Childbirth Class
We signed up for a childbirth class through Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital since CHOMP doesnt offer any “RL” (real life) classes – only online classes. We met for 3 hours on Wednesday nights for 5 weeks. The instructor was a parent-educator named Rachel Cruz. She was a really great instructor – kept the topics relevant, engaged the class, and had a little humor thrown in.
What did we learn? Well everything! We learned about the different stages of labor, how long each of them takes, how to cope with labor pains (breathing exercises, positions, etc), medical procedures, pain management, and baby care. Though i have been reading up on my own about both labor and childcare, i definitely still learned a lot form the class.
The videos we had to watch were kind of annoying though. They were informative but at the risk of sounding superficial – may i say – these ladies are LOOKERS i tell ya. OK its one thing to not be lookin’ so hot because you’re in labor and going through the toughest thing in your life, BUT these gals were NOT AT ALL photogenetic — as proven by their post-labor video testimonials. ANYWAY… i also have to not that the first video we watched was circa 1970s. Seriously.
There were about 25-30 other people in the class there so it was a lot of people! I think there was only 1 other couple who was due before us, most of the class was due in August of September.
I think it was a good idea to take the class to prepare ourselves for what was to come. As far as my labor, i dont really have a “birth plan” written out or anything, but i do want to see “how it goes” and hopefully have a natural childbirth since it’d most likely be the best for both of us. But i am not totally againist an epidural or using pain medication, and i know in some instances they really help progress labor if you are too tired to continue. So either way i know i will be happy. I just hope they do not have to use pitocin to speed up the labor because i hear that is some pretty intense contractions. D-day is almost here!