First Baby Class
Last night was our first Preparing for Childbirth class. It’s a 5 week class that covers what to expect with labor, relaxation techniques, basic baby care, and a tour of the birth center. Last night I thought I might cry or pass out when I saw the anatomical chart featuring the cross sections of the 7 month pregnant body and then the full term. I’d seen a similar illustration in a book – showing how all your organs are scrunched. That full term baby is HUGE!!! Yee-ikes. This poster the instructor is holding illustrates how contractions build. Note the lady’s face that contorts into something like a monster by the end. There were at least 12 couples in the class. One woman by herself who’s husband “had to work”, and another who’d brought a friend because her husband was in Afghanistan. I can’t imagine going through this by myself, and thought I would surely cry if I were either of them when explaining this to the class. We went around the room, introducing ourselves, sharing due dates, genders, and class expectations. We were the only couple who didn’t know whether our baby was a boy or a girl, and got a bit of oooohs! over it. It was really kinda neat being shrouded in mystery. Most of the women were scared and clueless, hence their interest in the class. The poor girl beside us kept blabbering about just how scared and clueless she was to the point her husband had to tell her to pipe down. They all echoed how I was feeling a few months back. I definitely realized that for the most part, I’m not nearly as scared as I was at the beginning of this.
We had our last class on Tuesday, and I’m actually sad that it’s over. It was nice to have that time every week to focus on the baby and its arrival and to be with other couples that are going through the same thing we are right now. At the end of class on Tuesday we all exchanged email addresses, so it should be fun to hear when the first baby from our class is born. I think he’s due to arrive in about 2 weeks.
September 20th, 2007 | #
omg, that’s the exact same chart we saw! Can’t wait to meet your baby!!
September 20th, 2007 | #
you should have been with jay and i in our class :-) the video they showed was hysterical (funny and the women were freaking out). i kept asking if the women had been give their epidural yet. it is so funny to think about this now after actually giving birth to my child.
September 20th, 2007 | #
Where are you delivering? We just signed up for our birthing classes at Rex! :)
September 23rd, 2007 | #
Heh, we have the same teacher you guys did! And there was this nervous, clueless girl sitting next to us, too. Unfortunately, her husband did not shush her, so we’ll be sitting somewhere else next week. :)
January 9th, 2008 | #