Our childbirth class

We had our first childbirth class last Saturday: Labor Basics. It was a really good class, for several reasons.

Our instructor for the day is a L&D RN that works in the hospital where we'll deliver, and she's fantastic. I really liked her, something in her demeanor reminds me of a good friend, in a very positive way. I didn't learn much about the procedures, since I've read about most of them, but she had all the props so we could see things live and touch them, and that's always good.

I thought we would be practicing breathing and what not, but it wasn't like that at all. Instead, she gave us the basic breathing techniques, and said "just do what you feel is right, your bodies will know when to breathe faster and shallow, or slower and deeper, just take a deep cleansing breath before and after each contraction". That to me was far more helpful, it gave me confidence. Maybe once we're there I'll need some guidance, but I trust I'll be able to cope with the pain and my body will help me know what to do.

The best part of the class, though, was that we got a very good idea of the policies of the hospital. This hospital is our perfect match. The L&D rooms have bathtubs and birthing balls, they encourage you to drink and eat while in labor. They are willing to do intermittent monitoring so you can move around (so long as you don't have an epidural) and they do "light" epidurals, only once you're 4-5 cm dilated. You can labor in any position you want, and they encourage you to move around and do whatever feels good. They allow aromatherapy and music, it's your room and you do what you want to make your environment comfortable. We have absolute confidence that we won't be pushed or rushed into procedures, and that alone is a great thing. They promote skin to skin contact and breastfeeding, and will leave our baby with us up to an hour before weighting and measuring if we wish so (which we do). Little Lovebug gets to stay with us in the room all the time if we want.

I was getting my list of questions ready about all these things for the tour of the hospital and for our OBGYN. I'm so glad we got the answers now, and even more so that the answers are the right ones for us.

I feel a lot more calm about things. Though it's still nerve wracking, my labor dreams are not scary anymore. I feel more confident. I still must confess that I can't quite picture that moment when he's born and they put him in my chest and arms. I can picture labor, and I can picture being back home with Lovebug, but I can't picture that precise moment when he's born and we meet him. I don't think I'll be able to picture it until the moment is here. I guess that's because that'll be it: the life changing, life altering moment. The moment when I truly become a mom. Crazy stuff...