Natural Coping Class

Jasen and I both thought the natural coping class was great. The instructor is also a doula and really reinforced everything I've been reading about natural birth and at the same time gave Jasen a better understanding of why I want a natural birth and how we can achieve it together.

One of the best things about the class was hearing the stories of other couples that had gone naturally before and we're back for a refresher course. There were two couples who already had children and one other couple besides us expecting their first. Both veteran couples had their first child with an epidural, their second naturally and we're expecting their third. After experiencing both methods each couple vowed never to go with an epidural again. Both couples agreed that they didn't like the after effects the epidural had on mother and baby and didn't like that the father was left out of the loop and bored with an epidural. Of course there are other reasons I want a natural birth but it was encouraging.

The guest was actually a couple who delivered naturally six weeks ago. It was amazing to me because the baby girl (who was also in attendance) was born at 34 weeks without any complications. She never needed to be in the NICU or have oxygen and the mother did not look like she just had baby!

We rehearsed breathing for a couple "practice contractions" during which the instructor played music and of course our little girl became very active at that point. She's so responsive to our voices and certain types of music. She seems to like classical or instrumental music the most and this one song by the Gorillaz. I don't know the name of the song, but every time it's on she becomes a little wiggle worm.

By the way, this is a terrible picture of me but the sun was in my face.