Prenatal Class

This weekend, Jonas and I attended a one day prenatal class at St. Paul's hospital. Going into the class, I initially felt a bit excited and was looking forward to this bonding experience with my husband. I was also looking forward to meeting other couples that are going through this similar experience, as I currently do not have any friends in my immediate group that are pregnant.

When we got there, there were about 5 or 6 other couples. There was a wide range of diversity, every ethnic group was represented. And it was interesting to see the other pregnant ladies, and I privately compared the sizes of all of our baby bumps. One lady was only a week behind me in pregnancy, and you could not even tell that she was pregnant. I remember when she walked in, thinking that she was probably only three months along and was very surprised to hear that she was actually eight months!

Our instructor was absolutely fantastic, and she really did her best to engage us, and make it as interactive as possible. However, by lunchtime, my interest was starting to wane a bit and I could start seeing it on the faces of everybody else as well. Right before lunch, we saw a video of real pregnant women at the very beginning phases of their labour process, and the birth. Obviously, I know that giving birth is not going to be pain-free, but I think a part of me is still holding out for some small hope that it really won't be as painful as I think. The video that we watched did nothing to alleviate my concerns and fears, and I kept saying to Jonas "all those women look like they are in real pain!" Of course, being as reassuring as he always is, Jonas just patted me and kept telling me that it would be alright and he would be there for me.

We went for lunch where I voiced my concerns to him. At the beginning of the class, our instructor said that by the end of the day, we would be sure to leave excited. But as the day was progressing, all I had been feeling was anxious and seriously scared. Again, I must stress that it was not my instructor's fault. But it really did give me a hard dose of reality of what to expect.

After lunch, we came back and did some breathing excercises. We also learned a lot about breastfeeding, and watched a video on medical interventions. Again, seeing that video after lunch on medical interventions really did make my stomache turn at the thoughts of all the things that could go wrong. Thank goodness Jonas is such a rock, or I don't know what I would do!

By the end of the day, I was seriously drained. It didn't help that it was a yucky rainy day out, and all I wanted to do was go home and pull the covers up. So that was exactly what we did. We tucked ourselves into bed, and had a completely indulgent evening of ordering takeout, and watching a video, and eating dinner in bed. It was the perfect remedy to an otherwise somewhat emotionally draining day for me.

In a way, I am glad that I have all of these fears and anxiety now. I think when the time comes, I will have dealt with all of it in my mind already and be able to tackle it with gusto on delivery day. Of course I am excited, and really cannot wait to meet our baby. But I am praying that everything will go well, and I keep telling myself that women go on to have more than one baby, so it really can't be all that bad. Right??