Robert's Weblog

Back to School

We've been taking the Bradley Classes for 3 weeks now, and also took a Newborn Care Class this Saturday.

The Bradley Childbirthing method is similar to Lamaze (both were developed in the 1960s), however the main difference is that it focuses more on the role of the husband as a partner in the delivery, and it focuses on the mother's natural ability to give birth without much medical intervention (in the case of a normal, low-risk pregnancy, of course). We learn about relaxation techniques and exercises that you can do to help strenghten certain muscles and prepare the body for labor. A lot of the exercises are similar to the prenatal yoga stretches that I'm doing a few times per week as part of a pregnancy yoga video.

It also teaches about the midwife philosophy of childbirth versus the medical community philosophy so that you can make informed decisions. It doesn't teach that the medical model is wrong, just that sometimes it's good to first try the midwife approach. For example, if the baby is a few days overdue, the midwife approach would be for the mother to try help labor get started by taking long walks, stimulating the nipples, eating spicy food, and other techniques to get labor started naturally, whereas the medical model would be to use drugs like pitocin to induce labor. You can try the midwife model first, and if that fails and the doctor feels that it's dangerous for the baby to stay in any longer, then it's time to try the medical approach.

The birthing center I'll be using is close to a hospital, and the midwives there are also trained to deal with certain complications themselves. They also have medication available if the mother feels she needs it. It sounds like a good compromise between a hospital birth and a birth at home.

The other class we took is a Newborn Care Class. There we learned about the usual things like changing diapers, bathing a baby, feeding a baby. It also talked about the emotional care of a baby. The current prevaling philosophy is that you cannot spoil a baby in the first year. If they cry it's ok to always come to them and pick them up, rather than teaching them to stop crying on their own. They also said you don't want to force a baby to a feeding schedule, but let them feed whenever they want to.

Another interesting thing in the class was a video by a Dr. Karp. His theory is that gestation for humans is actually 12 months, not 9, and that the last 3 months take place outside the womb.

When a baby seems to be crying for no reason (as with collicy babies),
he suggests imitating the environment of the womb for them to calm
them. In the video, he showed how to swaddle the baby so that its arms can't flail around, and he then laid the baby on its side and introduced a white noise
(like saying shhhh, or turning on a vacuum cleaner or hair dryer). It
was pretty cool to see how it calmed the babies immediately.

All in all, it's been an educational few weeks.

Nursery Decorating

We spent some time over Thanksgiving weekend decorating the nursery. We painted some dolphins, a whale and a submarine with the help of an overhead projector and stenciled some fish and seahorses. It still needs some finishing touches, I'll post more photos once it's all done.

Austin Birthing Center

I decided that I want my delivery to be at the Austin Birthing Center instead of Round Rock Hospital where I'm currently signed up. I had an appointment with my regular obstetrician today and wanted to talk to her about the delivery and ask her about natural childbirth, but she wasn't there. This is the 3rd visit that I didn't get to see her, only the nurses, and when I made my appointment for the next visit I was told she wouldn't be there either. At the same time, I had been thinking more and more lately about switching my delivery to the birthing center, because I want to have a natural childbirth and it seems like that would be easier to do in a birthing center than a hospital. I'm not sick and I don't like hospitals, so why go to one to deliver my baby?

So, after today's ob appointment, I decided to call them and ask about switching. They said it wasn't too late and I now have an appointment with them in 2 weeks. Instead of being delivered by a doctor, the baby would be delivered by a midwife. That means I'd stop going to my current doctor and start going to the birthing center for my check-ups instead, which I don't mind since I hardly know my doctor anyway. It sounds like something out of the last century to use a midwife, but they're actually very well educated and birthing centers like this one have a much lower percentage of problems during delivery and use of ceserean sections. Instead of having a doctor that only comes for the last hour or two of the delivery, the midwife stays with you through the entire labor and you get a lot more individual care.

The birthing center received Austin Family Magazine's "Best Place to Have a Baby" Award in 1998.

They require all first-time mothers to take the Bradley Childbirth Class, so we'd have to cancel the Lamaze classes we're signed up with. I've been reading about the Bradley method of natural childbirth and prefer that anyway. There's a class starting Thursday, so hopefully we can join that one.