Birth Class No 1

Today we had our first childbirth class. 5 hours full of signs of labour, birth positions, pain management, birth DVDs, ...

Although I have read tons of books and heard millions of stories from other mums, the class wasn’t in vain.

My key learnings from this class are:

• If I am still smiling, then I am not in active labour, yet. So, no need to panic and rush to the hospital just yet.  
• Spend as much of early labour as possible at home. It can last for up to 16 hours. So make yourself comfortable and distract yourself. Watch a DVD. Read. Play backgammon. Sleep. Eat. Take a walk.
• Do whatever feels good. Try different positions: sitting, lying, kneeling, walking,... . Try hot packs. Try massage.
• Relaxation CDs make me aggressive. So I better put all my Cafe del Mar CDs onto my iPod.
• Keep on breathing! No specific technique required. Just try to keep it slow and regular.
• However painful the labour might be: it is just one day in your life. And you are working towards a wonderful result: your baby!

The highlight for me was to have a look at the delivery rooms and the recovery rooms. Somehow it gave me so much confidence just to know how the rooms look like and what a calm atmosphere there was in the ward.

Other things that made me vey happy: my lovely husband can stay with us day and night (even in the theatre, if a C-section is required), my lovely baby will stay with us in our room all the time (in case she is not sick!) and I can use my mobile and my laptop (in case the labour really drags on).

Well, I am almost looking forward to labour now. Well, almost. But I definitely look forward to our second class next Saturday.