Babble

This is my first pregnancy, and I just found out all the Lamaze classes at my hospital are booked.  I have two months until I give birth, so I have a little time to look somewhere else, but I'm wondering: Do I really have to take these classes?  They seem like they're really long, they're kind of expensive, and they spend a lot of time on things like "learning to relax". 

I'm planning to have an epidural.  I know I'll still need to make it through many hours of labor at home, and I'm sure I'll still feel pain after the epidural, but I'm old enough to know how to breathe to relax my body (as best I can when in pain.)  Can't you learn how to push or how to breathe in a two-hour session somewhere?  Or is there some mysterious other thing they teach you in these classes?  Do I really have to watch a film of another woman giving birth?

i gave birth 2 months ago and right before i had the same question! in the end we paid  to go to a class...through the whole thing i felt like it was a waste of money....i gave birth au natural and breathed the way i needed too to relax myself.

i learned more from a book i bought for 10 bucks than the class which supposedly was the best in the city. and i could have lived a whole lifetime without the movies of others' birth!  just my opinion but if you know how to relax yourself, and learn the positions of labor that will ease the contractions (i learned what was best for me through my braxton hicks) you dont need the class. and in terms pushing it sounds gross but if you can poop you can give birth (gross yes but for me it was a similiar feeling sorry)

if you do feel you need the class check your local midwife they do inexpensive shorter classes most times, and i think planned parenthood does free classes...

I wish I knew the answer to this!  I'm signed up for a "birth and parenting preparation" class, and I'm wondering if I wasted my money.

As for "intensive" classes, more and more midwives, doulas, hospitals and birth centers are offering weekend, one-time-only classes that deal with labor and birth only: how labor starts, what labor and birth are like, ways to cope with labor pain, and information about medical procedures.

I couldn't get it together to schedule a Lamaze class and boy am I glad I didn't waste the time or money. The nurses at the hospital were amazing and helped us through our process and I don't think I would have been served by watching a woman give birth (something I already saw on a PBS special when I was in high school). There is just no way a class would have helped me understand how freaking painful contractions actually were and how to cope, some things are learned best on the fly.

I talked to my doctor about this yesterday.  He said the same thing, essentially: the nurses will help you push and breathe if you need it.  It sounds like it's helpful to have a specific 'technique' to fall back on when you want to try for a non-medicated childbirth -- at least you'll have a plan when the freakin' painful stuff comes along.  But it sounds like trying to use a particular breathing technique with the earlier, less painful contractions will just bore you.

I think most women these days are pretty in touch with their bodies -- whether through yoga, meditation, pilates or some other body/mind technique.  (Mine's Alexander.)  I could imagine taking the classes if you never did anything like that before.

 I took prenatal yoga and then also the free class offered by my hospital/insurance plan, and I must say,  the class (taken with my partner) was way more helpful about the actual nuts-and-bolts of what will happen as labor progresses, gave me some concrete breathing exercises to do during the early labor as the pain increased, and I am quite glad we took it together so my husband knew as much as I did about  what was going to happen. I say take one if you can.

So my two cents--Read several sources to familiarize yourself with the labor and delivery process and have a loose delivery plan, then focus on relaxing and trusting your body. 

BabyCakies:

...pain signals progress rather than a problem...

I love it.  I'm writing it down, and I'm going to remind myself of this every time I start worrying about labor.  And I may make my husband repeat it to me when I'm in labor.  Thanks!

If I could have a "Favorite Things" show like Oprah does only for pregnant ladies, I would love nothing more than to give every mommy-to-be the book Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin.  I devoured it in the last two weeks of my pregnancy and I absolutely believe that it helped me have the all-natural childbirth of my dreams.  I would also strongly recommend looking into Hypnobabies, either a live course or just the self study. I lived and died by it and I know for a fact that it helped me have an easy, pain-free, natural birthing.

Kudos to you for actually freakin' EDUCATING YOURSELF about what is going on!  So many women out there just hand over the proverbial keys to their OB and have no idea whatsoever about their options and the plusses and minuses of so much medical intervention.  The next thing they know, they're having an unneccesary c-section.  Booo.

I'd love to share my birth story!  Go to http://phaneromania.blogspot.com/search?q=birth+story.

Best of luck to you all and take LOTS of pictures!




 

It was such a waste of time for us. I honestly recommend taking some prenatal yoga to learn some breathing. Whereas I do believe our instructor was qualified as she had had 6 kids and been teaching for 25 years, she had no information to give me that I couldn't and hadn't already gotten from a book. The only reason we kept going was for the hospital tour, since I was too lazy at that point to book it myself and we figured we should get something useful from this class.

I loved our Bradley class, we learned so much and we felt so prepared when we finally started the whole labor/birthing thing.  Even though the birth didn't turn out like we anticipated/wanted it to, we still felt very much in control and felt very educated about all the unexpected decisions we had to make as we went thru the labor.

 Also, a great book, it's very well-researched and covers every topic related to pregnancy and birth, is Henci Goer's book, "The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth."  She has a sister chapter for each chapter just to include all the research she used to build her chapters.

I've given birth twice without any intervention, which I heartily recommend. I might have made different choices If the births had been particularly long or difficult, but they were pretty standard (the first lasted 10 hours and the second 13 hours). Women are much stronger than they realize (and much stronger than the medical profession gives them credit for). I really hated Lamaze though. I found it to be overly rigid. For example, they wanted me to bring in a picture to focus on. I knew that I would do better with my eyes closed, but they insisted that I should follow their program. Well, I spent both labors with my eyes closed.Your sole job when you are in labor is to relax, and there are lots of ways to relax. There is absolutely no reason to follow their particular breathing program. Breath in whatever way relaxes you. Buy a book on the Bradley method and take away from it whatever you find helpful. I also found breathing/relaxation techniques from yoga to help.

No. Read a book. You'll be fine. I didn't take any classes with my two and they came out just fine.

I had an epidural, and a VERY long labor (I was induced): I did not take a lamaze class or any breathing classes. I was fine. I did have a doula, though, and that was invaluable. Having someone there to advocate and guide me through the experience was amazing. 

I have a three-month-old son and would not have been able to get through labor without my Bradley Method class. It helped prepare me emotionally and physically, plus it was great to get to know other moms-to-be. Lamaze wasn't for me, but I highly recommend the Bradley Method if you have a husband who is willing to be your labor support.