UH-ohh...

[opaloctober]

Looks like I kinda screwed up. My ex-doula was supposed to give us a condensed childbirth class next sunday, and now that shes not my doula anymore, shes already booked up through the end of april. Bad news for me, because I checked at our hospital and the next time they offer their condensed childbirth ed class is april 9, which is way too late

Comments

[lizziey]

With my youngest, I pretty much didn't "prepare" as most do at all. I didn't go to classes, I didn't read the books.

In between each contraction, when it was done hurting, I would convince myself that it wasn't that bad, and I could TOTALLY do that again, pshaw, no big deal.

Seriously, that's how I got through it. XD

My first two were very medicalized births, and my 3rd was induced with cervadil and then very hands off, in a labor tub in the hospital.

[dragonxbait]

I agree with this- I took a childbirth class and learned different laboring positions and pain management techniques. Once I was actually in labor, that all kind of went out the window. I coped with one contraction at a time, tried to stay in the moment, tried to relax as much as possible (one piece of advice I got that was useful was to relax your jaw during contractions, keeping your jaw loose, helps keep the rest of you relaxed). Every contraction is one contraction closer to the baby, and eventually it is over. Worked for me :-)

[sandokai]

Maybe another doula could give you a birthing class?

Here is also a post about online birthing classes:

http://community.livejournal.com/naturalbirth/1845546.html

[maedae84]

I wasn't able to go to any child birth classes, due to bed rest, a very strict one at that.

I had my daughter after 7 hours of labor and an hour of pushing. No major tears, no freak outs, nothing like that.

Have confidence, you'll get through this.

[opaloctober]

Wow. Kudos to you. I envy your birth LOL I hope mine goes as smoothly!

[maedae84]

I hope it will too.

I think, the biggest thing for me was that I was always taught that being calm helps no matter what the situation. So I was able to keep a cool head, by telling myself freaking out wouldn't help.

Hell, I freaked everyone around me out by driving myself to the hospital.

[mokey4]

do you still have hypnobabies cd's? I bet it would still help. You could listen to two tracks a day, and just listen to different ones each time, until you have the baby. i needed the extra help to focus on relaxing during labor. not everyone needs that, but for me it was sooo helpful. i used hypnobabies for my second birth and it really did help me even though i didn't actually use the finger-drop technique or anything like that- i just went limp and focused on breathing through every contraction. it really helped with the whole birth for me (and having an awesome tub helped too). my first birth was a lot more traumatic, although it wasn't really that bad- I couldn't relax at all and was in a lot of pain and kind of freaked out. but i still had a successful homebirth and needed no stitches- the second time was a lot better though. and i did take a class for the first birth, and read lots of books (even birthing from within, which may also help you- it is great). the problem was that all my preparation was intellectual. it'

[coendou]

Your MIL got lucky, but overall c-sections have on average much longer recovery times and way more complications than vaginal births. You might get lucky like she did, but you might not. And remember that her vaginal births were at a time when women didn't get much say about what would happen while giving birth - you did what you were told, and that's that. She didn't have a lot of the options that are open to you now.

If hypnobabies was helping you, go back to it. Who cares what anyone else says? They don't have to push Taryn out, do they?