the other potential mothers started to smoke in the bathroom, so there wasn't any doubt as to whether I was going to be friends with them.

Also, I shut my eyes in the video.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Neat! I always enjoy the anecdote of my friend Kevin's description of the other people at their first class.

"We were all white people in our 30s, and because we had to go to the suburb to take this class I was feeling sort of urban superior and was looking for other outsiders to identify with. So this couple in their very early 20s came in, and I went to talk to them. Then this inter-racial couple came in, and I thought aha, I will welcome them before anyone else does. Then at the last minute Karen and Nancy walked in, and I went to say hi because it was so good to see someone we knew and I didn't know that Karen was pregnant, and I realized that anyone watching me would be thinking it was just another way of showing how liberal I was."

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

Wow. That class sounds fabulous. Ours was solid, but not mind-blowing. The things that stick with me were the sheet with circles representing 10 cm, one of the graphics, and the list of things you should panic about.

FYI, the thing that gave me the most false contractions/early labor symptoms was dehydration. It is HARD to be sufficiently hydrated.

[minnaleigh.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a great class! How helpful!

[zencuppa.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds like a great class. I couldn't manage to look at anything about actual childbirth until I was about 6-7 months pregnant, it scared me too much.

That being said, I found that doing Lamaze breathing every night did wonders for my delivery . ..

Kudos to you and your partner for taking this course :-)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Sleep deprivation, and suddenly treasuring two hours to yourself... burping techniques and cuddly noises. Thank goodness for on-the-job-training. And make sure there's support and distractions around 6-8 weeks postpartum (typical depression trough).

Were you guys learning Lamaze breathing techniques? ("pant, pant, bllooww...")

[ailbhe]

So what's the difference between b-h and real?

I love the idea of homework. That would have been really really useful to us.

Rob had a look at her being born, but sat beside my upper body and never let go of my hand. I was surprised to hear he could see much but apparently he could.

Breath control helps a lot.

A lot of the woman at my antenatal classes were smokers, too, though none smoked at the class - they were at least embarrassed by it. The classes were free, which helped, I suppose.

A.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

FYI, infojunkie, gordonzola posted a very interesting discussion of the whole "cheese/pregnancy" debate here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/gordonzola/177964.html), with preliminary discussion here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/gordonzola/177885.html).

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I want to thank you for sharing.

Even with two siblings (and a stint as an au pair) I've never had to deal with being the other half of a pregnancy, so the information is nice (since sooner, or later, Maia and I are planning on a couple of kids).

I was in the delivery room for those siblings, and it was interesting to see how my mother handled it. SHe his transition and started to scream like a banshee (she had, it seems, forgotten what it was like, as well as having been drugged for the first two).

My stepfather almost panicked. I spent time calming him, while he dealth with her.

Yes, new babies look like lizards, the handsome ones look like Churchill. No, you won't care a bit.

Re the commenton flax-seed as a supplement. The oil goes rancid in the flicker of a wing, so get seed.

To get seed, at a reasonable price, go to a feed store. A 25 pound sack (which ought to be more than enough, for quite some time) shouldn't be more than 10-15 dollars.

Just for the fun of it, you can plant some (which isn't practical at health food prices) and get some lovely plants... tall and spiky looking, with soft leaves and beautiful blue flowers.

TK

[journeywoman.livejournal.com]

The Simkin book is great. Unlike certain other books, it presents factual information without too much author bias showing through. Focuses mostly on birth and coping techniques; spotty on pregnancy and newborn issues, but there are other books for that. May I recommend The Baby Owner's Manual?

There are Simkin videos out there as well that I thought were quite good. Perhaps you'll get those later in the course.

Of course, all the coping techniques went out the window during my five really difficult contractions. Michael kept having to remind me simply to breathe. Breathing patterns were a wee bit beyond my ability at that point.

Karp's video is pretty good, though I admit the techniques haven't worked too well on our babe to date. But he's not very fussy like the babies in the video--most of his crying is hunger-related. He's got a toddler DVD too, which I have but haven't watched yet.

Have fun in the class!