My First Birthing Class
I am extremely committed to a natural birth. It’s not some kind of sadistic need to prove I can do it, I just grew up in a family where natural birth was the way things were done, so it’s always been my plan even before I conceived. I’m number four of my mother’s six kids, five of which she gave birth to naturally and without throwing a huge fit over the matter. Epidurals were readily available, but until she was in her forties and had been laboring for days with my youngest sister that she finally decided to just go ahead and get an epidural. After the experience, she said she had been a bit too harsh with women who opted for an epidural. She still felt everything, but that feeling wasn’t painful.
This is my silly husband. Can you see why I'd be concerned about his behavior at a childbirth class?
Now that I’m about to give birth for the first time and have this strong commitment to a drug free childbirth, I figure it would be in my best interest to prepare by educating myself. Part of this education was enrolling in Bradley Childbirth Classes. Most women who take a childbirth class will end up taking Lamaze, which didn’t quite offer what I wanted. Bradley is also known as “husband-assisted childbirth.” It puts a strong emphasis on the importance of the family unit to have a successful and natural birth. Dr. Robert Bradley developed this system which promotes a healthy diet, healthy lifestyle and a strong relationship with the coach, preferably the baby’s father. This was exactly what I wanted out of a birth class.
After a little research, I learned that the nearest class was in New Bern, but making that drive once a week is worth it to me to better equip me to handle the pain and struggle of labor. Last night was my first class, and I will be continuing the classes up until my delivery. I was really concerned that my goof ball husband wouldn’t be able to take it seriously, but much to my surprise, he did wonderfully! His participation was still playful, as is typical of him, but appropriately so. There is only one other couple in the class with us, which means we get to have a lot of one on one interaction with our instructor and plenty of time to ask questions. I think I’m really going to enjoy doing this for the next 11 weeks.
Did you take any childbirth classes? If so, which program did you use? What did you like about it? What did you dislike about it?
