What I Learned Last Night in Lamaze Class 3:

I learned last night, in Lamaze class #3 (and 4, technically the instructor rolled 2 classes into one because of her schedule):

• Donna finds squatting positions very uncomfortable
• I find the “slow dance” position comforting, but stressful on my lower back and legs
• I hate most of the kneeling, hands-and-knees positions because they made Donna’s face all red and flushed, plus getting up and down into them is a real chore
• Donna felt really comfortable sitting backwards in an office chair with no arms – we have no such chairs in our apartment – I saw no such chairs available in our birthing room – I need to get a chair
• The complications possible from an epidural seem much worse than the pain it is meant to block
• Most of the pain meds available during labor have side effects I dont want my son to experience
• I dont want Donna to be in pain more than is necessary

It’s a tough balancing act, it seems, between pain management and scary chemicals. We know natural child birth is painful and a lot of exhausting work for the mother (and her support person, really, but in a different way). But, even with all that information, I’m not daunted. I cant wait to meet this child of mine, and I think Donna, while scared out of her mind, is also intensely curious about her own limits of what she can handle through this process of giving birth to a tiny human.

Exciting, scary, worrisome, gruesome (c-section graphics, ew), rewarding, tense, fingers-crossed, thoughts going through my head these days…

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