First Bradley Class

We had our first Bradley natural childbirth class on Monday evening. Our class is made up of 5 couples. One of the couples' due date is just days before ours, so that's kind of fun. I like our instructor. She's a wife and mother of 3 children under 7. She's informative and brings a sense of humor as well.

We started off the evening talking about what the class is all about. Here are the 12 ideals: (1) natural childbirth (2) active participation of the husband as coach (3) excellent nutrition, the foundation of a healthy pregnancy (4) avoidance of drugs during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding unless absolutely necessary (5) training: 'Early-bird' classes, followed by weekly classes starting in the 6th month, continuing until birth (6) relaxation and NATURAL breathing (7)"tuning-in" to your body (8) immediate and continuous contact with your new baby (9) breastfeeding beginning at birth (10)consumerism and positive communication (11) parents taking responsibility for the safety of the birth place, procedures, attendants, and emergency back-up (12) parents prepared for unexpected situations such as emergency childbirth, and cesarean section.
After going through what to expect from the class we learned several exercises to start doing daily to help with labor. I like how B and I can do some of them together. We also spent a little time doing some relaxation techniques (the baby was jumping all around inside of me during that time!). At the end of the class we watched an actual childbirth video. It was of a women who was a midwife herself and had a waterbirth at home. It was very interesting, to say the least. The good thing (for me) is that you couldn't exactly see everything because of the water. I am considering having a waterbirth myself, so it was good to see. We will watch other birth videos in the classes to come as well (I hope I can handle this).

Our homework for this week is to do our daily exercises along with reading the first couple chapters of "Husband Coached Chilbirth."

I'm looking forward to the classes to come and getting to know the couples more. Most of the couples seem to be around our age having their first baby as well.