preparing for childbirth -- class #3

I spoke too soon a few weeks ago when I thought we watched a birth video. That was nothing compared to what we witnessed last night. Real woman, naked, in labor...full view of everything. It wasn't horribly gross as much as it was quite alien-like. Even the woman doing the pushing shouted "It doesn't look like a baby!" We had to agree. Thankfully, the instructor reassured us that we could be clothed from the waist up if we wanted to be. Whew!

We started the class with discussion of c-sections and we were asked if any of us were c-section babies. Proudly, I was only one of two people in a room of 16 who were! Then she asked us if we knew reasons WHY c-sections would be performed. Brandon whispered to me the reason my own Mother had a c-section (her hips were deemed too small) so I shouted that one out to which the instructor giggled and said "Well, that's debatable!" Apparently there are several other reasons and she had large posters showing all of the wacky positions those babies get themselves into. I am still not sure which direction our little Cabbage is facing. He/she still has some room to move around.

Then we watched a c-section video which was animated, thank goodness. Still made me squeeze Brandon's hand really hard, thinking of someone manually separating my abdominal muscles!

After that, we discussed 2nd stage and pushing and how the baby has to move down the birth "canal" which she said is mere centimeters. Then they talked about what happens directly following the birth, which we already kind of knew from our Baby Care class.

Then came the birth video, which I described above. No need for more details. Use your imagination.

For the last hour, we practiced our laboring positions and she taught us some pushing positions. It was incredibly weird to pretend to push my baby out when I know he/she needs to stay in there for 10 more weeks! I was careful not to give it all I had. :)

I kept a tally of questions asked by the over-eager question-asking couple in relation to the rest of the class and it was a whopping 9 to 2! Told ya...

Next week, we will have one hour of regular class. The second hour, we will be joined by four of the new parents and babies from one of our instructor's previous classes. They will talk about their individual birth experiences, which should be very interesting, as well as meet our instructor's 11-week old, Jude!