Childbirth classes can be a helpful and informative step for new parents. A detailed knowledge of pregnancy and delivery is helpful for both the expectant mother and father because there is comfort in knowing what the future holds and having the resources handy to make it as easy as possible.

Childbirth Class Locations
Childbirth Classes are often held at your local hospital. You can contact your local hospital or doctors office to get information on locations and times.

Online Childbirth classes are a great alternative for busy parents-to-be. They offer the flexibility and privacy that some parents desire without compromising the quality of education. An Online Childbirth class often consists of videos, ebooks, and online components. They can be purchased in digital format or distributed on CD/DVD.

Types of Childbirth Classes
It is important to match the type of childbirth class you take to your desired method of delivery. This will ensure you get information that will be useful to you. Below is a list and short description of the types of childbirth classes.

Hospital Childbirth Preparation: This class will often include a tour of the hospital, information on where and when to arrive at the hospital, rules, breathing exercises, and general delivery education with or without medication.

Lamaze Classes: Lamaze classes will focus on using breathing and focal points as pain management techniques.

Bradley Method Childbirth Classes: The Bradley Childbirth method focuses on natural child birth whenever possible and teaches natural methods to pain management. It includes active participation of the husband or partner.

Birth Works Classes: This method focuses on both emotional and physical preparation for delivery with emphasis on emotional.

Hypno-Birthing Classes: These classes use hypnotherapy to prepare women for delivery.

Birthing From Within Classes: These classes place an emphasis on journaling and writing as a method to prepare for delivery. From the authors of the book Birthing from Within: An Extra-Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation

On a side note, I am submitting this website to Technorati and they need me to add a verification code. So here it is: ZAZRMTDJXR8F

Here is the second part of my labor video. Watch Part One first.

Before my own pregnancy my only experience with child birth or labor was one moment when I walked into my sister’s hospital room 2 minutes post birth. The doctor still in position, baby crying, and my sister looking as if she had just finished a marathon without any training. I was only 17 at the time and caught up in a world of ignorance. Only one word to describe it: terrifying.

So when I became pregnant this past year I forced myself to watch ever single child birth video available on the internet – the good, the bad, and the terrifying. I would sit on youtube balling my eyes out in fear. My husband didn’t understand why I subjected myself to this. But I had to do it; I had to know everything. To me, pregnancy ending in childbirth was like boarding a roller coaster you knew you would fall out of.

It ended up not being nearly as bad as my brain lead me to believe. (Whose videos did I watch??) Now I see the beauty in it and the whole process is amazing. So here it is – part one of my labor video. Part two is on its way. Don’t worry, the actual event is not shown.

For a little background information: I was overdue and induced labor with pitocin. I was unable to get one minute of sleep during a 4 day hospital stay. Labor lasted 24 hours. More posts can be found in the Labor and Delivery Category.

The belly, 6 Days after Lily June was born. (Taken July 6th.)

Tuesday (July 1st) was the first day of recovery. Monday night with Lily was easy. She was very sleepy from birth and woke up only once. I was able to sleep around 3 hours Monday night. At the hospital Lily and Stan were allowed to sleep with me in the room. This time Stan had his own bed to sleep in instead of the recliner.

I had some trouble trying to breast feed on my own during the night and in the morning I was sore. She had such a strong suck that she gave me little blisters. Tuesday morning I had some help from a lactation consultant which really made things easier. She showed me how to use a shield for the first few weeks so that Lily could learn how to feed without hurting me. I was bleeding a lot and had cramping, it was hard to get out of bed myself, and especially hard to cough or sneeze. I took some Motrin for most of the pain and vicodin only when cramping was bad but all in all it wasn’t as bad as I expected.

The pediatrician also came to visit Lily. He did an exam and explained the problem with her arm. Apparently during birth her shoulder was put in an awkward position and caused the nerves in her shoulder to stretch. It is called brachial palsy. He told us to keep her sleeve safety pined to her chest like a sling and they did an x-ray to make sure there was not a fracture.

Tuesday night was hard. At this point I was awake from Saturday morning to Tuesday night with only a few hours of sleep. Lily was becoming livelier and very hungry. My milk had not come in yet. From around midnight to 4:00am I was trying to feed her. If I tried to stop she would only cry until I put her back on. She was feeding so long it began to hurt badly and I was exhausted. I had a meltdown but luckily the nurse was able to take her. She let Lily suck on her finger for a while and Stan and I got to sleep. I slept until 6:00am. Surprisingly when I woke up I felt better, most likely because I knew I would be going home soon.

