Childbirth Preparation

The most daunting thing about pregnancy is the realization that in order to hold our precious baby girl in our arms, we'll need to first make it through the labor and delivery process. While we recognize that millions of people have done this throughout history, it's still a bit intimidating. To help relieve some anxiety and teach us important skills for the process, we enrolled in a 5-week series of Childbirth Preparation classes at the hospital. The first class was last week and covered basic child safety information such as infant/child CPR. Tonight was our first introduction to labor and delivery techniques and was actually very helpful. We learned all about the first stage of labor as well as some useful breathing techniques. In addition, Matt learned the art of pregnancy massage which will surely come in handy over the coming weeks as Sarah's growing belly continues to strain her back. In the coming weeks, we'll continue to learn about the birthing process including medication choices and a number of other relaxation and focus exercises bound to help during labor and delivery. The entire process of attending classes has helped us realize that before we know it, we'll be cradling our little girl in our arms. We can hardly wait!!