Today, Mr Mammen and I spent six hours at Birthing From Within class. Usually, the sessions are six weeks of three hour sessions but we are doing the "I-just-got-back-from-Brazil-and-my-wife-is-due-in-four-weeks" expedited version. So, our next three Saturdays are devoted to spending time in our cozy little group and doing hippy-dippy things to prepare ourselves for natural childbirth. Fun!
Actually, I was VERY excited to go and rather enjoyed myself. Sam doesn't have his own blog, so maybe you will never know what he thought. (Though, really, he did just fine.) We talked a lot about what women like in labor (confident partners) and what they don't (being touched on the face) - there was some very practical information and a great description of what actually happens in labor. Then, there was some funny stuff.
One of the purposes of a natural childbirth class is to develop pain-coping mechanisms to get you through the birth. To simulate those pains, we did most of our exercises while holding a block of ice and trying to "cope" our way through the one minute "contraction". I really liked that. It was concrete and you could test if things worked more than just feeling artificial relief from your partners words or your own thoughts. I have come home with a long list of things that make me feel comforted. And I am comforted just by looking at the list. Double win.
We also practiced Non-Focused Awareness, which is nearly impossible to explain but basically centers around the idea that you can get through pain by focusing your attention on something else tangibly around you - something you can see, hear, or touch. I had a bit of a break through here. Staring at a lantern, or the carpet, or a spot on the wall, is utterly useless to me. How can a static object hold your attention? What I did discover is that listening to something constantly changing and in the distance - cars rushing by, music from next door, the sound of the fan - really helps me ignore the ice. It takes so much work to hear the neighbors jazz music, that I get lost in the task. If I had learned nothing else today THAT would be a take-away that I consider worth my six hours.
The weirdest part...we had an art project. Yep. Hippy-dippy, no holds-barred, sketching with pastels. We had to portray openness. So, here's mine. There is little Zayd in the middle and an ever expanding cervix that will bring him into the world. We were supposed to write words around the outside - surprise! I went with numbers. In the end, this seemingly ridiculous activity might be useful to me. I wonder how many hours of labor it takes before you will resort to any method in your bag of tricks. At least now, if Sam hears me chanting "10!" to myself, he will have some idea of what the heck I am talking about.
P.S. The other people's pictures were SO DIFFERENT. Open doors, an open clam, a mountain range, a vase. It's strange to see such variety when we all just received the same instructions, but very cool.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this! Sometimes I wish I had given birth already so you wouldn't be going through this first. Or that we were both pregnant, both due together. Though how would that work out in the end, really? I can just see your mom running back and forth between the two of us. I love your picture, too! I wish we could see everyone's! :):)
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