I am
now 34 weeks pregnant, which means there’s only 6 more weeks until D Day (or
should I say B Day?), which means it theoretically could be only 3 more weeks .
. . or 7 depending on when the little one wants to make her appearance. I’m not freaking out at all, oh no, not
me! I don’t get it. When my friends were pregnant, it seemed like
they were pregnant FOREVER. For me, it feels like barely a month ago when I
took that test and first found out!
At
least we are now one step closer to being “ready” (from what I understand, that
term should be used very loosely when it comes to having a baby): we have now
completed the prepared childbirth classes at Kaiser. For the last three Saturdays in a row, my
dutiful husband woke up early with me so that we could drive to the hospital
and sit in their health education center and learn about labor, delivery,
breast feeding and taking care of a newborn (here is where Aaron goes into his
Bill Cosby imitation about the irony of taking a class to learn about “natural
childbirth”). Kaiser called the classes
Lamaze, but they were nothing like the Lamaze you see on tv or in the
movies. It really was more like a health
class, learning the mechanics of what happens to your body when pregnant and during
the labor and delivery, and then about twenty minutes of practicing some deep,
yogic type breathing (no “hee hee hoo” panting). The instructor also showed us some good
massage techniques to try for when we are in labor, though she also warned the
dads that “mom” (i.e. me) might not want them to touch her at all when the time
comes, and to just be supportive and understanding. Basically the motto of the
class seemed to be, “Here are some techniques that have worked for other
people, but you know your body best, and you need to do whatever works for you
when the time comes.”
I
will say that the class reinforced my desire to try to do this as natural as
possible (i.e. no drugs, if I can get through it without them). Without drugs, you can still move around in
the birthing room as much as you want and shift positions for pushing,
etc. With the epidural, you end up
confined to the hospital bed because you are completely numb from the waist
down. Another thing I learned, that
makes sense, but never occurred to me, is that with the epidural, they have to
put a catheter in you because you can’t feel the need to pee. I am definitely not knocking the epidural and
women who choose it. For all I know, the
pain will be so intense that I will be screaming for the drugs. I just know that I at least want to try to
get through without them. It’s almost
like a challenge for me. In my head, I’m
thinking, “If I can make it through an 8-10 hour day on pointe shoes, I can do
this!”
The
last day of class, we took a tour through Labor & Delivery. It was nice to finally see where we will be
when the time comes. This Kaiser has 8
Labor rooms, which are small rooms where you labor (shocking, I know). If everything is progressing well and there
is room available, then they move you to one of their 4 Labor, Delivery,
Recovery Rooms. If it turns out you need
a C-section (or the LDR rooms are full), then they move you to the OR. If you give birth in the OR, then there is a
separate, larger Recovery room that they move you to after the birth for what
they call “family bonding time,” which you get in-room if you are in one of the
LDR rooms.
When
we took our tour last weekend, all 4 LDR rooms were occupied, so we couldn’t
see them. Our instructor was shocked
because that happens so rarely. So all
25 of us crammed into the tiny Labor room, which made most of the pregnant
ladies feel a bit claustrophobic.
Fortunately, on Monday Aaron and I took a private tour of Labor &
Delivery. When the nurse showed us a Labor
room, it felt much more spacious with only 3 people in it! It’s still small, but I wasn’t feeling
claustrophobic. We also got to see the
LDR rooms. Of the 4 LDR rooms, 2 are
older, and 2 have been completely renovated and re-modeled. Only 1 of the LDR rooms does not have a
window, and that’s one that has been renovated.
The renovated rooms are amazing!
They are 3 times the size of the labor rooms; they have hard wood floors
and mood lighting, and just feel very welcoming. We need to remember to ask to be put in one
of those rooms when the time comes! I
mean, the older ones would do, but if at all possible, I definitely want to be
one of the newer rooms.
One
thing that’s nice about our hospital is that immediately after the baby is
born, they put the newborn, goopy and all, on mom’s chest for immediate skin to
skin contact (and hopefully the first feeding session). They give mom, dad and baby about an hour
together for some family bonding time while the nurses clean everything else
up. After that hour, they will take baby
away for weighing, bathing, etc. (which can be done in the LDR rooms if that’s
where we end up). If they have to take
baby out of the room, they encourage the dad to follow so he can always keep
his eye on the baby. Aaron and I both
really liked that. We don’t want baby
out of our sight as much as possible.
After
the recovery time is over, once they know you are stable, they will move us
over to the post-partum rooms. Those
rooms have two beds in them, so theoretically I could have a roommate, but they
said it rarely happens that they are so full that they need to double people
up. If a patient does not take the other
bed, then Aaron will be allowed to sleep in it.
Kaiser also has a policy that the baby room-in with the parents – i.e.
they don’t take the baby away to sleep in a nursery. They want parents to be able to learn their
baby’s hunger cues from the beginning and be able to start establishing
breast-feeding as soon as possible. They
also, as a policy, don’t feed the baby formula unless there is a necessity for
it. I just like that a lot of their
policies (immediate skin to skin contact and rooming in) are things I would
have asked for anyway, so it means I don’t have to worry about forgetting to
ask when I’m all delirious from having just given birth. They did give us a form to fill out that acts
as a “birth plan” if we want to do that.
I’ve only skimmed it. I guess I
should take the time to actually read it and fill it out at some point in the
next couple weeks.
For
those of you who want a bump picture, here’s my shadow during the solar eclipse
last Sunday:
Bren,
ReplyDeleteI birthed at Kaiser with Colin and I loved the experience! They are so organized and warm and they REALLY make mother-baby bonding a serious priority. Good for you for trying the natural route. I will brink a book to your shower that really helped me with Colin. It's a natural birthing book. I went for a long time without drugs with him, and I probably could have went the whole way, but when I was almost 7 the doctor said, "it's now or never." Haha.