Wednesday morning the pediatrician came back and checked Lily again. He told us that the x-ray showed no fracture and it was most likely damage to the nerves. He told us to keep her shoulder pined for a few weeks and monitor the movement. He said it could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few month for it to heal. Worst case scenario it would require surgery somewhere down the road. I had one more visit with the lactation consultant. She gave me more direction and breast feeding was getting easier.

I was feeling pretty good at this point and was able to get out of bed on my own and walk around. I still had a bump for a stomach but each day it was getting smaller. Over these two days we had tons of visitors both friends and family.

We packed up our bags and Wednesday afternoon we were able to check out.

At 6:42pm on Monday I was fully dilated and ready to push. The nurse had me lay flat on my back with legs bent at the knee. My mom helped to hold my left leg and Stan was on my right. At that point Stan’s mom was back and my sister Lynette arrived also. She took my right leg and Stan took my right hand. The first pushes felt awkward and useless. Lynette turned out to be an amazing coach. She counted and told me exactly what to do. I couldn’t imagine having to push if she wasn’t there to show me. It took a while to figure out how to do it the right way. I had to pull my legs up, put my chin to my chest, and push my belly button down towards my spine. I had to use the energy I would have spent screaming and channel it into my stomach so I wouldn’t waste energy. I ended up pushing for one hour and 30 minutes. My doctor still hadn’t arrived when Lily’s head was crowning. At some point my mom screamed that she could see the head. With my sister screaming “Push! 1, 2, 3, 4….” I could look at my mom’s face and tell if I was doing it right because she would get all wide eyed when she could see the head come out. Between contractions and pushes I was so tired. There was a few times when I just wanted stop and go to sleep.

My doctor arrived and a few pushes later the head was out. I could tell the head was all the way out because my mom started to tear up and I knew it was almost over. My doctor looked a little concerned and told me to keep pushing and that she needed to come out right away. A huge push later and the doctor was holding her up. It took her a second to cry but everyone else was screaming with excitement. She was born Monday June 30th at 8:37pm. Now it feels like I was only pushing for 20 minutes not an hour and a half. But then again everything was a blur. I was completely exhausted at this point. I had not slept but a few hours since Saturday at 5:30am.

I had to get several stitches and while my doctor did that Lily got her exam. She weighed in at 9 pounds. Stan stood over her with the most memorable look on his face. I’m not sure how to describe it. As soon as I was decent the rest of the family came in. Stan’s Dad, Grandpa, and brother Jon. My sister Ashley and boyfriend Brian. I can’t remember who else. We passed Lily around for a little while and once the family was gone it was time to try breast feeding. She latched right on but it was awkward at first.

We were then moved into the post partum room where we would stay for the next two days.

By the time morning rolled around I was getting excited. The lack of sleep was not a problem because adrenaline was running. I took a shower which ended up being hard with a heparin lock in my right hand (the one I use most). Contractions were still going strong but they were not regular. They were coming between 7 and 15 minutes apart at that point. They felt like strong back pain and menstral cramps though they didnt hurt as much as I anticipated.

At 10:00am they moved us into the labor and delivery room, the room we would have the baby in. That room was much bigger. Everything was set up and ready to go. The baby station was there with a heat lamp so they could do an exam when she arrived and all the equipment was in place to start the pitocin drip. The IV was set up and Pitocin started at about 10:30am (Monday). After that it was more waiting. Contractions were getting more painful but I was able to deal with them. About an hour later there was a problem with my IV and the area on my hand around it started to swell. They had to change it again. They finally started it the right way on the top of my left hand. The pitocin was running for the next 10 hours or so.

The nurse we had from the night before had gone home and we had a new nurse. She was scary. I quote her when I say, “You should consider getting the epideral. In the next few hours contractions will hurt 100 times more. We are really going for those rock em’ sock em’ contractions that are going to blast that baby out.” Thanks Lady. Hearing this made me worry a little bit and that was the begining of the end of my plan for natural childbirth.

