At my doctor’s office, every room is plastered with flyers
for the free prenatal classes offered through my health care. Being a first
time mom, I knew I didn’t want to miss a single one. Since I was expecting to
be on bed rest shortly into the new year, I started looking at class schedules
in the beginning of December. Unfortunately, the schedules for 2012 we not
posted until after the new year, so I frantically tried to squeeze in all 3
classes in December. Each class was
supposed to be 2 hours long, and covered labor & delivery, caring for a
newborn, and breastfeeding. Aaron went
with me to first two, and I attended the breastfeeding class alone. Unfortunately,
2 hours is not really enough time for a prenatal class. I learned a lot in each
class, but the classes felt rushed. The labor & delivery class didn’t teach
any techniques, although they did say that fear, pain, and harder delivery were
all connected.
Besides expecting to be on bed rest, I also expected a
significant chance of needing a c-section. So despite feeling like the labor
& delivery class was inadequate, I wasn’t too motivated to seek out actual
Lamaze classes. Not to mention that a few of my friends have said that Lamaze
was worthless for them.
But as January progressed with no problems, no bed rest, and
the nurses saying how wonderful Samantha is doing, I began to worry about
needing better prep for labor. I picked up two books on hypnobirthing, each
explaining a different method. So far I’ve finished the first book and I’m
halfway through the second book. Although each book has had a few interesting
or important tidbits, I really think the books could have been much shorter.
The first book had 3 different breathing techniques for
relaxing during labor. The third technique is for “breathing your baby down”
instead of pushing the baby out. But since you don’t want to breathe your baby
down before you are ready, it isn’t covered very well in the book. I’m not sure
I even understand the concept. “Oh well,
maybe the relaxation CD that came with the book will be helpful,” I
thought. Aaron and I tried to listen to
the CD together one night. In less than 5 minutes we were both sound asleep.
When we woke up, the CD had long been over. I wonder if I can put myself to
sleep listing to the CD during labor. That might be useful.
The second book likes to refer back to the classes that
we’re supposed to spend additional money to take. So most of the techniques are
just briefly explained and then we’re told we’ll go over them further in class.
Sorry, but (1) the classes are ridiculously expensive and (2) I haven’t found
any classes in my area. The relaxation exercises are a little bit too new-age-y
for me, and the book doesn’t even come with a CD. But I plan to finish reading
it anyway.
So three strikes on trying to find something useful for
labor and delivery. At least all three had a common theme – relax! And that part does make sense to me. When I
start having back problems, the initial pain isn’t really the problem. But my
muscles around the injury tighten up, I’m guessing to protect the injury. The
tight muscles become the real problem, to the point where I’ve been stuck
standing in a doorway, holding onto the door frame for dear life, and unable to
move due to the pain (and being panicked). The only solution has been to take
deep breaths and force my muscles to relax. Once I get those muscles to relax,
the pain eases off and I can move again. So it makes sense to me, if I have to
push a baby out of my hoo-hoo, those muscles are going to have to be relaxed to
stretch that big.
Anyway, I had noticed that the hospital where I plan to
deliver offers a variety of prenatal classes. They have a “Make Way for Baby” class
that consists of 3 class sessions for 4 hours each. Among other things, it is
supposed to cover relaxation and breathing techniques. And since we’re supposed
to bring a mat and pillows to class, I assume it is a more traditional class
where we get to practice the techniques. So I signed us up. The only class that
would work for us or that wasn’t already filled started this past Sunday and
continues on the next two Sundays. If you are paying attention, the last class
is two days before I’m 38 weeks. We’re cutting it really close. In fact, I’m
the furthest along in my pregnancy than anyone else in the class.
So Sunday we woke up to the alarm clock, ate breakfast, and
packed snacks to get us through class. I wonder who thought it was a good idea
to keep pregnant women in class from 9:30am to 1:30pm. Luckily snacks and breaks are provided
throughout the class, but I still think the class could have been scheduled
better. Well, Aaron woke up with the beginnings of a
migraine. He took some meds, and seemed to be doing okay, for the most part. We
arrived at the hospital a little bit early, about 9:15. As we approached the entrance, Aaron said
something about the fire alarms. I didn’t hear exactly what he said, but I
quickly noted that people were still going into the hospital, and the people
coming out of the hospital were behaving normally, so I continued to walk into
the building. Sure enough, once inside I heard the announcement of a fire alarm
and saw the little strobe lights blinking on the ceiling. No one seemed to care
and as I approached the front desk, I was greeted with, “Here for the baby
class? It’s down the hall in Auditorium B.” We proceeded down the hall and the
fire alarms became much louder.
