Today was the second day of our two-day birthing class.  We are feeling well prepared and ready for birth.  Well, not ready right this minute, but ready when the time comes…which is whenever the Little Bean decides (s)he is ready to come out.

I have to say my favorite part is Jenny, our midwife and the course instructor.  Talk about a lady who LOVES her job!!! She is extremely knowledgeable and amazingly passionate about what she does.  And — especially for any of you worry warts out there — she has a bit of experience: have I mentioned she has attended over 800 births? Yes, that is OVER eight hundred.  She absolutely believes in what she is doing and, perhaps even more important, she trusts that our bodies and our babies to know what to do, which allows/encourages us (mothers/fathers/partners) to trust our babies and our bodies, which allows/encourages lovely, gentle, natural births to happen.

Another highlight for me was a video:  I have been wanting to see birth videos but afraid to randomly search for them on the internet for fear of seeing things I don’t really want to see.  So, much to my delight, we got to see a video showing several water births.  The video was filmed in a Belgium hospital where they had been researching water births and the doctors have had sufficient midwifery training.  It was pretty amazing!  You can see one of the water births here: http://delightfulpregnancy.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/belgian-waterbirth/ (Note that the tub that I will birth our baby in is not quite as fancy as this Belgian business.)

The most common question we get about water birth is “won’t the baby drown?” or “what if the baby inhales water?”  In the past, our response has been something along the lines of:

• Babies are smarter than you think; no, ht/she knows when to breath.
• The baby is LIVING in amniotic fluid right now and isn’t drowning.
• Have you ever heard of a baby drowning in a water birth?

Today, we learned that the reason babies doesn’t inhale water is because their instinct to breath doesn’t kick in until after their face (specifically the area between their eyes and their nose) emerges from fluid, whether that is amniotic fluid or water.

Also, interestingly, we met two other couples who changed their birth plans from a hospital to a home birth. Both were at least 28 weeks along in their pregnancies.

• We had another couple join the class (bringing us up to a total of eight pregnant ladies and their birth partners).  The new couple had been planning a hospital birth, and recently changed their minds after hearing a lecture Jenny gave at their hospital.  They have now chosen a home birth with Jenny.
• During our lunch break, another couple showed up at the birthing center(where our class was held) to meet a midwife and find out if it was too late to switch gears.  They had just completed their hospital birth class and hospital tour and realized that they didn’t want to birth their baby at a hospital.  They drove straight to the birthing center to look into other options.

So, we’re done with our birthing classes and are thrilled with our plan for a home/water/hypnobirth.  Still have some work to do to prepare, but we’re off to a great start and looking forward to meeting the Little Bean.