"Alternative" Birth

So, Matt and I spent the weekend at a birth class. It's pretty funny to go to a birth class after having had 2 kids already, but we are trying to have this child "naturally" and with a midwife group, so we're required to take this class. Well, we're required to take it in order to use the "Alternative Birthing Center" at Midwest Suburban Hospital. It comes equipt with a big tub, a queen sized bed, and some other cool bells and whistles.

 

I've never been a giant "natural birth" person. My other two were products of pitocin (well Claire was) and epidurals and they turned out just fine!

My favorite lady that I used to babysit for in college, Sue Funk, used to talk to me about giving birth and she would always reiterate: "Keep your dignity Susan...just keep your dignity! Your husband does not need to watch that stuff, he doesn't need to talk to you about it, you don't need to be yelling and out of control! Just keep your dignity!" She was so funny, but I took her words to heart and kept my dignity.

 

Only just recently I have felt like maybe I was missing out on some kind of woman-right-of-passage to go through the experience "naturally". And since this will probably be our last little one, I wondered if maybe we should see if there is something to this whole experience. Thus, the ABC room and the midwives.

 

I have no die-hard mission to succeed at birthing naturally, but I guess I figured it was worth a shot. AND, since Sammy-Sam was practically born in the car since he came so quickly, I also figured it might be good to have some idea how to go about the birth process should I not have the luxury of being at the hospital for a long time in advance.

So, we took the class. It was a lot of stuff I'd already heard, or googled, or watched on youtube, but it was kinda fun. We learned a few new things: labor positions, etc, but the main benefit was that it just normalized the whole thing to us. I never thought I'd be the kind of woman who squatted around the room holding onto a birth bar or who labored away in a birthing tub, but after you watch video after video about it, it starts to seem less embarassing. Even Matt is starting to seem less weirded out by the whole thing.

 

We still giggled through the whole class though....I can't lie.