Post by seadragon2013 on Mar 19, 2017 18:32:40 GMT -5
I'm a STM. With DS, I took a four week (8 hour) birthing class through my hospital. We went through the stages of labor, possible interventions, and what to expect at that particular hospital in L&D and recovery. We also took a hospital tour, spent a few nights learning about natural pain management and different laboring positions, and talked a lot about managing early labor at home. The best thing about the class was becoming familiar with the hospital and how they do things - I found it very reassuring to know under what circumstances they would promote a c-section. As far as being helpful for L&D, I felt very prepared to labor at home, but once I got to the hospital, I had a fast transition, missed my window for an epidural, and had to grit and bare it. At that point, it was coaching from the nurses and DH that mattered, not what I'd learned in class.
The hospital class also set me up with a number of postpartum resources, including lactation consultants and new parent groups. I found those resources far more valuable than the breastfeeding and infant care classes we took prenatally.
I'd recommend everyone take infant first aid/cpr. I've had to give DS back blows twice for choking. I'm so grateful that I knew exactly what to do and what my next steps would have been if the food hadn't popped out.
With Apr17 baby, we've moved across the country, so we did did a hospital tour and an hour long refresher birth seminar run by our midwives. I'm feeling good about it all.
Post by mustloveerica on Mar 20, 2017 9:45:20 GMT -5
We took baby basics and infant cpr. These were fun but probably not necessary. Infant cpr is a must I think. But baby basics not so much. You end up just winging it and figuring out what works best for your family.
I never signed up for a birth or Lamaze class because everyone told me it was pointless because a twin birth is so potentially different. I wish I had taken something because I had no skills for coping for labor.
I signed up for a breastfeeding class but never made it that far. I wish I had. Breastfeeding is really a challenge for us. Thankfully we are able to see lactation consultants after the birth. We have our first meeting tomorrow.
Can you guys recommend books or websites on birthing / pain management techniques?
Haven't read responses but I am almost done with Juju Sundin's book Birth Skills and it is great! She has lots of different techniques for physical exercises, visualization techniques, etc. to manage pain during labor.
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