Last night, Adam and I began our four-week "Prepared Childbirth" class. Although I'm still really skeptical about anyone's ability to fully prepare me for the excruciating agony of labor and all that it entails, I'm glad so far that we're taking this class. Here's why:
1. Group therapy is good. I say this especially on Adam's behalf. I'm regularly around pregnant women in our very fertile ward and we all complain about the heartburn, the leg cramps, the constipation, the back pain, the nausea, etc., to each other. But last night, the fathers all crowded to one side of the room for part of the course and were encouraged to talk to each other about their fears about labor. Adam felt his masculinity reaffirmed when he heard that most of them were worried about all of the bodily fluids and needles that childbirth entails.
2. It is good to be around people worse off than you. One lone woman talked about how she either cries out of sadness or out of anger every day for the last month because her Baby Daddy isn't interested in being a part of her life anymore. Hearing about someone else's horrible rat-poop ex-boyfriend who abandoned her when she got pregnant sure makes me think twice about getting upset at Adam for forgetting to take the garbage out.
3. The BEST part: I got massaged. Our Lamaze-certified instructor Debra made Adam rub me down for the last half hour of class. If I would have known that this class would teach Adam how to massage me, I would have signed us up for it a long time ago!
1 comment:
Hey, maybe I should have signed up when I was expecting Alex. Instead I had a wonderful doula that personally trained Joseph, and was there for the child-birthing process. It made things go so great, I had her there for Teagan too. If you would like, I'll send you her info and you can see if she'll be able to help. She has a great local reputation. Joseph found her as wonderful as I did too.
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