Childbirth Prep Class: Part One

This weekend, my husband and I got up bright and early to attend our first childbirth preparation class!  It was the one class that I knew we needed to sign up for, to be as ready as we’d ever be for the reality of childbirth!

We had a bit of a rough start to the morning as my husband isn’t a morning person; He was super grumpy to be up and about at 9am on a Saturday (yeah, he better get used to it, I know!).  But as the morning progressed, he seemed to liven up a bit and looked less miserable then when we first arrived.

The instructor began with a a power point overview of general hospital procedures, staff, parking (valet at Greenwich Hospital :)), paperwork etc. — all good things to know for a new mom!

She then discussed the different stages of labor, touching on the physical discomforts and reactions we may experience (contractions, dilation – all the fun stuff), later segueing into a few coping mechanisms.

This was where more of the interactive phase began, with breathing exercises. Our “coach” aka our birthing partners, were to guide us through each wave of contraction, starting with slow, deep breathing and moving into more shallow (“he-he”/puff) breathing techniques as we reached the peak of a hypothetical contraction.

It was nice getting the men involved, especially so that my husband could forget his exhaustion and focus more on the key role he would play in delivery support.

Later on in the class, the instructor passed around a wand-like tool that is used to break a pregnant woman’s “water” — apparently the gush of water that appears to happen suddenly on TV, only occurs in about 10% of women in reality.  For the rest, this pivotal step only occurs in the delivery room! (Definitely news to me :)!)

There were about 7 couples total in the class, which unfortunately we didn’t get any time to interact with to form some kind of friendship via shared experience, but hoping there will be some “get to know everyone” time during the next session this upcoming Saturday.

What I’m really looking forward to? Just tackling the nitty griddy birth details already, from the pushing stage to the recovery period!  I need to get the courage to face it head on!