Labor and Delivery 101

As you may or may not know, as first-time parents you are advised to take a "baby class."  The purpose of the class is to prepare you for the arrival of your sweet little baby.  You learn about labor and breathing techniques, they teach you about the actual delivery and pain medication and they even touch a little on breastfeeding.  Of course this is a good idea.

So off the husband and I went...to our first baby class...excited and curious as to what it would be like.  Well, let's just say this, it was...interesting.  Our instructor was nice enough (although also slightly "off" if you know what I mean...I am guessing that is a job requirement as you spend most of your time talking about placentas, vaginas, etc) and so was everyone else in the class. We learned about the different stages of labor and even saw a brief video about delivery... it wasn't that bad...I have seen way worse on "The Baby Story" on TLC.

We spent most of the time learning about comfort measures during labor. Included in that was a fun (well, at least for some people there) game.  We were split into 2 groups, moms and dads, and then presented with the challenge of providing a comfort measure for each letter of the alphabet.  The women were taking this game pretty seriously...throwing out words like "doting" and "loving" and "caressing."  I swear, I couldn't think of one word, until we were down to the letters "j, x and z." Proud of myself, I shouted out "What about jokes for j?"  It was like I had just told them their favorite dog had died...shock and total silence.  Nope, the ladies didn't like that one...I guess I understand, but really?  If you can't have a good laugh during all of that, then you really need to lighten up.  After listening to the men, I wished I could've been on their team...they might've actually been having fun...I mean, I heard one guy yell out "oragami" for "o."  How awesome is that!?

After the big game, we settled into learning some breathing techniques.  I guess this helpful, but it seemed a lot like yogic breathing to me.  Luckily, I have spent a lot of time doing that, so the breathing part should be easy...it's just remembering to do it that will be the hard part. 

That was it for round one...we have two more classes to go.  I am looking forward to learning more and seeing what other fun games we get to play.