Bradley Birth - Class #9

Last night's class was on Postpartum Preparation and Relaxation Practice (my favorite). The first hour we just talked about things that can be expected for the first six weeks after delivery. The discussion was related to the parents, both physically and emotionally, and not really the baby.

Most of the second half of the class we practiced relaxation. We played a game where Laura handed out an index card to the mom's that instructed them to do a particular thing wrong during the practice contraction. The game was that the dad had to guess what the mom was doing wrong. The first round I was told to keep my eyes open. It's pretty hard to breathe deeply and relax with your eyes open, so Jeff noticed (with a hint) that this is what I was doing wrong. The second round I was told to clench my fists during the practice contraction. Jeff got this easy. The third round all mom's were told to do everything right. All of the dad's were tricked. It was a good exercise because it helped Jeff to be aware of signs of tension.

The last thing that we did was a relaxation technique called the Rainbow Technique. Laura dimmed the lights and read us a story in which we were to imagine ourselves by a mountain lake, sitting on a dock, listening to the waves crash on the shore, listening to the birds chirp, etc. It's called the Rainbow Technique because she used colors to describe all of the things you see while sitting by the lake - a red bird, a green tree, blue water, pink sunset, etc. I thought it was going to be silly at first, but it really did help me to relax if I focused on the color of the surroundings. She also played a tape of a mountain stream with birds chirping, and Jeff was massaging my shoulders, so that didn't hurt.

Next week we will talk about Advanced First Stage Techniques. Tonight we tour the hospital.