Monday, September 01, 2003

 
nothing like a few days offline to get back in touch with reality.

and two days of baby-having workshop was a great thing to do. it was a big weekend, all right, and a combination of poor food co-ordination and habit made the time on Saturday I'd normally be napping all a bit vague, but I think it got husband and me "on the same page" re: how we want to go about this; and most of all it got us focussed on the fact that in 7-to-11 weeks I will be having this baby for real.


the woman giving the workshop trained with Janet Balaskas, who more or less created the active birth movement. she is big on breathing your way through things, natural pain relief, muscle control techniques (Iike keeping the mouth loose for a similar effect on the birth canal). all this sounds good in theory, but of course I have lingering cynical doubts. still, anything we can learn to make it less like a hospital experience and more like something we control and I can enjoy (??), or at least not be frightened by, is good.

and it was fun to be with 14 or so other couples/support groups all pretty much at the same stage - lots of jokes and points of view, though I did find a couple of student types and nurses who were there to learn or act as non-partner support persons a bit annoying with the way they co-opted parts of the discussion that really should have been for us preggo people.

it confirmed that we will need a 3rd person - but also, for me, that her job needs to be about practical support, while husband does the mental/emotional work with me.

two funny moments: the suggestion that if we have access to a birth pool or bath, we should take a snorkel to breathe through. I can imagine turning up at the hospital, huge belly, snorkel in hand ... anyway, there will be so much to take that it might not be that silly. (a list of stuff and birth plan are my next job: in time to leave it with the ob. next week so he can talk to husband and me about it at the appt after).

the other was when the workshop leader came out with the phrase "spontaneous foetus ejection reflex", which basically means a really, really fast second stage. 'nuff said on that one.

lots more that I might blog as it comes to mind, but now I need to go check in on my bulletin board buddies.

and today I indulged in some retail therapy; silly in one sense with nine weeks to go, but hey, I figure I'll be pregnant again; and the clothes I do have are still mostly borrowed and either deeply daggy or sort of work-slick. there was nothing pretty - I don't mean mumsy cute, but sort of vaguely sexy, decorative, well-fitted and in my colours. so I did, anyway, and I'm glad I did.

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