First Childbirth Class

I've done a lot of posts about the nursery and the baby, so I promise to post some fun pictures of Bella soon! Last night was our first childbirth training class. Steve and I were a little nervous about what to expect. When people find out that we're having a homebirth, they tend to assume we've joined the entire culture...if they are against a homebirth, they look at us like we're crazy hippies who want to drown our baby; if they're experienced with homebirths, they get really excited and start talking about cloth diapers and "baby wearing."

(P.S. Cloth diapers and wearing your baby are wonderful things that many of my friends are doing and love; we just haven't gotten there yet.)

All of that to say, we weren't sure which group was going to show up at our door last night. It was a wonderful praise to have it at our house; we don't need to worry about scheduling a babysitter every Thursday for the next 8 weeks, and we can be lazy and not have to drive anywhere. Including us, there were a total of 3 couples...one of them was pregnant with their 8th (8!!!) and the other was pregnant with their first.

Both couples were so friendly and Christians! The leader of the class is also a believer, so it was neat that God got to be included in our conversations so freely! The other couples are also planning homebirths, which was a very nice surprise. We haven't met anyone else in "real life" who is currently pregnant and planning a homebirth.

The class was pretty introductory since it was the first one. The leader is very warm and down-to-earth (I may have been nervous about that, too!) We ended the class by practicing some exercises and also a few relaxation techniques. Most of those involved the husbands learning massage methods! Woo-hoo for the wives!

I have to say, it looked really funny to have all three couples sitting on the floor together with the lights dim, while the husbands were learning how to massage the wives. The neighbors must have thought we were really weird!

It was a great night and so much fun! We're really looking forward to spending more time with these couples and learning more about natural labor and birth! I figure, if Steve was excited at the end of the night, it's a good sign!