Noob Class in Session!
Last night marked as another noob experience as my wife and I attended our first prenatal class. This class is put on at the hospital where we will have our baby at, which was awesome to get familiar with the hospital.
The session commenced with a “get to know each other” group activity where we all had to write something you do to relax on a piece of paper. All that kept going through my mind was paintballing, but I opted for the safe pick of “reading a book.” After we wrote them down, we were asked to find others in the room that found the same thing relaxing. To my luck, I was the only guy who wrote reading and found myself standing amongst a half dozen of other pregnant women who find reading relaxing. Perfect. What a great way to start the class with almost every other guy unanimously grouped together with their answer of “golf.” Epic fail for me.
After our instructor spent sometime going over a variety of early labour signs, she prepared us for the well anticipated birthing video. As the large projector screen slowly descended and the buzzing fluorescent lights were flicked off, there was an eerie silence that came over the twenty of us in the class. It was as if this moment was the “calm before the storm.” The laughing tone quickly left the room as most males repositioned themselves in their chairs as if they were mentally planning their emergency exit plan for mid video. Unsurprisingly, the women sat with a confidence that reflected their warrior spirit of their own coming labour. The movie rolled on with a early 90’s feel that fortunately made the atmosphere less tense. We were all brought back to reality about ten minutes later when the video was witnessing the birth of a child. I couldn’t help but take time to deliberately scan the crowd of other daddy noobs to etch their reactions into my memory. It was diverse with; a guy tearing up, another guy was clenching his wife’s hand as if he was going to pass out, and one more guy had his eyes open so widely it looked like it hurt. I turned back just in time to see the birth - lucky me - and also experience the immense joy this couple had seeing their new baby. All I can say is… Wow! The lights were quickly turned on which exposed all of the males that were trying to cover up their reactions while in the dark. No one really spoke for a few minutes until after we received a break for some snacks. Thanks for the break teacher. Mmmmm lets eat. Cookie anyone?
We came back and talked about what we saw and all of the questions that encompassed the video. The teacher used the video as a platform to explain the way a pregnant woman’s bones will move to allow for the baby to deliver. She passed around a pelvic bone display that my wife and I somehow broke while passing to each other. I quickly pushed the screw back in but new it wasn’t going to hold for much longer. Fail two.
Finally, at the end of the night we had to help our partners practice labour positions. How to do you spell awkward? Easy, deGasquet. This was the name of one of the positions my wife was practicing while on the mat. After she tried a couple positions my introverted wife hit her embarrassment tipping point and got the giggles. Okay, giggles doesn’t cover it, she was full on ugly crying/laughing because of how ridiculous she felt doing them. It was hilarious. What a perfect way to end our first class.
All in all, it was super informative and definitely memorable. Bonus.
Lovin’ being a DaddyNoob
Do you have any funny prenatal stories? Do tell?
