Week 28 – Childbirth Classes Begin
July 5, 2006
On most of the websites and in the literature I’ve read, everyone suggests finding a childbirth class that “works for me” has the philosophies I’m looking for, talks about the topics I’m interested in, etc. Unfortunately, in a small town, my options are limited. My doctor’s office and the local hospital put together a childbirth class, and pretty much, that’s it. So of course I signed up.
If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that the first class was Tuesday, the 27th. And, you also know that Zach was out of town that day. Luckily for me, my sister, Caitlyn volunteered to go with me. I can tell you I was very glad she came along – I would have been the only coach-less person there if she hadn’t. Unfortunately, I think I scared her away from ever having kids after all the discussion about labor and the things that can happen. She said later that the tour of the maternity ward, with the beds that have some heavy duty stirrups made her a little light-headed, and the talk about episiotomy I think did her in.
At any rate, the class was pretty good. They had water, juice and snacks available. There were seven couples who attended, and none of them looked to be overly weird or creepy. I had assumed that every new mother did as much reading and research as I do, but much of the information covered in the first class was stuff that I read about months ago. I did pick up a few useful tips, and we did get to tour the maternity ward. Our local hospital is undergoing rennovations, so the maternity ward is currently under construction. We toured the old rooms that they are using right now, and then sometime in July or August the rennovated rooms will be opened. I felt a lot better after seeing the rooms, the equipment, and learning about who would be in the room, what to expect, etc.
As with most rennovations, the construction ends up being an inconvenience for quite a few people. Everyone from the class parked in the new parking lot when we arrived at the hospital for our tour. Unfortunately, the door to that parking lot was locked when we finished the tour. We walked to the other end of the hospital to get outside, and then had to walk around the outside of the hospital to get back to our cars. Of course, there is no easy way to walk all the way around the hospital, so after two embankments and walking through the construction parking lot, we finally arrived back at our starting point. Watching 7 very pregnanty women navigate embankments in flip-flops is quite the sight…
Next week we have to bring pillows and sit on the floor for two hours. I was hoping that all those scenes I saw of childbirth classes on television were just exaggerating, that no normal person would make a pregnant woman sit on a hard floor for two hours. I guess I was wrong, and I am certainly not looking forward to the backache that is sure to follow the next class… At least Zach will be able to come this time, and will apparently learn how to massage my back, and who doesn’t like back massages?
Several months ago (I think somewhere around my 4 month check-up) we signed up for Childbirth Classes. The classes are offered through my ObGyn office, and are of course highly recommended for new parents. The 8 week class covers lamaz, basic child birth information, etc. and then one class on infant care and one class on breast feeding. For two months I have been talking about how the class starts on June 27th. I even asked 