lamaze!

Matt and I went to our first birthing class a few weeks ago... lamaze! Now, ideally I wanted to take a hypnobirthing class but it just didn't work in my schedule. We decided not to cry about it and instead take a lamaze class and supplement it with our hypnobirthing book.

Let me tell you...we learned a lot and maybe more importantly it was fun and encouraging! It was one night and one full day long. It also included a maternity center tour. The instructor was great and super positive. It's just what we needed. Lamaze as it turns out isn't really about breathing anymore. Crazy right?! It's more about positioning, massage (fantastic), and some breathing/relaxation. We learned about the other interventions that may go down....which is great for people to know what could happen. We don't all get to choose our birthing plans 100%, so that was a nice realistic side of a natural birthing class.

What we took away from the class:

- Matt needs to support me with ample amounts of massage....we learned techniques, just grand I tell you.
- I tried some new positions for comfort and helping spud progress in the birthing canal. So helpful! A bit of squatting, birthing ball use, and positioning using matt as support.
- We both understood a little more of what the interventions can be- episiotomy, amniotomy, pitocin, c-section, epidural....not presented in a scary way just potentially necessary, so it was great to get educated on it.
- We did an exercise where we had about 30 flashcards about a birthing plan. One side said something like "amniotomy" and the other said "let water break naturally"...or "midwife/ OB" or "vaginal/c-section." We had to place all the cards face up with what our ideal birthing plan was. Then we had to flip over 7 of them, because realistically everything won't go as planned. Matt and I then decided to pick up all the ones we just didn't really care about when it came right down to it. We were left with 3 face up: "Hospital birth, baby girl, healthy." Birthing plan complete.
- After the class Matt said...Ok, well I'm ready to have a baby! Sweet, me too. Now we just wait for spud to be ready.

(side note...why is blogger f-ing up my paragraph spacing?! I'm really trying hard to not be OCD about this, but come on blogger...anyone else having issues?)