Well, last night Josh and I made our way to University Hospital in downtown Augusta for our first of 6 Childbirth Education classes. Josh assumed his role as my labor "coach," a title he readily seized. There were about 9 or 10 other couples in the class, which turned out to be a lot of fun. We learned about the stages of labor, how the baby is delivered, and some easy relaxation techniques. My favorite part of the class was when we got to do some mock contractions. Lamaze is founded on the belief that good pain management can be attained through relaxation, so we learned about taking cleansing breaths before and after a contraction, and taking slow, steady breaths during the middle of the contraction. So, we practiced. Josh was responsible for marking off every 10 seconds of a 1 minute contraction. I took my cleansing breath, breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth slowly as he counted, focused on my focal object (which was a green chair across the room), and took a closing cleansing breath when Josh said we had reached 1 minute. I could do this mock labor stuff forever.
So if you're wondering what we're doing for the next 5 Tuesday nights between 7:00 and 9:30, wonder no more. We're at birth practice.
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