1st Child Birth Class

Andrew and I ventured out to our first child birth class on Tuesday and it was exactly what I was looking for. I opted to take an independent class outside of the hospital after hearing that they tend to focus on the interventions that are offered or may happen rather than how to focus and succeed through child birth. I found a class that is offered in Redmond by an English woman who has studied to become a mid-wife. She teaches natural child birth and a lot of the students are looking to do pain med free births. Although that may not be the route I take I want to have as many tools and as much knowledge as I can when I go into labor. I don't know what to expect or how I will interpret the pain of childbirth and I want to have as many options as possible. My goal for my labor is to go as far as possible without medications, but will not be disappointed if I decide to go the route of epidural. I don't want to set myself up for disappointment, as anyway my little boy is born healthy and happy will be an amazing experience.

Back to the birth class. The class in itself is a 6 weeks series and each class lasts about two and half to three hours depending on the questions and discussions of that class. Tuesdays class was an introduction to how the class will be run, the other couples in the class (9 total including Andrew and I) and starting in on the birth process. We started by discussing words or themes that would describe an ideal birth environment. For example: Calm, Movement, Water, Peaceful, Birth Partner, quiet etc. From there she mentioned how similar the birth environment is to the romantic environment in which a baby is made. Which makes sense when you learn that the hormone that is released when making love, Oxytocin, is the same hormone that will start labor and continue labor until birth. By understanding what happens and how labor starts will help me be more relaxed and comfortable during the actual event. She also talked a little about the 3 r's of labor. Relazation (the more relaxed the quicker labor tends to go), rhythm (laboring mothers tend to pick up a rythm that helps them cope with each contraction) and ritual (mothers also seem to repeat certain rituals during every contraction). We ended the class by watching a birth video of a home water birth in Mexico. Both for the mothers to watch how she seems to have a rythm and pattern during the contractions and for the birth partners (Andrew) to watch how her husband supports her during the labor.

I really enjoyed the class, the teacher used a lot of humor to explain everything but at the same time did not beat around the bush with how painful the process is. Our next class is next Tuesday. I know that although the class may not be Andrew's idea of a good time, he will learn a lot from it. It is great for both of us!