Last weekend Nacho and I participated in a childbirth preparation class at the very popular RealBirth center in mid-town Manhattan. Considering this was the same weekend his childhood friends in Spain were celebrating a riotous bachelor party, I suppose the contrast was especially fitting. We both knew the time was dwindling for us to get some instruction on what to expect throughout labor and after our NYU Meet the Doctors night last week, it was becoming clearer to me that having another perspective to guide us through this would be very important to our overall birth experience.
The instructor of our two-day birthing extravaganza was a "doula," or labor coach, who resembled Annette Benning or possibly Cokie Roberts, but with more of a yoga instructor's physical presence and a clear agenda of making birth sound like the most natural, "mammalian" act possible. She spent a good portion of the class asking about our goals and preconceptions about different aspects of labor and then showing videos, charts, and lots of massage techniques to help us understand ways to have a labor we could not only endure, but perhaps enjoy. I wouldn't say she completely converted me to the drug-free concept of labor, but after watching a lot of ugly people giving birth in the mostly 80s-inspired videos, I felt like this was a much more manageable process and maybe one I could try without running into Labor & Delivery screaming for an epidural.
Reality of course says that if 90% of the NYU births involve epis (as statistics show), I will be among them. But somehow the rebel in me wants to resist--at least as long as I can. There are so many reasons why having a needle in my spine and laboring on my back don't sound particularly appealing, but mostly I think that if I've had these childbirthin' hips since puberty, they ought to be good for something. And the progression of medical intervention into more and more "normal" labors does sound like something out of a Brave New World when you realize how many women of my generation are getting inductions, epidurals and c-sections without perhaps understanding there are alternatives. So, we'll see. This could be the post I live to regret. But for now, I'm feeling well-educated if nothing else, and really that's about all I can do until I see what this whole fuss is all about.
2 comments:
I know you can do it...and the glory is...if you change your mind...it isn't the end of the world. I applaud you for trying. I was a breathing machine with Mia and Mark was wonderful (no pressure Nacho!!). I ended up going almost nautral with her...it happened too fast for an epidural! Good times!
I agree. I think it's great to just give it a try and see how long you can go and wait to see what happens. That was my approach, um, until my water broke and Anna was breach and it all went south really fast. Then it was c-section, but, you know, I still feel a kinship with those who want to go natural. Even if I didn't actually ever experience a true contraction :-)
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