Prepared Childburth Class...

For the last few weeks Larry & I have been faithfully attending a prepared childbirth class with a nurse from Carle Hospital. It has been interesting to say the least. The woman who teaches this class is wild. We knew we were in for an interesting few weeks when we showed up for the 1st class on the last Wednesday of June. Tonight was our last class & it did not disappoint either.

We were learning a lot about the breathing I should do when in labor and about having a plan for labor - what tricks we will use to help the baby along, etc. We also were challenged to think about what things we would want/need to make me comfortable while in labor. All interesting stuff. Tonight the class culminated with a trip to the Labor & Delivery floor & the Postpartum floor @ the hospital. They recently redid these areas so they are very nice & quite luxurious. There is NO sharing rooms @ Carle, for which I'm grateful. The rooms and all that are very nicely apportioned as well, so they really are trying to make things as comfortable as they can for the laboring mom to be.

The funniest part to our class had to be our instructor simulating contractions and pushing for us. While it was quite informative it was also rather awkward to see this 50-ish woman who is clearly NOT pregnant tell us her "contraction was starting, was peaking, was over" while breathing like a mad woman. This week she got down on the floor to show us the proper positions and sounds we should be making while pushing.

Then our class finished off with a video of a very naked woman giving birth - this woman moaned the entire time and she was nude the entire time. I'm sorry, I just know I will NOT be that way. I'm a little too modest & even if I were I certainly would not be on video doing that. The consolation that I drew from the video (which was informative...) was that I'm not alone in having saggy pregnant boobs. (is that TMI?)

I'm glad the class is over, now Larry & I just need to practice the breathing every now & then before November - oh and according to our instructor I need to Kegel at every possible opportunity.