Childbirth Education Classes

This Tuesday was my third childbirth education class. I've been taking them with my mother, and while a lot of the information isn't new to me at all, it's still a good experience. I've been learning about pregnancy, labor, and baby care for so many years now that it's hard to find anything I haven't already read about, which just comes with the territory of having been trying to have a successful pregnancy for so long. But I find value in different styles of learning, not only is it helpful to have information presented in more than one way, but going through it with my mother, who is my birth coach, is also very helpful. Things like breathing exercises and the interaction with other moms-to-be is also worthwhile.

Nothing about the classes is extremely remarkable, really, so I haven't been bothering to blog anything about them, however at the beginning of each one of our classes we start by playing a game. There will be four classes total, and as I said before, we've so far been to three. And my mom and I have so far won every single game, to the point now of being comical. The first class we played bingo, and were given sheets with things like, "Having a boy," "Having a girl," "Is nervous about birth," "Isn't finding out the gender," "Has already bought baby clothes," etc. and was meant as a get to know you exercise because we had to talk to everyone in the class and put their names down to get bingo, and each person could only be used once in your bingo row. Well that was easy. So I won a book.

At the second class we played a word find, with ten words that were all signs of labor, such as contractions, nausea, show (for bloody show), and rupture of membranes. We were not given a list of words, we had to both think of them and find them. Well, my vocabulary skills, especially when it comes to stuff like this (like I said, I've been reading way too much about it for way too long), are very good, so we won that game easily as well.

And this past class we had to do a word scramble. There were fifteen different labor soothing techniques scrambled, such as music, pressure, shower, and encouragement. Some of the boxes were numbered and you won the game by deciphering the phrase at the end using the letters from the boxes in order. Not only were the words themselves relatively easy, but Mom and I know how to play the game, and before we had finished unscrambling all of the words we started putting letters we knew into boxes, and technically had the winning phrase a good ten minutes before anyone else. But we spent another five unscrambling all the words to give the others a fair shot. And then we sat there exchanging amused glances and trying not to giggle too much as we waited another five minutes for someone else to declare that they had it, because quite frankly it just seemed wrong to win the game every week. What made it so amusing this week was that it wasn't even close. We had the answer a solid ten minutes before anyone else, tried to buy them time, and still wound up sitting there waiting on them. Apart from the insinuations of our giggles though, we didn't let on to anyone that we'd thrown the game. Apparently Mom and I are a good team though, who'd of thunk? Lol.

I really do love my mom. The older that I've gotten and the more time I've gotten to spend with my parents since I grew up and moved away, the more I've realized that I have absolutely amazing parents. Not everyone is so lucky as I am. I had a wonderful childhood and lacked for nothing. And while I was certainly given a fair share a material things, what I value the most are the experiences I was given, such as riding lessons, piano lessons, and trips to cool places, and even more so than that, the unconditional love I've been given every second of my life. Even now my parent are there for me, no matter what, no matter when. When I needed help in Colorado, they were there. And when I was too sick to take care of myself they welcomed me back into their home without a moments pause, even with my animals. Not only am I lucky to have parents willing to make those kinds of offers and sacrifices, I'm lucky to have parents that I want to be around. Not everyone has parents that they would be willing to live with again. Not everyone has the same kind of relationship with their parents as I do. And I really feel sorry for the people who don't. My parents have become some of my best friends. I can talk to either one of them about anything, rely on them for anything, and get honest opinions from when I need advice.

I'm proud of them, proud to call them my parents. Because I couldn't ask for better. I hope that I can make them proud too. Luckily for me, I know they would say that I already do. Because they love me, and I never have any doubts about that. My aspiration is to give my son as wonderful a life and love as my parents gave me.