We attended our first prenatal class with Leslie Chandler of Birthspirit Prenatal. It happens to be held at the same clinic where we had a midwife appointment this morning (everything's checking out for Flick).
There were about five other couples, all due sometime in May. We started by introducing ourselves and sharing our birth story. Many were very interesting: one guy's mom had the cops stop the Caribana parade briefly so their car could cross the street to go to the hospital! I've forgotten many details of my own, except that they had to extract me using forceps because of my giant head.
Leslie shared her own birth stories and history (giving birth to a boy and a girl, and raising five other step- and foster children). She has an extensive background in helping new parents. We started the evening off by looking at some cross-section diagrams of what a pregnant woman looks like on the inside. It's amazing how big the uterus gets and how it displaces all the other organs. She used the same props as Shawn: a model of a female pelvis, a knit placenta complete with umbilical cord, and a newborn doll. Leslie described the amazing feat of engineering that is a woman's pelvis, how the baby's head is longest from forehead to the back of the head and how it fits into the widest part of the pelvis.
We also watched a video talking about the stages and phases of labour (early, active, transition) and discussed what to expect. Leslie used her own experiences to describe what the day(s) leading up to the birth might be like. Our last exercise was to write down our strategies for dealing with Stress, Pain and Fatigue. For example, sleeping, having a drink, watching TV, taking a deep breath, crying, etc. The point of this was to realize that we already know how to cope with these things, and that the mother will experience all three, while the partner will experience the Stress and Fatigue aspects.
I liked Leslie. I felt a strong sense of authority and experience from her.
No comments:
Post a Comment