I'm not sure if this is interesting to anyone, but figured what the heck on documenting about it. We decided to take a childbirth class mostly because it's one of those things you just have to do, like a rite of passage of sorts. I never expected to get much out of it, but figured it certainly wouldn't hurt. Plus, I know that it will be helpful for Andy. Since I'm delivering at St. Joe's it made the most sense to take a class there. When I looked to sign up back in November, the only class that was open was the 4-part Tuesday night class in February. So, Tuesday it is!
We pulled up to the Business and Conference Center maybe 10 minutes early. At 6:00 there were only four couples, including us. The instructor said we were supposed to have a full 10 couples, so this meant that 6 couples legit just didn't show up! The weather wasn't even bad. Our instructor is Shellie, a RN probably in her low to mid-30s. She worked on the L+D floor, but for the last several years has been working in an OB office. She said she's been teaching this class for something like 8 years. I like her. She is friendly and laid back. We started off with brief introductions and then a break-out for an icebreaker type thing.
I could tell right away that I was in the minority of the group. There was maybe one other mom who seemed more on the natural path and knew some stuff, but the other two definitely gave off the vibe of "I don't know much, just do the usual western medicine stuff" kind of people. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but that is just not how I want this whole labor thing to go for myself. There was one mom-to-be in particular who seemed clueless. When we got in the car even Andy said "that one girl was dumb." That's saying something coming from him.
I digress with the judgment..
After getting the background info together, Shellie started with basic pregnancy anatomy. The uterus, placenta, blah blah stuff. Obviously this has to be covered, but I would hope everyone knew most of that part. She explained dilation vs. effacement. Then she showed us the various monitors used. This is also where I started to see even more of a disconnect. Shellie said that everyone gets monitored externally throughout their entire labor. The. Whole. Time. I don't want that. I want to be able to move around and not be confined to bed, at least if I can handle it for some of the time. Then I asked about moving around and she said most doctors are okay with monitoring for 20 minutes every hour. I know that in the past 5 years, L+D has become more flexible. I'm sure all of the nurses prefer easy patients who just do what they say, so I assume that's why they teach the class this way. Shellie said that when she worked on the unit nearly everyone was monitored internally! No thanks.
She also reviewed symptoms of pre-term labor, false labor, and real labor. We watched a short video that appeared to be made in 1992. It was about fears of labor and parenthood, signs of labor, and how to time contractions. Then we finished with what to expect when arriving on the unit, some quick general relaxation, and were out of there by 7:45! Next week we cover labor specifics.
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