As most of you know, Simeon and I attended our childbirth preparation class over the weekend. We initially signed up for the four-week class (two hour class, one night a week) but because Simeon has been trying to get all of his traveling out of the way before the baby comes, he would have missed half of the classes. So I called the hospital to see if we could attend the “Weekend Childbirth Seminar” (6:30-9:30pm on Friday evening and 9:00am-4:00pm on Saturday) instead. It cost about $30 more, but I figured since the main reason we were taking the class was to better prepare Simeon, it was worth the extra money for him to be able to attend the entire thing.

I had heard a lot of women never make it through the entire class because they end up going into labor within the four week period. I thought for sure this wouldn’t be the case with the weekend class, but sure enough, Saturday morning we lost two couples in our group because they were in labor. Go figure. I guess if you are destined to miss the class it will happen no matter what.

Simeon and I actually had a great time in the class. I admit there were a few things I had never heard before and I actually learned a thing or two. Simeon came out very well informed and with a new outlook on a few different things. I was very happy that they didn’t scare the crap out of him by showing any horrific bloody labors with screaming women and fainting husbands or something that would further scare him about the whole process. We did watch a couple birth videos, but they were all very tasteful and not really any more graphic than TLC’s A Baby Story (which I totally admit to having a TiVo Season Pass to record all the episodes during the day and Simeon has watched more than a couple of them with me). In fact, I swear the video they showed us in 8th grade health class was more graphic…but then again I think they were trying to terrify us about sex back then anyway.

Overall the class was very helpful. Sure we touched on basic anatomy and fetal development, which was all review for us, but they also went into great depth about medical intervention, relaxation techniques, and my personal favorite, massage. In fact, there were large portions of the class where I got to lay on my blanket, curled up with a pillow and they actually taught Simeon how to give me a massage. Sure I was focusing on my breathing and pretending to be in pain at the time, but it was still pretty darn nice.