Childbirth Education

Bryan and I signed up for childbirth education classes this month. We had hoped to take them at LDS Hospital, since it's the closest to our house, and it's where we're planning to have the baby. However, nobody mentioned that classes fill up months in advance, and so by the time I got around to registering us the last week of May, all the classes at any hospital in Salt Lake were booked up through the end of August. The baby is due August 14th. You do the math...a lot of good a childbirth education class will do us when the baby is a couple weeks old!

As I was beginning to panic (slightly) I spoke to a wonderfully kind woman at the hospital education center who suggested I try checking with McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, since she thought they still had some spots available. It's about an hour away, but since we were only registering for one marathon 8-hour Saturday class, it wouldn't be that bad. I know not everyone opts for these kinds of classes, and truth be told...the baby is coming whether we're educated or not, but it's very much my personality to want to find out everything we can about it. So I called up to Ogden and we were able to get in!

The morning of the class we had to leave early and on our way, we realized that we hadn't brought directions, and neither of us had ever been there before. I'm going to blame this on pregnancy related brain-fog, since it's never happened before. Anyway, we arrived for our class a half-hour late, but we figured all we missed out on was probably introductions. The class covered everything from pregnancy symptoms & complications, tips on how to stay comfortable, to natural, epidural & c-section childbirth, what to expect for recovery in the hospital, the first week post-partum and caring for a newborn. The best part of the day may have been Bryan having to wear a 40-pound empathy belt (an awkward vest with velcro down the back with a huge belly and boobs, designed to help increase your partner's awareness of the discomforts of pregnancy.) Unfortunately, it was one of the rare occasions when we didn't have our camera, so no photos exist of the event. All-in-all, we had fun at the class, and we feel a bit more knowledgeable about all things pregnancy & baby. We know that the actual education still lies ahead, and we're looking forward to it whole-heartedly. We absolutely can't wait!