Auditorium B wasn’t open yet, and a few couples were
standing in the hallway waiting. We waited a few minutes, and then I suggested
we go back to the lobby. Aaron was already to the stage of following the path
of least resistance, so he said no. I should have just taken him to the lobby
anyway, since the fire alarm wasn’t as loud out there, but instead I
compromised. I told him I was going back up the hall at least to find someplace
to sit.
A little while later we were able to get into the classroom,
but the alarm was being piped into the room as well. The teacher passed out
forms and handouts without explanation. A few minutes later she came around to
collect the forms, but we hadn’t bothered to fill them out yet. “What, did
something distract you?” the teacher said sweetly, rolling her eyes at the
alarm system. I laughed, and explained that I thought they were class
evaluation forms to be filled out at the end.
Despite the paper shuffling that took up a good 20 minutes
at the start of class, the fire alarm was still going off when the teacher
finally had to start. She had to yell over the noise, and we had to really concentrate
in order to hear her. Before she got
very far into the lecture, she had each couple pair up with another couple to
meet one another, and when we came back to the group, each couple would have to
introduce the other couple. Unfortunately there were an odd number of
couples, so we were paired with 2 other couples. It was hard enough to have a
discussion over the alarm, but now we had to have a 6-person discussion. Our names,
dues dates, baby gender, and baby name were easy enough. But when we got to the
question of what we liked or could live without about the pregnancy, our
discussion fell apart. Someone remarked that they could do without the fire
alarm. Another person agreed and commented that they had a headache. Then we just stood around uncomfortably.
Before the teacher called us back to the group, one of the couples we had just
met decided they couldn’t stand the fire alarm any longer. They grabbed up
their stuff and decided to leave. While we had all been meeting each other, the
teacher had called someone and was told the fire alarm should be turned off in
the next 5-10 minutes. It was 10:20 then.
We went around the room and introduced each other. And then
the teacher started the lecture, still shouting over the fire alarm. The one
good thing, she told us, is that the fire alarm does not go off on the
maternity floor. If there is an emergency, the staff will direct us, but if the
fire alarm goes off for no reason as it was doing, our laboring will not be
affected.
Around 11:00, we decided to take a break. The other couple
that we had met gathered up their stuff to leave too. I told Aaron that we were
going to the restroom, and then out to the lobby where it was quieter. In the lobby, couples were taking turns
complaining to the front desk. I took a different approach. “Does anyone
realize how much louder the fire alarm is in the classrooms?” Because if the
rest of the hospital only had to put up with volume that the lobby was
experiencing, then the people trying to fix the problem might not understand how
urgent it was to get the damn thing shut off. I was nice and didn’t curse. As we walked back toward the education wing,
the fire alarm finally shut off. Later
we found out that one couple had arrived at the hospital at 9:05 as people were
shuffling back into the hospital after evacuating. This meant that the fire
alarm had been going off for 2 whole hours AFTER the all-clear. Ridiculous!
Back in the classroom, we got to eat some snacks before the
break was over. But now that the fire alarm was no longer pounding in our
brains, Aaron’s head finally registered the migraine. He looked awful. I gave
him some Tylenol and he went to find a caffeinated beverage. But he was a
trooper. Since we paid for the class and couldn’t take a different class before
our due date, he stuck it out. If the fire alarm had continued much longer, or
we had gotten to the relaxation part of the class with the fire alarm blaring, we
would have left too.
The class wasn’t completely miserable though. Before class
started, I flipped through the booklet that we had been given, and stopped at a
page showing rings of increasing size, up to 10cm. I showed it to Aaron. “The
baby has to fit through that?” he exclaimed. “Are you kidding? I have to get that big?” I
replied. We laughed. It was even funnier later when the teacher passed around a
3D diagram of the same thing, and told us that the typical male response is “the
baby has to fit through there?” while the typical female response is “I have to
stretch that far?” Aaron and I looked at each other and giggled.
Hopefully our last two class sessions will be fire alarm free.
Keep your fingers crossed.