Joe and I went
to a childbirth class at Valley Presbyterian Hospital. It’s a two part class over two
consecutive weekends from 10-2.
Valley Pres offers a lot of free childcare and child prep classes and
it’s right down the street from us so it’s perfect. In class the instructor went over what’s happening in your
body, the stages of labor, different breathing techniques, different labor and
pain relieving positions, how your partner can support you and ease your labor
pains, what you and your partner should do once you go into labor and what’s
going to happen, etc. She had
visual aids and examples plus a power point with diagrams and
illustrations. It was all very
informative and we got some free reading materials that are pretty handy. We watched a birthing video of a
vaginal delivery with no pain medication and it looked really really
painful. Just awful. This woman looked like she was
suffering for hours. The only
thing I didn’t like about the class was that the lady presenting was really
biased. She’s a home delivery
doula and against pain medication.
Although I don’t think she realized it, she gave off a negative tone
when talking about hospital births and using pain medication and was more
positive in tone when talking about home births and no medication. That kind of got on my nerves. Joe asked if we should consider no pain
medication and I told him straight up that isn’t even up for discussion. I’m not going to be in excruciating
unbearable pain for hours and hours just because I feel the need to prove something.
I am extremely
pro medical science. Medical
technology has extended the human lifespan by more than double. In the dark ages women and babies died
in childbirth all the time and people didn’t live past 40. Now because of advances in the field of
medicine we don’t have to worry about that almost at all. If there is medicine that can ease your
suffering why wouldn’t you use it?
If you were in pain because you broke your arm would you refuse pain
medication just because “your body can handle it.” If you could have a baby in a hospital filled with
professionals that can help you in case something goes wrong, why wouldn’t you
want that? You don’t know better than
a doctor who went to medical school for 8 plus years. I get kind of annoyed by all these women who insist on
having a “natural” birth like they’ve got something to prove. In my Pregnancy Newborn Magazine they
have a birth story in every issue and every single one always starts out with
“I wanted a natural birth” but always ends with “I was begging for pain meds”
before the delivery. I know I love
my baby. I don’t have to prove it
by needlessly being in excruciating pain for twelve to eighteen hours. I don’t think it proves that I’m more
of a woman or a better mom. Nobody
else is capable of having my baby but me.
It just gets on my nerves when people act so high and mighty about
“natural birth.” All that really
matters is the health of the baby which is why I think it’s important to have a
baby in a hospital where medical staff is on standby to treat you and the baby
immediately if anything goes wrong.
Regardless of
the instructor’s biases (she also kind of hinted that if a doctor suggests
inducing labor you shouldn’t do it), the class was really great and
informative. We have the second
half next Saturday where we’re going to see a vaginal birth with pain
medication and a c-section delivery so that’ll be interesting.
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