Prenatal Class

On Saturday, Marty and I had the first of our two days of prenatal classes. It’s a nice small class of five couples in a cosy location and a great instructor. All of the couples are very nice and we are all due around the same time (April/May). Marty and I are the only “freaks” in the class, going with a midwife, hoping for natural birth, doing prenatal yoga… But after the videos, that might all change!! A c-section doesn’t sound all that bad…

I think the class is mostly for the men. The women seem to know what’s coming, but most of the men seemed a little clueless. Marty was definitely the most knowledgeable of the group, but it’s probably because I keep sending him articles to read and he loves reading the weekly updates we get from a couple of websites that I am registered with. But the videos, they are definitely for everyone, and they don’t hide or gloss over anything. After one of the videos (we got to see several) one of the husbands turned to his wife and said, “Wow, I have a whole new respect for you.” All the other husbands were quick to nod in agreement. After seeing those videos, I have a whole new respect for women who have birthed, naturally or with drugs!!

I don’t know if Marty is going to post, so I will speak for him here… he was pretty grossed out by the videos. The placenta was the worst for him. But he definitively appreciated the videos as they gave him a very good idea as to what to expect. He didn’t realise that I would be able to get up and move around, and that that was actually encouraged to help move things along. All of his references are from TV and movies, where the woman just lies on her back and grunts a lot.

We have our last class on Saturday where we are going to learn a little more on baby care and breast feeding; should be another good class. We’ll let you know if there any more videos.