Childbirth Prep Class

This past Sunday, Matt and I attended an 8-hour Childbirth Prep class at Memorial Hospital. This isn't the hospital we'll be giving birth at, but the one across town. We learned about the stages of labor, what to expect during those stages, when to go to the hosital, breathing and relaxation techniques and different positions to use during contractions and to help rotate the baby to move labor along. It seems to be really important to continue to move around during labor, including walking, going up and down stairs, doing lunges and sitting or squatting in different positions to open up the pelvis to give the baby room to move down.

I felt it was really helpful for me to get all this information since I really didn't know any of the specifics of labor and delivery. For example, it was good to know that it's really best to stay at home during early labor for as long as possible... you should wait until contractions have been 5 minutes apart for an hour AND the pain gets so strong you can't talk during them. I wouldn't have thought that you have to wait that long.

One exercise we did to show how focusing and breathing techniques can help was that we learned how to use our brain to sort of overpower our body's reaction to pain. When a contraction hits, your body's natural reaction to the pain is to tense up and create adrenaline, which slows the process of labor. So instead we need to focus on something, breathe and use our brain to focus our body off the pain as much as possible. So she taught us that technique. Then she gave us each a bag of ice and had us put our hand in the bag for 30 seconds (to represent a contraction) and told us not to use any techniques. It was really painful and seemed to last forever. Once the "contraction" was over, we practiced our relaxation technique, and then when we put our hand in the ice again, we were to use our focusing and breathing techniques... it really did help! It still was painful, but not as painful and didn't seem to last as long. So I definately saw the potential for using these tools!

We also got a tour of a hospital room (we are also taking a tour of the actual Memorial Hospital downtown that we will be at), which are practically idential at each hospital. The beds are pretty fancy and can move into tons of positions allowing you to continue to move around even if you've had a epidural and are confined to the bed. Since it's so important to continue to move around during labor, sometimes receiving an epidural too early can keep you from moving around because you are to stay in bed. But because these beds can move into many different positions, you can continue to move.

Overall, I felt it was a great class and really helpful for me. Matt felt it was helpful too... even mentioning that he thought it would be a great class for med students to take before they take their OB class and learn all the medical technical terms. It would be helpful to learn the techniques that help Moms as a doctor. I feel more relaxed about labor and delivery knowing what to expect... although I'm still scared of labor and just pray I don't become one of those horror stories! But I definately feel much more prepared having much more knowledge than I had!