We wandered around the hospital with wide-eyes, 2 pillows and a small blanket in tow, looking for the conference center to attend our first of four childbirth prep classes last night. Judging from her slightly amused response, the woman at the information booth knew exactly where we were headed and pointed us in the right direction. Kevin and I were the first couple to show-up, get signed in and meet the instructor Angela Gunther. I liked her right away. She's this tiny little thing with a hippie, natural child air about her. She can't be a day over 35. While she finished setting up, we got settled in and waited for the unexpected. Immediately, my eyes met up with the television. Videos. Correction: Birth videos. Oy vey. So not looking forward to those. But I waited with anxious hands as the class started to see what we had actually signed up for. It was two full hours of non-stop information that we had both been craving. It's one thing to read about the stages of labor and birth in a book and a completely different experience to be taught by a teacher that had been through it herself 3 times, as a doula for many years and as a childbirth prep instructor for 4 years. I have complete trust in what she's teaching us.
My number one concern walking into the class was whether our instructor would strongly push her views regarding the medicated vs. non-medicated birth experience. Although I completely believe she did it all without medication, she doesn't seem to be the kind that will try to sway us in one way or the other. In fact, her strategy is to clearly teach us about birth in two ways - the medication/intervention-free approach and the medicated approach. She wants us to know our options and feel free to choose what is best for us and baby. I appreciate her willingness to accept that all birth is valid and empowering, medicated or not. Kevin and I have just watched so many videos in our own time that really try to nudge you in the "this way is the only real way to birth a baby" direction and I don't appreciate it. I am an adult and want the space (and knowledge) to make the informed decision that is right for me. But, I digress...
In our first class we covered the basics about how your body changes during the 40-week gestation period. I was really amazed at the chart shown comparing a normal woman's body to a full-term pregnant woman's body. The way your body knows exactly how to rearrange those organs to make room for the growing fetus is unbelieveable. I had a few ahh-hah! moments when I saw that squished little bladder, the relocation of my stomach to under my rib cage and the rest of the organs filling out either side of my upper torso. It's no wonder I feel like a bit of a stuffed sausage, I can't eat more than 5 bites and have to pee every 3 minutes - everything has shifted!
The main topic of class 1 was discussion of the early signs of labor and the stages of labor: early labor, active labor, transition, pushing and delivering the placenta. There are more early signs that labor is near than I originally realized. These signs can start anywhere from 2-4 weeks prior to actual labor and will include things such as Braxton Hicks contractions, engagement, nesting, water breaking, etc. I now understand that some women will actually feel their baby drop and others will only notice that they can breathe a little easier but have to pee even more often because baby's head is basically resting on their bladder. I now have a better understanding of what contractions will feel like to most women, why some women experience back labor, and why some women feel a gush of fluid when their water breaks and others only feel little trickles with every step (or their water never breaks at all). We covered the Braxton Hicks vs. real labor contractions debate as well as what happens if you have contractions first and water breakage second (or vice-versa). For most women, once your water breaks, your contractions take around 2-5 hours to start up. For other women, your bag of waters never breaks on it's own and you need to decide whether you want it to break naturally during the labor/pushing process or have it manually broken by your care provider. She really pushed the benefits of laboring at home for as long as safely possible and at what point we should make our jaunt to the hospital. We ended the class with some massage techniques Kevin can perform to relax me when I am feeling tired, achy, swollen or can't get to sleep. Not to be selfish, but that was my favorite part!
Walking away from our first class, I do feel more prepared and less stressed about going into labor. Honestly, since the beginning of my pregnancy I've decided to take this approach that my body knows exactly what it is supposed to do. Women have been having babies forever. The whole if they can do it, I can do it mentality. I know things may not go as planned, there could be complications, there could be interventions I do not plan on, my epidural may not take, I could require induction, I could require a c-section but in the end, as long as baby is healthy and I get through in one piece, that's all that matters. I think what makes women most nervous is the pain and the fear of the unknown. Everything is a little nerve-wracking if you've never been through it before. My number one goal is to become as prepared as possible and trust that my body was meant to do this. The rest will all happen on it's own, whether I'm on board or not.
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