Скачать или смотреть How can I prepare for a natural birth?

You mentioned that you want to have a natural delivery or in most cases that means that means that people don't want an epidural. You've gone to a Lamaze class and done much to prepare and that's great. Because people who go into labor and delivery without being prepared are usually surprised by how bad it hurts and don't do well. That's great that you've prepared and I hope that your support person, whether that's your husband or your boyfriend or maybe another family member or sister or your mom, has gone with you to help prepare because you can't do it alone. Emotional support is huge. The main purpose of Lamaze class is to teach you to breathe, distract yourself, relax on command, and also to stay focused and in control. It sounds like you've covered things pretty well from that side of things. I teach parental classes. I always start out by saying that the purpose of the class is not to bring your pillows and get down on the floor and breathe the whole time because there is so much more to labor and delivery than pain control. Obviously that's a large part of it, and how well you control yourself is going to have something to do with how well your labor progresses. If you're not in good control you'll actually impede your progress and your uterus won't contract as well and it can actually slow things down. The main purpose of the prenatal classes that I teach is to teach people to have an open mind and to realize that there are many different situations that may end up being yours when you end up going through labor and delivery, some of which are ideal, others which aren't so much. Once you get pregnant every woman who has ever had a baby likes to tell you what happened to her when she delivered. Sometimes people tell you a story and you're like, wow I could have done without hearing that. Other times you hear a story and you think to yourself, oh I hope that's my experience, that sounds so amazing. The bottom line is your baby is in control. You're not in control as much as you'd like to be. How well your baby is tolerating labor and how well your body is changing is going to dictate the care that the doctors and nurses give to you. For example sometimes I have a patient who comes in and doesn't want to be monitored or they don't want to be monitored all the time or they don't plan on getting an epidural and a certain position that they find most comfortable is not good for the baby. I had a patient just a couple weeks ago who wanted to stand up. Every time she stood up her baby would have a huge dip in the heart rate meaning your baby wasn't tolerating that position, it was causing the baby stress. So we put her on her side, the side is always the position where the baby is going to get the most blood and oxygen. A couple minutes later she wanted to stand up again so we tried it again and the exact same thing happened, the heart rate dropped. After three times of doing this she realized that her baby just would not like that position so we tried to find a different position where her baby was doing well but she was also comfortable or at least could tolerate it. That's what I mean by your baby definitely controls things during your labor and delivery experience. There are experiences where a C-section is necessary. Sometimes we have to run people down the hall for an emergency C-section because for one reason or another their baby is not tolerating labor and needs to come out right now. I think it would be good that you go to just a regular prenatal class that will help prepare you for any and all situations that might be yours. So that you know if you don't get the most ideal one, just the typical run of the mill great vaginal delivery that you know that those situations do happen, they are normal, and that you'll be okay and your baby will be okay as long as you're in the hospital and you listen to the doctors and the nurses. We're there to help you and our main goal is to help you through the process safely and to get you and your baby healthy and well through it all. So healthy mom, healthy baby, that's our goal and we're assuming it's yours too. I also think it's good for people who aren't planning on epidurals to at least know their options, to hear the facts about an epidural and also the facts about other IV pain medication we can give you during labor so that if it gets to be too much for you, you know what your options are. Good luck with everything. Congratulations ahead of time and if you have any other questions about your specific situation be sure to talk to your OB but if you have other questions for me I'd love to help you out. Feel free to ask them on our Facebook page and recommend us to your friends and family too.