Fifteen minutes
Last night we attended yet another prenatal class. Actually, the official name is 'childbirth class', which leads me to question, why haven't we had much information on how to survive childbirth?
Maybe Werner and I have watched too much TV over the years, but we each expected to be spending lots of time on mats, learning how to breathe, etc. Heck, I misread the instructions and even brought a pillow to our very first class! So last night - our third class in this series, and our sixth overall - we were finally asked to get out the mats. That was around 7:50 pm. By 8:10, the 'comfort measures/breathing' section of the class was done. We kept the mats out for another 20 minutes or so as we had an overview of epidurals, narcotics, and nitrous oxide, but that was it.
So what did we cover? Very little, we thought. The instructor started off with, "I'm not going to tell you how to breathe". Basically, do whatever the heck you want. Although, she implored us to begin each contraction with a 'cleansing breath'. She did ask us, "Why do you think I tell you to do that?" All I could think was, "Because this is lotusland." The 'right' answer was even loopier: to help each of us prepare for the contraction and to focus. And then again another cleansing breath, at the end of each contraction. Why? "To let go of that contraction." We spent some time practising the cleansing breaths, and counterpressure (Werner put his hands on my hips/lower back and pressed). Other than that, we were told that massaging could help, as could having the dad stroke the labouring mom's hands.
Is that it? I mean, we expected something. Maybe that was our undoing?
Oh, yeah, we were also supposed to have a hospital tour, but the instructor decided to postpone it until our next session, which is a couple of weeks hence. Which led her to tell everyone, "Don't worry if you go into labour before the tour, it will all be alright." (Maria, any comments?)
We're increasingly doubtful that these classes were worth the few hundred dollars they cost us. Maybe if we'd taken a condensed weekend course there at least would have been less repetition. (Twice in this series, plus once in the previous series, we've been walked through one specific poster describing the stages of labour. We understood the first time!) I can't shake the feeling that the information we have gotten is either what we've already gotten from books or from talking with friends, or what we'd hoped to have received from our physician.
Yes, maybe we just expected too much all around.
Maybe Werner and I have watched too much TV over the years, but we each expected to be spending lots of time on mats, learning how to breathe, etc. Heck, I misread the instructions and even brought a pillow to our very first class! So last night - our third class in this series, and our sixth overall - we were finally asked to get out the mats. That was around 7:50 pm. By 8:10, the 'comfort measures/breathing' section of the class was done. We kept the mats out for another 20 minutes or so as we had an overview of epidurals, narcotics, and nitrous oxide, but that was it.
So what did we cover? Very little, we thought. The instructor started off with, "I'm not going to tell you how to breathe". Basically, do whatever the heck you want. Although, she implored us to begin each contraction with a 'cleansing breath'. She did ask us, "Why do you think I tell you to do that?" All I could think was, "Because this is lotusland." The 'right' answer was even loopier: to help each of us prepare for the contraction and to focus. And then again another cleansing breath, at the end of each contraction. Why? "To let go of that contraction." We spent some time practising the cleansing breaths, and counterpressure (Werner put his hands on my hips/lower back and pressed). Other than that, we were told that massaging could help, as could having the dad stroke the labouring mom's hands.
Is that it? I mean, we expected something. Maybe that was our undoing?
Oh, yeah, we were also supposed to have a hospital tour, but the instructor decided to postpone it until our next session, which is a couple of weeks hence. Which led her to tell everyone, "Don't worry if you go into labour before the tour, it will all be alright." (Maria, any comments?)
We're increasingly doubtful that these classes were worth the few hundred dollars they cost us. Maybe if we'd taken a condensed weekend course there at least would have been less repetition. (Twice in this series, plus once in the previous series, we've been walked through one specific poster describing the stages of labour. We understood the first time!) I can't shake the feeling that the information we have gotten is either what we've already gotten from books or from talking with friends, or what we'd hoped to have received from our physician.
Yes, maybe we just expected too much all around.
posted by Melanie A at 9:39 a.m.
2 Comments:
I just wanted you to know how much I'm enjoying reading about your experiences. I hope our prenatal classes aren't a bust. I too expected television-like lamaze classes, but I know that's not what we signed up for. We start in September. Maybe they only put that 15 minutes on TV because it's really the most visually appealing of the whole course?
a) Cleansing breath? HAH! The closest I ever got to that was "okay, everyone, we got another one coming!"
b) When we learned the counterpressure, I found it so annoying that I told Aaron never to touch me in that way. Then, in labour with J, it became my salvation. So, that could be useful.
c) Hospital tour shmospital tour. We had none with J, since we went with an outside class provider so it would have cost extra, and we somehow managed fine. With A, no classes, and the hospital tour came in the guise of "overnight on a drip in the maternity ward while we try to stop contractions at 26 weeks." Fun!
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