Baby classes

Yesterday (Sunday), we completed the second of two full-day classes that are aimed to prepare first-time parents for childbirth.  Through these classes, we had a large amount of information thrown at us. I now know (amongst other things) that:

• there are three distinct stages (i.e., early, active, transition) of labour (each lasting a different average length of time, and with different discomfort expectations for the labouring mother);
  
• you are expected to simply cope (i.e., eat, sleep, work, and generally persevere) through early labour and some active labour;
• you are expected to come to the hospital only after you’re already undergoing fairly intense active labour - to be specific, you have to have undergone contractions lasting about a minute that are about five minutes apart for an hour or two;
• labour lasts many more hours than what I previously thought (I’m SO glad I’m not a woman);
• narcotic painkillers are available (though in limited quantities), and are not mutually exclusive with the use of an epidural anaesthetic;
• getting an epidural necessitates a lessening in mobility (because of all the devices you’re hooked up to and the fact that your lower half is numb), which increases the chances of a baby in posterior position, or - in other words - positioned face-up (since you need to be in a uterus-forward position to have your baby face the correct way, and you can’t be uterus-forward when you’re lying down), which increases the chances of needing a Caesarean section (since posterior babies can’t be delivered vaginally);
• more than four out of five women in the US choose to receive an epidural, a high rate that at least contributes to the 1-in-3 chance of getting a C-section;
• human breast milk is so remarkably digestable that it’s given in some cases to cancer patients whose digestive systems are so ravaged that they can’t digest anything else; and,
• breast feeding is as good for the mother as it is for the baby (it helps her uterus contract down to its non-pregnant size, which minimizes post-partum bleeding; and, if performed over several years, it dramatically lowers the risk of breast and ovarian cancer).

The classes also confirmed my opinion that:

• latent racism exists everywhere (in a class largely populated by people of south asian and far eastern ethnicity, the fair-skinned/blue-eyed dolls always got picked up to be cradled before the brown-skinned/brown-eyed ones);
• we south asians truly have a flexible notion of being on time (some folks walked in an hour late, and then did it again after lunch, and then did it again the next day); and,
• I’m going to really struggle with sleep deprivation (just getting somewhere for an 8:30am class was challenging for me; clearly, being up every two hours every night is going to be an adjustment, euphemistically speaking).

We had previously taken a class that introduces the idea of having a baby at home to new parents. That class taught us how to wash a baby, how to change its diaper, how to swaddle it (and why swaddling is a wonderful tool to learn to use), and how to look for signs of problems (e.g., illness).

Together, the classes have taken me from a scared-shitless-because-this-entire-raising-a-baby-thing-is-SUCH-an-unknown state to a slightly less terrified, there’s-a-lot-to-get-through-but-I-think-we’ll-make-it-if-barely, state. That’s progress. My appreciation of what Rebecca is about to undergo during labour and delivery, and - even more so - in the weeks beyond has certainly grown.

Rebecca is also having to go to the hospital twice a week starting this week for Maya to be monitored. The process involves monitoring Maya’s heartbeat and Rebecca’s contractions (if any) for about a half hour on an external fetal monitor. It’s a passive process, one that requires Rebecca to lie still for its duration while two palm-sized devices strapped to her belly listen carefully to what’s going on inside her. But it’s another thing that Rebecca has to do, and another thing for her to think about. Today, as an added burden, she had to walk to and from the hospital since they asked her to come by after I had already left for work; this tired her out and took away a couple of hours from her work day. Annoying.