As my due date approaches, I find myself wondering what else I can do to make sure I’m prepared for childbirth and bringing the baby home. My husband and I both have insane schedules, so finding time to attend all these classes that everyone keeps telling us about has been a bit hard. Most things are either in the evenings, when I’m way too tired to focus; or on the weekends when we’re trying to get things ready for the baby. We decided that we would attend a breast-feeding class, buy a DVD that walks us through the preparations for labor to substitute a lamaze class, and watch documentaries/read books (I read the books).
So this past weekend we attended a “Breast-Feeding” class, which really should have been called a lecture; and watched The Business of Being Born.
While the breast-feeding class was informative it left a lot to be desired, especially since I paid money for it. I’m not really sure that I learned anything new there, but I know that I’ll utilize the lactation consultants once I’m at the hospital. It also made me very happy that I decided to buy a dvd for the birthing class instead of spending an insane amount of money on the classes.
What I think we both found interesting was the documentary. A lot of what I saw I knew from doing research on making a birthing plan, and deciding between a midwife and an ob/gyn, but it was still a bit jarring to hear the stories from different women and the terrible experiences they had when giving birth. I love the practice I chose, but I really do wish there were birthing centers in my area, so that I could have a less sterile experience when giving birth. Most of the documentary was new for my husband, because I procrastinated telling him the things I read. I did this for two reasons. First, I knew that one look at the documentary would totally make him anti-hospital and team home birth. Secondly, we just did not have the time to find a home, get married, fight w/ the insurance company about our right to have a home birth, and maintain the work schedules we both had during the first 6 months of my pregnancy. I’m glad I waited to tell him and let him see these things, because he has been able to meet my doctor and go on the hospital tour, so he knows that despite not having the option of a birthing center or a home birth at this time, we (well I) still chose the right place to have our baby. On a more positive note, watching the documentary helped him understand why he needs to know my birthing plan is so important, because when I’m in the throes of pain he’s my advocate.
Aside from attending the class and watching the videos, we made some progress on Baby S’ room this weekend. Oh and by progress I mean we finally took our stuff out of his room and put his millions of boxes and clothing in his room. It’s still not organized, but we’re getting there.
This coming weekend, we’ll do some more work on his room and start our childbirth classes via DVD.
How did you prepare for your child’s arrival? Were the classes worth it?
