baby care class #4 and infant care class #1

The last birthing class we attended, we learned a whole lot about pain management during labor. Ugh. I have decided that I'd like to try going through this first birth without any drugs. It may sound nuts to some people (and I don't really think there's any shame in asking for an epidural, etc.), but it's the purist in me that's driving the decision -- I'd like to experience a natural birth just so I fully understand what it's about....

That said, though, I think I will still have a clause in the birthing plan that stipulates that I *may* ask for drugs if I just can't take it anymore.

And, I'll tell ya, the whole labor thing does seem daunting indeed! I still very fortunate to have the option of having it at Sutter, though.

They seem to offer a lot of alternatives for women -- birthing stools, squatting bars, jacuzzi tubs for water births, etc., and they seem to really put an emphasis on the woman's comfort and desires.

I feel reassured, I think, in the belief that they will want to comply with my wishes once I'm there!

Anyway, we also started our breastfeeding and infant care class this past week.

The first lessons here were on diapering -- we could practice with cloth or disposable diapers -- and on how to swaddle the baby. We watched a lot of videos on the importance of touch and baby massage...how picking up a baby when it cries is not an "indulgent" act that will "spoil" the child, and how sleeping with the child can be a very healthy thing, providing you don't have tons of bedding or a super cushy bed and you're not on any medication that will dull your alertness.

Much of what we heard in class pretty much (happily) concurred with what I've read in Our Babies, Ourselves which contrasts the western model of individualism and independence to childrearing practices in other parts of the world (definitely worth reading).