condensed parentcraft

Yesterday me and James went to the Parentcraft class at Broomfield Hospital...

We were quite surprised that all of the women (and their significant others) attending were all in their thirties or forties, we were half expecting a load of teenagers to be there...

...all of the women were far more pregnant than I am (by between eight and 12 weeks) and even the midwife commented that she didnt understand why they had put me in with this class when I was bound to forget about what was said when the time came.  I did say that it was because "people dont have babies around Christmas" but I think it went over her head.

The midwife running it was really nice and explained things in detail, but she kept on getting interrupted by people asking questions.

We had to start by breaking up from our pairs and talking to someone else for a few minutes and then introducing them to the group and saying three things about them...

...I was talking to this lady but we were just chatting about general things and forget to ask each other anything about ourselves - so we just picked up on what each others partners were saying ;o)

We then had to say why we had come to the class and as usual you had the odd bloke saying that "she made me come".  You had the usual "what to expect" "fear of the unknown" "when is it time to come in" etc

We then went through labour and when it starts and what happens...

...most of us were first time Mums apart from one lady who already has an eight year old - so with everything she was saying she was turning to that lady and saying "of course that wont be happening with you"  She only had a five hour labour last time but that still seems long enough for me!

Then we broke off for lunch...

...me and James rushed off to get something to eat from the Marks & Spencer and because it was nice we went and ate our stuff outside ;o)

We then went back and we got a tour of the delivery suite because it was quiet (that sounds so much nicer than a labour ward ;o))   It was very nice in there and all of the equipment was hidden away behind cupboard doors.  LOL they even have gas and air on hand in the bathroom ;o)  How cool is that?

We then went back and spoke about the afterbirth.

And then she said about the checks that are done on the baby afterwards and how that if you have had a straightforward birth then you can go home four hours later!

When my Mum had me she had to stay in for 10 days...

we then had a lucky dip bag of items where we all had to pull out an item - I ended up with a kiwi suction thing (James kept on sticking it on his leg and walked out of the class with suction rings on his calf - honestly I cant take him anywhere) and James had an aerosol can of water (to cool Mum down in the throws of labour), LOL I can see him trying to save some money by using a washing up liquid bottle to just squirt at me ;o).

She then went through the reasons why we had gone to the class (to make sure everything was covered) and quizzed us on the signs of labour.

I must say that I am getting more apprehensive about it all now.

But it really cant be that bad if my Mum went through it four times.

All in all the course could have done with lasting longer than four hours...

...they used to run for eight weeks!