Around 1:00pm the contractions were strong and coming every 2-3 minutes. As she was checking my IV I had a contraction in which I lost control. She said, “I think its time for an epideral”. The anestheisologist arrived with her cart and asked if I was ready. At this point I felt a little pushed to get it as it wasn’t what I had planned. My mom suggested that we find out how dialeted I was before we decided. The anestheisologist left and was a little annoyed. The nurse checked me and I was still only 1-2 centimeters. I felt like I had a long way to go. I went for the epideral. The anestheisologist came back in and after talking to her about it I felt like it was the way to go. At this point contractions hurt and I couldn’t remember why I was so adamant about having a natural childbirth. I couldn’t remember (and still can’t) why I didn’t want the edpideral. I was trying to breath through the contractions and used a cross on the wall for a focal point. There were a few that I lost it because I couldn’t remember how to breath through them. Stan helped to guide me until the epideral was in. It came with a button that I could push up to 3 times an hour if I had any pain.
Needless to say, getting the epideral was fabulous. It took about 15 minutes to set in. I could still feel the contractions but only the tight feeling and occasional menstral cramp in my lower abdomen. I had to keep switching sides so that it would distribute evenly on both sides of my body. So every 30 minutes or an hour I would flip over.

At that point Stan’s parents arrived. We visited for a while and Stan left with them to grab some dinner. I still hadn’t been able to sleep and was going on 22 hours (minus the 2 hours I slept Sunday night). While Stan got dinner I tried to take a nap but nurses kept coming and turning on lights and checking vitals. The closest I got to a nap was that half awake half asleep feeling for about 20 minutes.

At some point the nurse checked me, I think it was around 2:30, and determined that I was 5 centimeters. At 5:55pm she checked again and I was 9 centimeters. The nurse started to prepare things for delivery and called the doctor. I texted Stan that I was 9 centimeters. They had decided to go down the street for a burrito and he got the text just as they were ordering. He ran (literally) all the way back. He came into the room out of breath and afraid he was going to miss it. The nurse put an oxygen mask on to make sure Lily had enough to get her through delivery. She asked me not to push my epidural button so that I could have enough feeling to feeling when I was supposed to push. She estimated I would be pushing for around 3 hours and warned me that it would take a lot of energy. I felt like I had to push so bad that it was hard to control myself. I tried not to think about it. It felt like extreme pressure pressing down on my bottom. I could feel her there. I had to push the epidural button one last time.

Sunday at 7:30pm we left for the hospital so that labor could be induced. That morning I awoke at 5:30am from anxiety. Uncle Jon stayed at the apartment to watch Berkeley and Apollo. At this point it had not hit me yet that the next time I came home it would be with Lily June. It took us a while to check in. They put us in a small room used to monitor. By 9:30pm the nurse was giving me an IV. She tried two times but couldn’t get a vain. She tried once between my wrist and elbow of my right arm and once on my right hand. Another nurse was called in to try. She tried on my arm and then right hand. She was able to get an IV started on my right hand. At this point it was just a heparin lock in case of an emergency. At 10:00pm the nurse gave me the first dose of Cyotec tablet. This is a tiny white pill that they put next to the cervix which helps it to efface and soften. It was not uncomfortable at all. Then we just waited. I was to get 3 doses of this table, one every 4 hours.

Around 1:00am I began having cramping and a few contractions. Since this method required continuous fetal monitoring we were able to see Lily’s heart beat and the contractions on the computer screen. At first the cramps felt mild and similar to the ones I had before. The second dose came at 2:00am. By this time I had made a small amount of progress. I was also getting hungry so Stan ran out and got breakfast burritos (Little did I know this was a bad idea but more on that later.) We ate these around 2:30am. Between the second and third dose contractions started to get stronger. The monitoring system was picking them up and I couldn’t help but watch each one on the screen. This ended up keeping me awake most of the night. I was fascinated with it (Another bad idea). These contractions started to become painful and I even had to breath through a few. Stan tried to his best to get some sleep in the reclining chair but it was difficult. I managed to sleep two hours at that point. 6:00am was the next dose. The nurse was had was named Dana and she was amazing. She was really nice and helpful. She made every effort to make us comfortable.

Lily June was born June 30th at 8:37pm. She is beautiful and healthy. We have tons of video and pictures so I will post them as soon as I am able to stop staring at her.

!!!!

Yesterday was the 41 week mark and I’m still very pregnant. The last few days I have been battling a cold, sore throat, and trouble sleeping. Perfect timing, right? Tonight we are headed to the hospital to start inducing. Medically, we decided its probably best for her to come now so we are going to follow doctors orders and go ahead with it. I can feel her getting bigger by the second. Only a week ago I could get in and out of bed easily and now I feel like a roly poly on ice.

We are going to the hospital tonight at 8pm. We will get checked in and they will give me cytotec to help dilate me tonight while we sleep. In the morning if I haven’t gone into labor yet they will give me pitocin to start contractions. We have to stay at the hospital the entire time. None of this was in my birth plan but the goal is to have her out healthy.

We are also thinking of changing the name. Stay tuned!