why i went to birth class

so tonight joe and i are going to birth class again tonight for session 2 of 4. i’m not going to lie the first one was a little intense. i mean the lady pushed a plastic doll through a knit cervix. that was alot to take in lol. however as corny as it is and as basic as child birth (and child care) might seem to some to joe and i it’s like a total foreign land.

i’ll admit for a long time i didn’t think we would have kids. we were enjoying life as it and didn’t really having a burning desire to have kids. so i didn’t really spend a lot of time learning about kids like say… gardening. but one day it was like a tiny switch went off and we were both like maybe? and it just kind of happened. (not going to get in to that part i think we can all agree we at least know how babies are made right?)

anyway joe and i knew nothing about the basics of raising a kid or how the birth process works for that matter.i mean most of my knowledge of labor up until this point has come from knocked up and look who’s talking (1 AND 2). ps after going to class – it’s not like that. so a lot of people expressed to me that birthing class is a waste of time and your body knows what to do .that is probably true except the waste of time part. i have full confidence that my body will know when it’s time to set the goldfish free but me, for my sanity needs to know how this works. heck we didn’t even know when was the time to leave for the hospital.

last night as i was putting things away in the nursery i was getting ready to wash all these teeny tiny towels and i thought to myself… how often am i supposed to wash a baby? how does this swaddle thing work? these warning labels are really scary. enter: birth and childcare class.

last week we went over early signs of labor and the end stages as well as a few breathing exercises. tonight we are getting into labor.

so here are a few reasons why i am a birth and parenting class advocate

1.) most insurances cover it so why not go and learn all you can about your pending life changing miracle? i left the class feeling more at ease knowing that i knew the signs to look for, i could ask a nurse what a real contraction feels like (and how soon can i get an epidural and is there anything new and exciting in the experimental pain management industry). we learned about potential complications and how to breath and work through them. it was like a free doctors appointment where you could just ask anything you needed to.

2.) you get to ask the questions about raising your kid without having to sift through google and get some straight answers from a nurse. from everything to changing diapers to the proper way to install a carseat. i’m sure you could look all this up but again, it’s just nice to have someone physically SHOW you what you are supposed to be doing.

3.) it gives your partner an idea of what your body has been up to the past 9 months and what to prepare for during and after birth. trust me learning about all this stuff is just better coming from a nurse to your partner than you trying to explain it.

4.) you’re not alone. sometimes it’s easy for me to feel like i’m the only one who has ever been pregnant, had swollen feet, back aches and a partner that refuses to touch my feet. but you sit in a room with a handful of other couples in your situation and you feel a sense of camaraderie . like… “you know what women before me have done this and women after me will do this” “maybe i can do this”

it is time consuming no lie but for us, it works. it was one of the smarter things we have decided to do throughout this whole process. everyone has to do what feels right for them but if you are thinking about if you really need to take a class or not, i highly recommend it.

for those of you who are local here is the class we are taking 🙂 Preparing for Childbirth