I had my first antenatal class today. Nothing too shocking, but a few interesting points. The midwife was coming down hard on Lamaze, saying that if you do that style of breathing you’re probably not getting enough oxygen to the baby or yourself. It also encourages the need for an episiotomy because you tend to just push and push without a lot of conscious thought. They tend to encourage slow, deep breathing, without all the panic, and when the baby crowns, they encourage you to stop pushing and let the skin stretch naturally so you don’t tear or require a cut. She also used a toy baby and a toy pelvic structure to show exactly what happens during birth. First of all, ouch. Secondly, most babies come out facing toward your back, and once their head is out, they somehow know to automatically turn at about a 45 degree angle, which allows an easier delivery of the shoulders. No one knows how the baby knows to do this. If the baby comes out face forward, apparently it takes a lot longer to labor, and can be quite painful because the larger part of the head crowns, instead of the pointier part of the back of the head.

She also told us that unfortunately, Chelsea Westminster Hospitla, which is where I am scheduled to have Baby, has the highest rate of C-Sections in the country. They come in at about 34%, which is really high, but part of the reason why is that Chelsea Hospital serves a very ‘posh’ area (posh being the favorite word of choice to describe anything that is fancy or elegant), and a lot of the women who go there to deliver are too posh to push! They have a very high number of scheduled C-Sections, and apparently a lot of women decide to do a C-Section when they experience the smallest amount of pain. I really hope I can do a normal, drug free delivery, but I will keep an open mind. That statistic scares me a little, though. I’ve heard C-Section recovery is not fun at all.