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The final session of the Parentcraft Classes covered three topics:

The role of the father: Be supportive, take an interest in your wife’s pregnancy, help out when you can, don’t ask questions like…”Is your contraction really that painful ah?” when you wife is in labour…

A Q&A session with one of the paeds: It was less of a Q&A actually as the paed went through the immunization schedule and what type of immunization baby needs within his or her first year. I found this quite useful…

Lastly, a talk on breastfeeding. Considering how often it was emphasized that breast is best, it’s no wonder that when the nurse asked: “Who is not planning to breastfeed their baby?” at the beginning of the talk, she was greeted with silence… The talk mainly covered the benefits of breastfeeding, the positioning of the baby and the correct way the baby should latch on to the nipple, and lots and lots of reassurance that we new mothers do not have to worry as the nurses at the hospital will be there from day 1 to guide us!

Was the RM150 well spent? Hmm…I would have to say yes…and no. Personal opinion is that many things can be read from books, so it’s worth investing in a good pregnancy guide book. However, certain sessions such as the visit to the labour ward and the baby bath demo was worth attending (at least for me). I do think that DSH should separate the classes so that people can pick and choose which to sign up for. From there, they will be able to see which are the popular classes and which aren’t, and then see how they can improve on the not-so-popular classes. Anyways, that’s just my opinion…

Last week’s class covered the following topics: Labour and birth, epidural and pain relief as well as a tour of the maternity ward.

Some of the information given was a repeat of the previous class - ie. how to identify real labour vs. false labour signs, and some can be easily found in pregnancy books - ie. types of pain relief. The lady who presented was much better than the one from the previous week’s class, though. I still didn’t manage to get all my questions answered…no matter, will just go through the list during my next checkup.

We were also shown a video on childbirth…however, the video mainly focused on the first stage of labour, with the last 2-3 minutes showing the second stage where the baby was delivered. Quite bloody and not something I would like my hubby to see in real life… …will definitely want to ensure he stays on the ‘non-gory’ side when I deliver!

The second half of the session was a tour of the maternity ward where we were shown the labour room. I found this very useful as it helped me to visualize where I’ll be on D-Day - at least I now have a clear image of how everything looks like in the room.

The thing I like very much about DSH (although other hospitals probably offer the same thing) is that the hospital is very pro-breastfeeding and rooming-in…both of which are what I want. Straightaway after the birth, they will pass the baby to the mother for skin-to-skin contact. They will then take the baby to the baby warmer which is located in the same room for cleaning and tagging before passing the baby back to the mother for breastfeeding. They also encourage walking around during the first stage of labour if the mother is up to it to speed up the cervical dilation - you can request for a walking epidural if you want to dull the pain.

Today’s class is the final one, and it will cover breastfeeding and immunization as well as the role of the father…let’s see how this one goes!

Ah…what a letdown this class was.

It was supposed to be a two hour session, but the two presenters went through their presentations so fast that the session lasted only an hour plus.

The session covered antenatal exercises as well as breathing techniques during labour.

All of which can be found in books.

Poor hubby must have found it quite boring…although he did seem to have quite an amusing time correcting me as we went through the exercises!

I hope the third session will be more informative - it’s supposed to cover labour and birth, epidural and pain relief as well as a video on childbirth. I’ve read quite a few books on labour and pros and cons of pain relief and have pretty much made up my mind how I would like my birth to go (of course, I do know that it won’t necessarily go as planned!), but I still have funny questions like…is an enema necessary? When do we have to start perineal massages (I would really really like to avoid an episiotomy if possible!)? What’s the latest possible time during labour to request for an epidural? Does this hospital encourage walking around during the first stage of labour? Other than a semi-reclining position, are we encouraged to semi-squat during birth (this opens up the pelvic area and causes less tearing)?

Of course, if those questions don’t get answered during the session, then my doctor will be in for a nice long chat during our next visit in December…

Hubby and I attended our first antenatal class at DSH last Tuesday night - the first out of a series of four.

The topics that were covered during the first class were diet and nutrition during and post pregnancy, a baby bath demonstration (this was scheduled to be in the fourth session, but they brought it forward) and admission and preparation of childbirth.

The first topic was rather boring…most of the information are available in books anyways (ie. what you should eat, should not eat, what vitamins are important, etc.). What shocked me was that at the end, someone asked if eating ginger can cause jaundice in babies, and the dietitian was not only unsure, she mumbled “I’m not sure about ginger, but papaya and …[couldn't catch the second part] maybe….”

What the…?!?

Hello…jaundice is caused by bilirubin, and it happens because baby’s liver is not developed enough to get rid of the excess bilirubin which then goes into the blood stream. The orange/yellow tinge that a person gets from eating too much papayas and carrots are due to beta-carotene!

Talk about giving misleading information…and she’s a qualified dietitian!

The baby bath demo that followed was pretty interesting though…and honestly, quite worrying! I actually felt quite confident about being able to bathe baby during the first few weeks, but after watching the demo, I don’t think it’s as easy as I initially thought. The nurse who did the demonstration is really motherly and she made it look so easy! She also advised all the daddies to be the ones bathing the baby (because mommies have other things to do, she said… )…LOL…I honestly can’t imagine hubby bathing baby lor!

The final topic was the most interesting out of the three as the nurse that spoke to us told us many stories about patients who went into labour early or didn’t listen to the doctor’s advice and didn’t come in for checkups, etc. Moral of the story is that as you approach the finishing line, if you feel that something doesn’t feel right with baby, listen to your instincts and go to the hospital’s maternity ward for a checkup instead of leaving it too late. Some of the cases she quoted had me almost in tears…a baby dying because the mother put off a checkup even though the doctor had advised her to come back in X days time, and another case where the mother let a non-qualified person turn her breech baby which ended up with baby’s umbilical cord getting wrapped around her neck! She also told us that there’s a mother up at the ward at that very night who’s in labour and her baby is only 26 weeks old! Gasp! Gotta really get a move on buying all the rest of the baby stuff and packing my hospital bag just in case baby gets impatient and decides to make an early appearance (which I really really hope she won’t!)…

She also focused on identifying signs of false vs. true labour, such as how to tell the difference between Braxton Hicks and a real contraction. To be honest, I still don’t understand what a contraction feels like! All the books and articles I read says that it’s a tightening of the uterine muscles, but I just can’t imagine the feeling. I asked the doctor the other day…but hmmmm…I honestly doubt a male doctor will be able to accurately describe the feeling either…

Anyways, let me end this post by showing you guys how baby treats my belly as her own personal Play-Doh…surely when this happens, it’s not contractions, right??

Looks a little bit like a volcano doesn’t it?