ricevermicelli | (no subject)

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So we can add childbirth classes to drycleaning on the list of things I should stop putting off.

I looked around today and discovered that the next 6-week birthing class I can sign up for at Isis Maternity starts at the end of February, and is scheduled to finish up two weeks after my due date. So that's a scratch. I made some other calls too. We'll see how those go.

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Do you think you really need a childbirthing class? One of the more amusing bits in this article on obstetrics was the quote “You take the childbirth class, and they drill it into you a million times,” she says. “The whole point of childbirth classes, as far as I could tell, is to make sure you keep your butt out of the hospital until you’re really in labor.”

Well, for one thing, I would like to keep my butt out of the hospital until I'm really in labor. So that part would actually be pretty handy.

I've rejected the hospital's childbirth class - they have you watch "The Miracle of Life" and they talk about the hospital facilities and do a short session on comfort measures. I'm more interested in the last bit than in the first two. We are taking a tour of the L&D ward, but rewatching a video I saw twice in high school seems like a total waste of time. I'd really like to spend more time discussing comfort measures than anything else, and I'd like sort of a coherent curriculum on those. The hospital course seems designed to give you an overview of the possibilities, but not many of the practical details.

Well, for one thing, I would like to keep my butt out of the hospital until I'm really in labor.

Wait until the contractions are five minutes apart?

And yes, I know I'm blowing smoke here. But I do wonder if you'd do better just doing your own research. Unless you manage to find the right expert who is good at imparting knowledge, I'd think using the world to figure it out is going to yield you better results. And even if you do find a great teacher, they still only teach that which they know.

But of course, what I think about it is pretty close to completely irrelevant. I hope you find what you're looking for.

I suck at research at the moment. I have spent a fair amount of time going over books on the subject in the past few weeks, and the stuff that's stuck is as follows:
1. At some point, I will go into labor.
2. I can expect this to hurt.
3. There are techniques I can use to deal with the pain.
4. My health care providers can hook me up with drugs if I want them.
5. Seeing as I have a partner, he might be able to help.

I'm quite certain that my failure to absorb material is the fault of my attention span and not of the stuff I'm trying (and mostly failing) to read. My attention span for talking to people is what it always was (not always great, but it does still exist). So talking to someone would be really good. I'd like some assurance that the person I'm talking to is reasonably well-informed and experienced, and has philosophies not totally antithetical to mine. That makes an actual class, taught by someone who advertises her experience and philosophy, sound like a fantastic idea, as helpful as anything short of a practice labor is likely to be.

I love that article.

But there is such a difference between hospital childbirth classes and, uh, ones that don't suck (or so I've been told; not planning to give birth in a hospital, I didn't take a hospital version). Everyone says that the hospital classes are basically "here is the hospital procedure, here's how to serve and obey us, yes we have drugs" and very little on what *you* can actually do to, you know, have the birth you want. But there are other birthing classes that actually care about telling you what is going on and what you can do about it.

We did a HypnoBirthing class with Shay Pokress in Arlington. She wasn't nearly as hippie as the material is capable of being (which is why we picked her). Um, I really can't tell you yet whether it was worth it ;). But it's basically a lot of relaxation/meditation techniques.

She's one of my calls. She's has space in a class that ends eight days before I'm due, which seems to me to be cutting it a touch close. I need to call her back and see if we can schedule something else (her website mentions she's able to do that).

Hypnobirthing is what I used. If you're planning to do drugs, those classes are a little heavy on the anti-drug side, so it may not be what you want. Check out your insurance to see what they cover and at what % before you make the "drugs or not" decision.

An anstesiologist (for an epidural) can cost $500 to $5000 depending on how long you leave it in. If your medical plan only covers 90% of costs, that can still be a substantial financial decision.

The hospital birthing class we took basically covered "Here are the 3 stages of labor. Here are what the contractions look like and how they feel at each point. Here's when to go to the hospital. Here's what we can do for you once you get here. Here's what you can do for yourself before you get here (some basic breathing exercises.)"

From my friend who didn't manage to get the hospital birthing class done before birth, you do want to take *something* or at a minimum read a lamaze book and practice the breathing before labor. Even if you want an epidural, most of the time they won't put one of those in until you reach 4 cm. Hospital nurses cannot be relied on to help you breathe. For some women (espcially if you no zero breathing techniques) reaching those 4 cm is like going to hell.

My friend's husband said he'd never been so scared in his life watching his wife go through so much pain. Then her mother arrived and talked her though breathing through a few contractions. She still was in much pain, but said that at that point she could at least imagine living through the childbirth experience if she had too. It at least got her to the epidural stage and it was fairly smooth sailing from there. i.e. the baby's heartbeat crashed, so they added drugs to fix it, then labor stopped, so they added more drugs to fix that, and eventually the mix was right so that the baby was born healthy to a happy mommy.

The heartbeat crashing and labor stopping with an epidural is very common. The hospitals deal with it all the time and aren't generally concerned, and if you take the hospital class then they hope you won't be either.

The natural childbirth people will point to how often it happens and the occasional complication ending in a C-section (in 25-30% of births in the US) and tell you that that's why you want to go natural. With practice and knowledge many births can go naturally.

If you know you want drugs though, don't try hypnobirthing, or at least don't tell the instructor that you know you want drugs. It will only serve to annoy the both of you.

--Beth

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