What a pain!

We had our second childbirth education class last night and it is clear now that this class is solely based on the medical model of giving birth with the only "certainty" being that there will be a lot of pain. We watched another video last night showing a woman birthing without the assistance of anesthetics and predictably she was in pain. The nurse teaching the class, was discussing comfort measures, such as massage, changing positions, etc. but would always refer back to the pain. What a pain! Is this a scared straight class? Like, this is what happens when you get pregnant! You get to hold your baby. . . AFTER the PAIN! If the goal was to frighten everyone, congratulations, you've succeeded in frightening 99.9 percent of the couples in that room! No wonder women don't look forward to birthing, or they count on the anesthesia, if they go to these classes, anyone would!

I'm the .1 percent that was not frightened. I'm looking forward to natural birth and without the use of anesthetics. I think fear is debilitating and that can enhance the pain. When you're frightened, you're tense and when you're tense you're only focusing on the pain. Well I don't think that's for me! I just started reading a book called Hypnobirthing. It is a form of relaxation techniques to "relax the mind in order to let the body work". I just started the book but thus far it seems exactly what I'm looking for! There are classes that teach the techniques also but unfortunately, they're a little out of my price range so the book will have to do, but I will let you know once I finish it how my thoughts. I only wish our childbirth prep class had a more broadened perspective that didn't only include pain because that was getting quite annoying.

Here's to a positive perspective!