Antenatal classes

I finally got to do my antenatal classes today, although I’ve been so exhausted from moving house that I wish I could have postponed it. But as it was I was easily the most pregnant there, with most of the ladies being around 30 weeks pregnant. I guess it’s ended up being so late for me that they originally booked me into a series of evening classes which were on while I was teaching classes, and the weekends were all booked out.

As it turned out they didn’t offer a lot of information that I hadn’t already read up on, however it was good to know the stance and philosophies and things available at my particular hospital. I’m glad to know that I can pretty much go with my own choices and beliefs for my childbirth.

I haven’t previously viewed my ideas on what path I’d like to take, but after a bit of reading and research I’d like to go with as little intervention as possible. Although there seems to be contradicting discussions, there are schools of thought that one intervention tends to lead to another……..so for example, if you have to be induced for labour then you’ll likely need your waters to be broken, and in turn an oxytocinin drip to encourage contractions, which in turn can cause more pain and require an epidural, which could then make it harder to push, making you need forceps and if that fails a ceasarean may result. So what started off as just being induced into labour it’s possible it may lead to further unwanted interventions.

I’m a little scared of a ceasaren, so I hope I don’t end up in a situation where I require one. I’m trying to keep an open mind and not be afraid of it, especially if it’s for my own or the baby’s sake, but still it’s something I want to avoid. I also want to avoid an epidural at all costs, but it’s hard to know whether I’ll have the strength to go through the entire labour without assistance. Basically I want to go for what they call an “active labour” where you use positions, moving around and different techniques to allow the labour to progress naturally. I mean, after all, it is a natural process which animals in the wild do all the time without assistance.

One of the things I found interesting was the attitude of one of the men in the group. Before we got to the part where she talked about different forms of pain relief, this guy happened to pipe up “why wouldn’t you choose to have an epidural! That’s just crazy” It surprised me, cuz how many women would have been sitting there thinking “well I don’t want to?” Seemed such an ignorant comment……..I mean, I don’t expect people to share my views, but it would at least be nice to understand the pros and cons before making such a statement.

At the antenatal class I was also the only person to go there without a partner. Unfortunately Alexander couldn’t be there with me cuz he’s currently on a plane at the moment, and it just wouldn’t have been possible for me to delay the class much longer. I’m now 37 weeks, so labour could really happen at any time. Of course it would have been nice if he could be there so that he could also learn about the options etc, however the midwife at the end invited me to book in for a tour for Alexander to have a look around with me once he arrives. I thought that was lovely of her to mention that, as it was something I was indeed thinking of……so just need to somehow find the time to book that into our hectic schedule now!