We went to this place “Birthday Presence” for our childbirth education classes. We did a weekend intensive and spent all day Saturday and Sunday there with about 7 other couples. Glad we did it that way – as opposed to taking the course one evening a week over several weeks. Overall it was a great experience. There were a couple of corny videos (one with an animated baby that spoke in utero!) but informative and helpful for getting the both of us in the mindset of labor & delivery. The class covered everything from the different stages of labor and pain coping techniques (massage, breathing and a bunch of other personal preferences of how we individually deal with pain and stress, i.e. music, visualization, etc.) to labor and delivery positions and learning about different medical interventions (medication and caesarean). That isn’t even everything. I think what was most taken away from the course is that there is no way to predict how our experience will be. This we knew already. A good reminder to hopefully reduce some of the anticipation and anxiety as our due date draws near. It is certainly helpful to know more about labor – the benefits of laboring more at home and how to know when it is time to head to the birthing center. For now, we need to think more about our birth preferences and what we hope our experience will look like. What will help me create an environment that will work best… even though that might all fly out the window. We just need to remember the important fact that this is an amazing experience that we are lucky to get to have. We are going to be 100% present for the birth of our child and I can’t wait. It will be painful and incredibly challenging, yes… but we can do it and get through it with the support that we will have and take the experience as what will probably be the most empowering moment of our lives. At least of my life.
Thursday we are meeting a doula from the NYC Doula Coop. Hopefully it will be a good fit and we will both like her. The doula will be really helpful in the early stages of labor – especially so that we can stay at home as long as we can and to help us determine when we should go to the birthing center.
We also got our crib yesterday! A good friend gave us one that they bought and didn’t end up using. It still needs to be put together and we have to get a mattress, etc. Getting much closer to having our apartment in order. I will definitely post some pictures in the next couple of weeks of how the place has transformed. Or, rather, how we are utilizing our space to make a cozy, comfortable home for baby Theo.
