Prenatal Class #1

Last night I attended the first prenatal class that was for couples – Ms. Pregnant has attended a couple of women-only sessions already. Due to rather severe weather we were slightly late – so we walked into the room already filled with 9 other couples in various stages of pregnancy. There were bellies of all shapes and sizes – huge round balloon bellies, bellies that stuck out to form a litttle shelf, bumps and bulges. You name it. Delivery dates ranged from Jan 28 to April 2.

The thing that struck me the most was that it wasn’t necessarily the “most” pregnant woman that had the bigger-looking belly. Ms. Mom-to-Be was about in the middle in terms of delivery dates as well as belly size, though I did note that her belly seemed flatter than the others. Not smaller, just less pointy in front.

That seems to change from day to day though. Tonight her belly is definitely pointier than yesterday. And her belly is yet again visibily larger than 3 days ago.

Back to the class. The first bit was the instructor telling us what she was going to cover – things ranging from a quick intro to the anatomy and physiology of delivery to discussions about “pain” to some breathing and support exercises. We then watched a video about women getting ready to give birth.

The video – “Stages of Pregnancy” – gave both animated video detailing what was happening to the uterus, cervix, baby and amniotic fluid starting from the first onset of contractions to just before the last stages of labour (the instructor stopped the video before that part). It explained how the baby was positioned and moving down into the birth canal. It also showed how the contractions were physically changing the size and shape of the cervix and uterus during labour.

The next little demonstration was to hand out a bunch of plastic tubes and rings of various dimensions. These correlated to the size and thickness of the cervix through the changes during labour. It starts out about 3-4cm long and 1 cm in diameter and slowly thins and widens until it’s over 10 cm in diameter and only a couple millimeters thick. The change is one thing to discuss but quite another to see as a physical representation! The purpose of the contractions are to slowly thin and dilate the cervix to allow the baby to pass.

After that we started talking about the various positions that a woman in labour may take to relieve the discomfort. We learned that the Hollywood standard position of on the back and feet in stirrups was possibly the worst position for both mother and baby – it is against the natural pull of gravity that should assist in the delivery. So we saw a few different positions that would assist in progressing labour along allowing gravity to aid the process.

The instructor also talked about how women in labour are going to make noise – lots of noise! And that this is perfectly normal. She related how many women comment after their delivery that they remembered hearing all this moaning – only to realize it was made by themselves! This part kind of alarmed me – it was also on the video but only briefly. I’m not sure how I’m going to fare once Preggy starts making those loud noises!

The last part of the class was learning some massage and pain management techniques that the men can assist with. Things ranging like massaging the belly to pressing near the cervix were pretty simple and straightforward. Then we learned the “double hip squeeze” which in essence is the guy squeezing the woman’s hips together while she’s on her hands and knees. The pressure is applied and held during the contractions, then slowly released and the hips and back massaged as the contractions cease. Then a short rest until the next contraction comes. It’s hard work! And we were warned that it could go on for hours and hours – the instructor said she performed that on a woman for 45 hours!

After all this we came home. I have been researching various flights on the internet. So far I think Brazil is a very attractive option.