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Prenatal class: impressions.

2005-11-25 - 11:58 a.m.

We went to our second class last night and they�re well done and interesting and seem to fly by. The other participants seem nice, though there are definitely some diverse personalities there. Interestingly, the majority have midwives instead of doctors.

I�ve discovered that I did indeed have a (pardon the pun) preconceived notion of prenatal classes. Hands up if you picture a lot of hugely pregnant women sitting on the floor on cushions practicing panting and blowing as they lean back into their husbands� arms.

Me too.

I realize now that the TV stereotype of these classes shows women who must be close to 8 or 9 months, which is not realistic since we�re encouraged to take them starting early in the 3rd trimester. Accordingly, most of us were around 6 months on the first day of classes and therefore not so huge. Of course, my notion of what is �huge� vs. �not so huge� has been changing lately as I�ve inflated. There are time I (and, I�m sure, every pregnant woman) feel(s) �huge�, but it�s all become relative as I�m probably average size for someone at this point in a pregnancy, and as such other pregnant women my size look about right to me now.

Can I make a catty confession? I�ve been quite pleased with myself for keeping within the �recommended� weight-gain range, particularly since so many women I know have gained 50+ pounds during their pregnancies. Deep down I�d been maybe hoping just a little that everyone else in the class would have fallen into the latter category and that I�d be one of the smaller ones. Instead almost every woman there looks stylish and sleek as a seal. No one is huge and frumpy, damn them. One of them wears boots with heels for goodness sake. Sure, they�re chunky heels but still, they�re quite high.

Last night we saw the first couple of birthing videos. Can I just say AAAAUGH!!! I know the aim of these videos are to make us less afraid but they really had the opposite effect on me and squicked me out a bit. It�s one thing to know that birth will be painful, it�s another to watch a woman who looks like she�s in absolute agony going through it. Mind you, I�ve always empathized too much watching people who are in pain or even in an uncomfortable situation. Not that this is in any way on the same scale� but it kind of explains why I never liked the TV show Seinfeld; people on that show were always getting into situations that just made me cringe for them. I can�t get why people find that sort of thing funny. But I digress.

I�m sure that the pain of labour will be more than I can truly imagine at this point, and yes, it does scare me a bit, but at the same time I know that everyone who has ever walked the earth has a mother that went through birth one way or another (unless you subscribe to that whole Adam-and-Eve thing, and even then, that�s 2 people, ever), so if they all did it, I must be able to too.

And hey, Grommet�s gotta get out of there somehow, right? There�s no turning back now, no matter how squeamish I may or may not get.

Before - After


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