Back to School - Part 4 of 6

The lastest prenatal class was on Relaxation and Breathing, although there wasn't much content in the way of relaxation. In fact, Mom found the content of this class to mimic almost exactly what is in Chapter 8 of Pregnancy Childbirth and the Newborn by Simkin, Whalley, and Keppler. This is by far Mom's favourite pregnancy book, in that it does not talk down to the reader and it forgoes detail on the endless symptoms-by-trimester in favour of elaborative writings on the important stuff, like coping with childbirth pain.

In class, after watching a video on methods for coping with back labour, each couple learned and practiced the different types of breathing suggested for getting through the different levels of contractions. This was complete with props: ice-packs-between-hands to "simulate" less painful contractions and clothes-pins-on-ear-lobes to "simulate" the more painful ones. Mom was not good at distracting herself from the pain induced by the latter prop and therefore feels slightly less confident than before about getting through labour. Dad, on the other hand, was quite good at the breathing/distraction thing, leading Mom to decide that Dad should be the one to give birth. Anyway, perhaps next week's class on "Medical Options" will revive Mom's confidence a bit.