Zen & the Art of Childbirth

We started childbirth class this week. Well, one of them. Because yes, in classic Katie & Mo form, we're taking not one but two classes! Plus a few additional workshops, though those will focus on specific topics like breastfeeding, newborn care, and such. In our defense.


You're probably wondering why we would take two classes. Mo absolutely loves the health education component of having Kaiser healthcare. He therefore wanted to take the Kaiser class, and I agreed that it was a good idea for us to take it to get the 'inside scoop' as to their philosophy and outlook on childbirth, since we're going to be birthing there.


However, since in an ideal world I would have liked to have been able to have a midwife, and possibly a home birth, but in the grand scheme of big expenses we had, that took the low priority, I insisted that we also then take a class that is more in line with the ideals that I have for the birth process.


I did a fair amount of research and then eventually made a spur-of-the-moment decision that landed us in a Zen Childbirth class! And ... we love it!!

I don't think it would be possible for us to have found a class more well-suited to Katie & Mo. Well, the only way I think it could have been more well-suited is if it also combined elements of the Birthing from Within methods, which have sort of an expressive arts component to them. But I'm working my way through that book in addition, so that will suffice. 


Anyway, why do we love this class so much? First of all, the teacher is great. She's the perfect combination of Berkeley hippie and grounded person. She's taken all these fabulous hippie ideas and condensed them into one of the most well-organized curricula I've ever seen. The whole curriculum is experience-based, with a focus on meditation and relaxation, and we spent a good deal of the time in class practicing what she was proposing that we practice at home, which we loved! Neither Mo nor I learn well by being bombarded with information in lecture format, and that is so not what this class is about.

Plus, it's got a whole self-helpy component to it! Our apartment is now filled with affirmations for me to repeat -- things like, 'My body knows how to do this' and 'Each wave brings me closer to holding my baby in my arms'. (She uses wave in replacement of contraction. I even love that -- I do believe that language plays a huge role in shaping our worldviews, and I love the concept of thinking of it as a wave -- one of the visualization exercises in the class even has us at the beach, experiencing each wave as it comes in -- perfect!)


Her class is also partially based in HypnoBirthing, which I know you're going to immediately think sounds crazy. But that's just because you have this image of hypnotism as getting you to do nutty things you wouldn't normally do. When in fact what it's really about is getting you into an altered state of relaxation. And who can argue with that? Especially when going through labor?? That's where the visualization exercises come in. 


She even gives us a script for the meditation and relaxation exercises, tells us to edit it so that it works for us (!), and then has the partner record the script so that we're listening to it in the voice that we'll be hearing at the birth! I will admit that there is a portion of it where my practical side took over -- there's a cloud coming down and lifting us off the beach, at which point my brain went, 'A cloud can't hold me! That doesn't even make sense!' But, since she sets up the process so that we edit the script, I could edit that right out! Viola!


So in the meantime, I have a list of homework practices to do each day -- and Mo has to do some of them too. They include some yoga moves, meditation, relaxation, Kegel exercises -- and end with a mini massage for me before bed! I'm certainly not complaining about that!


It's making it all that much more real, though. This is actually happening -- and in two months! Gotta go drink my hippie pregnancy tea ...