The Bad Kids in Class

When I decided I wanted to try to give birth naturally, it seemed like a smart idea to take a class to learn how to cope with the pain, so off we went to our first Confident Childbirth class tonight. After arriving 2 minutes late with our pillows and dinner in hand, we listened to a detailed lecture on the labor process, had an anatomy lesson and watched a video on coping techniques. You've seen them: the breathing, the music, the birthing ball. There was a lot of moaning in the video, which I feel like will just make me laugh or at least Geoff laugh, but clearly I have no idea since everyone seems to moan in labor.

Then it came time to practice what we watched. Of course this began with breathing. Geoff and I had to turn and face each other and practice deep breaths while the instructor talked us through our "contractions." We were doing so well at stifling our giggles until I told Geoff to stop looking at me because it seemed to make the laughs come on stronger. When I opened my eyes and saw him looking away with a smirk, I just burst out laughing, which caused the rest of the class to get out of their "zone" and look at us. Oops. Thankfully, most of the others started giggling, too - I guess we weren't the only ones who found gazing into each other's eyes while practicing deep breathing during fake contractions to be awkward.

Thankfully, this lesson changed quickly to breathing AND massaging, which I liked very much! We now had a chance to use our pillows and do a lot of practicing, which felt exceptionally good. Our homework is to practice the breathing (oh dear) and the massaging (yay!) at least 3 times before next week's class. I think we can handle that and hopefully learn to stop giggling.

All in all, we both agreed we already feel more comfortable with the labor process and how both of us can be a part of it even though I'll be the one actually delivering our baby girl. Makes me very excited!! Bring on the moaning (in several weeks, of course)!