Last
week we had our 3rd and last private antenatal class thankfully we
didn't have any group exercises. We opted for 3 classes as I wanted
to know more about labour as I thought it will give me a better idea
of what to expect and what might happen.
I think one of our teachers
(student midwife) was more “open” this time e.g. she mentioned
that unfortunately midwives tend to be very time oriented and due to
that you won't normally have as much time relaxing or do what
you want during labour as you will be constantly
rushed.
We
discussed interventions we may have:
- episiotomy
- c-section
- use
of forceps, ventouse
- anti-d
injections
- sweep
- breaking
waters
- baby
turning in case of a breech
As
most of us are first-time mums-to-be we were told about induction.
In our area when pregnant woman reaches 41 weeks she will be offered
a sweep and induction-pessary (internal
tampon alike medical device) which will be left for 24 hours to see
if it works (woman stays in hospital), if pessary doesn't work
she will be offered 2nd pessary for another 24 hours, and if
2nd doesn't work she will be offered c- section. In cases where
pessary works (cervix starts to change) midwife will break waters and
put on a hormone drip (artificial oxytocin). The whole
induction process scares me the most as I never thought or
even considered c-section and it will be a big led down for me if I
can't do it naturally.
In
the second half of our lesson Helen- one of our teachers gave us a
card with an acronym:
B-
benefit
R-
risks
A-
alternatives
I-
implications/instinct
N-
nothing (to do nothing for a while)
S-smile
This
acronym can be used if mum-to-be will be offered an intervention and
it is our right as a future parent to question it and make sure that
we are making the right decision e.g. waters breaking or any other
intervention.
The
last part of our class was dedicated to massaging and breathing
techniques. With breathing it was more of a relaxation session where
we had to concentrate on the way we breath, it was very nice but I
think that when you are in the middle of giving birth all these
techniques will be forgotten. Massaging wise we were showed how to
rub/massage back starting from shoulders and going down to bum area
avoiding spine, massaging bum in 8 alike movements, massaging lower
back area. We had some time to practice it in the class and after trying all these methods I felt more comfortable with a shoulder to bottom massage.
Overall,
I enjoyed classes certainly learned something but I can't say it gave
me more confidence I am still scared of unknown. I guess I need to
try it myself to know.
Bump
update
Visible
changes in my body: my bump is more visible but again not as big
as some other mums-to-be have; swollen feet- nothing helps really.
Other:
hospital bag is pretty much packed. I like staring at my bump all
the time, waiting for little one to move as I know I'm going to miss
it a lot. Slightly paranoid at times as wake up in the middle of the
night or early morning and checking if my waters broke or not.
How
do I feel: I still have pains in my back, sore ribs, feel tired
quicker and often and of course started visiting loo at night again.
Cravings:
still none.
Fitness:
swimming once a week, our treadmill is currently in the
garage due to us needing all the space for baby shower and we still
didn't manage to put it back into house.
