childbirth ed. disscussion/study goup

[boater]

Hi ladies!

I am pregnant and due in July with my 1st. baby. For a variety of reasons I may not be taking a childbirth ed. class. I thought it would be nice to have a thread where we share info and learn together to prepare for giving birth. I very much welcome experienced moms as well as first timers to share their wisdom and questions. Some things we could discuss are books, articles, online sources, or videos  we have read/watched or would like to. Philosophies of birth we are interested in exploring, daily or weekly practices we are observing (yoga, meditation, belief suggestions, hypnobirthing cd, dancing,singing, whatever) etc. lets keep it open ended. Personally I tend to prefer an eclectic mishmash of ideas. I tend to rebel against adhering completely to any one philosophy. Some people that inspire me are Michael Odent, Ina May, Janine Parvati Baker, Susun Weed, some of Laura Shandley, many women's birth stories... I am interested in exploring: getting very in touch with my intuition, and body awareness, visualizing a healthy birth and belief sugestions about that, optimal fetal positioning, painless/orgasmic birth, deep relaxation, addressing mental/emotional issues under the surface and birth art. Also, Birthing from within, hypnobirthing, birth into being/birth as we know it.

I hope this blossoms into a lively discussion!

(BTW I posted in homebirth but anyone is welcome. My experience has been that a lot of C.E. classes seem oriented towards outside the home birth so I wanted to spin this in another direction)

[boater]

bump

[labortrials]

Hey, I sound a bit like you.  I find those very same people inspiring.  I'm impressed that you know all of these names . . . I sure didn't first time around!

I'm working through "Birthing from Within" right now.   What about you?  I also have the hypnobirthing CDs but haven't felt called to them.  Oh, and prenatal belly dance makes my achy sacrum feel so much better!

[Ldavis24]

I too never felt a strong pull toward any one particular philosophy.

I read the bradley stuff, completely uninterested, same with hypnobabies, haven't checked out birthing from within but maybe I will.

My biggest issue I don't have interest in being told "how" to labor, especially as this will be 2nd time around. I feel the best teacher was my first labor. Humor was the number one thing that helped me through ctx. I was pushing and in between the pushing ctx (which were 5 full minutes apart, ugh) I was cracking jokes about how we would be there all day just hanging out waiting for a ctx. Just laughing relaxed my body.

I took a 1 day birth course at the behest of my MW. It was a total crap waste of money. I felt like I knew more about the whole thing than the women teaching and I am somewhat convinced it is a conspiracy between my MW and the hospital to make bucks 

The one thing that really really helped my body prepare was massage. I had a fabulous massage therapist who I saw regularly (pricey but worth it) leading up to my birth and she really really helped relax/stretch my body. She did this thing to my hips, I don't even know what it was but man did it feel good and as someone who has very very poor hip rotation range to begin with it was a lifesaver.

I am very interested to hear other replies so I can gather every bit of info possible.

[boater]

That's interesting about massage. I went to a prenatal massage with a very wonderful practitioner recently and I did feel it was very opening. It is hard to spend the $$ tho. I will probably go back later on in my pregnancy. I just started seeing a chiro which is very luckily covered by my ins. she is very experienced working with pregnant women. She said my pelvis is pretty misaligned so I'm glad I started when I did.

When you say you are working through birthing from within, do you mean you are doing all of the exercises, in order? Is your DP doing any of them with you? Does it feel helpful?

I can't remember in what book (tell me if you know), but Michael Odent talks about the "fetal ejection reflex". He says that during transition or right before the birth there is a burst of adrenaline that causes mothers to think they are going to die or have other fear based thoughts and that this is natural and an essential part of getting the baby out. He says before that moment adrenaline inhibits labor but that that moment should not be interfered with ( by reassuring words from the midwife for example). Just wondering what you ladies thought of this idea. Wondering if I will want to be left alone in my process, to follow my instincts vs. having supporters more actively talk me through, offer reassurance, guided visualization, suggestions and feedback (Penny Simkin style). I suppose it is different for everybody but in many ways the former sounds possibly more empowering, as if by sinking into a nest of support I would be somehow giving over the responsibility of my body giving birth, and me being the only one who can do this. Thoughts?

[Ldavis24]

Originally Posted by boater 

That's interesting about massage. I went to a prenatal massage with a very wonderful practitioner recently and I did feel it was very opening. It is hard to spend the $$ tho. I will probably go back later on in my pregnancy. I just started seeing a chiro which is very luckily covered by my ins. she is very experienced working with pregnant women. She said my pelvis is pretty misaligned so I'm glad I started when I did.

When you say you are working through birthing from within, do you mean you are doing all of the exercises, in order? Is your DP doing any of them with you? Does it feel helpful?

I can't remember in what book (tell me if you know), but Michael Odent talks about the "fetal ejection reflex". He says that during transition or right before the birth there is a burst of adrenaline that causes mothers to think they are going to die or have other fear based thoughts and that this is natural and an essential part of getting the baby out. He says before that moment adrenaline inhibits labor but that that moment should not be interfered with ( by reassuring words from the midwife for example). Just wondering what you ladies thought of this idea. Wondering if I will want to be left alone in my process, to follow my instincts vs. having supporters more actively talk me through, offer reassurance, guided visualization, suggestions and feedback (Penny Simkin style). I suppose it is different for everybody but in many ways the former sounds possibly more empowering, as if by sinking into a nest of support I would be somehow giving over the responsibility of my body giving birth, and me being the only one who can do this. Thoughts?

This I find interesting as well. I never experienced a moment like that at all so I can't speak to what it is like. I actually feel like I missed transition completely or had it really early or something because I had the urge to push so so early in my labor. At around 6cm my MW checked me when I was telling her I HAD to push...I am curious to hear others though describe it!