Bradley Birth - Class #4

Last night's class focused on the coach's role during labor. During the first part of the class we had a couple come in, with their baby, that had been in one of Laura's classes last fall. The dad told us about their birth experience, which was neat since the class was focusing on the coach's role. He said that he taken the Bradley class because his wife wanted to, but was glad because he ended up playing a big role in the birth of their baby. Their experience was that he didn't play a big part in the beginning, but compared himself to an athletic coach during the end of labor when it got more difficult.

Next, we did an exercise where each husband had to tell his wife something that she had done that he was thankful for over the past week, and then tell her something that she needed to improve on...but he had to say it out loud so that everyone could hear. The point of the exercise was to get the husband comfortable with saying personal things in front of people he doesn't know that well, since there will be nurses in and out of the room during labor. Jeff thanked me for making the trip to Memphis with a sore back (flying stresses me out) and asked me to not stress so much about getting the nursery finished. This wasn't bad...the poor guy that had to go first nicely asked his wife to lay off the chocolate chip cookies.

We then discussed the medications that are available during birth and which ones it would be best to choose if necessary. It feels good to be more knowledgeable on what our options are in this area.

The coach's tip was to know where your wife tenses up first. Jeff already knows that it's my shoulders, so he should look for hunched shoulders during birth and tell me to relax or offer a massage. A little part of me envisions labor as a 12 hour back massage. I need to see more videos to get this illusion out of my mind. Next week we talk about the first stage of labor.