Birthing Class #3

The bullets-

• Another good reason(for me and my crazy logic) to not get an epidural, you can eat things other than ice chips. Things with flavor!!!
• The hospital beds are equipped to allow you to push from pretty much any position you want. They even have this bar that gets brought up that you can rest on in a squatting position if you want to push like that (since it opens your pelvis 30% more than any other position).
• From what research I have done on the benefits of home births and birthing centers, it seems that hospitals are becoming less rigid and more and more like birthing centers. With the added benefit of having surgeons on call if something goes wrong. They let you labor any way you want, in the tub, on a birthing ball, walking around, whatever is comfortable. They allow you to push from whatever position you want and works best for you. They don't cut the cord until it stops pulsating. They do not remove the baby right after it is born to do all the measurements like they used to. After the baby is born they immediately lay the baby skin to skin on the mother to allow for bonding time. You get to call the shots at every step.
• They talked about how having skin to skin contact with the mother for at least an hour immediately following the birth helps to calm the baby and increases the success rate of breast feeding. To me though it feels weird to make Andrew wait a whole hour before he gets to hold his daughter. Since I am leaning towards not breast feeding, I probably will not stick to this 1 hour rule.
• Andrew made it through the video showing a live birth, with out passing out or losing his dinner. So that is a positive sign.