The Idiots Guide to Childbirth

Well, we had our birthing classes this weekend. I gotta admit, it was pretty informative. And scary. Scary, in that you know when we thought about the baby, or at least when I did, it was always Pregnancy --> Baby. It hit me this weekend that it’s Pregnancy --> Labor --> Birth --> Baby.

But anyway, we had our classes, and they were pretty good. We learned about what we needed to do, and what we could expect before, during, and after birth. I even got to experience pregnancy.





And I must admit, I like Central Maine Medical Center’s maternity ward. They go out of their way to make sure that it’s a positive experience. They keep the baby in the room most of the time now instead of a nursery, which I like. Oh, and they have a NICU(neonatal intensive care unit) so if something does go wrong, they are ready. So all around it was a good experience.
There were two draw backs though.

The first was that each class(there were two) started at 9, and went until 1 pm.

The second was … Mark and Amber. Mostly Amber.

Amber was a pain. First, it seems she did NO research on the area hospitals. What I mean is that she was looking for two very specific birthing methods, and was pissed when the nurse said they didn’t offer them at CMMC. Then she just tried to turn it into the Amber show, which was even more annoying as they were the only couple who seemed to do no research . She interrupted people, and always played the one-upsman. Everyone else was cool though.

I knew she was annoying me badly when, during changing and swaddling practice, I noticed they had swaddled their baby better than us, and I re-wrapped it. I will not lose to them. =)

I’m glad Amber is due a month after us. We won’t have to hang out in the ward.