[baby] Birth preparation course

[pne]

This time started earlier, since Astrid had some sort of big meeting until six and didn't want to wait around until seven, so we started at six-thirty.

We started off with some breathing exercises again, then she talked about the second and final stages of birth and introduced us to some different birth positions that women can take to deliver the child, some of them with the partner helping (e.g. supporting the woman from above).

At the beginning, Ingrid Eichweber was also there, the midwife who checks up on Stella regularly and who will be caring for her after birth, too. She talked about the care a midwife provides after birth and offered to do so for any other participant as well.

We also briefly talked about Stella's wish to give birth assisted only by a midwife; when Ingrid mentioned that, Astrid asked, "Oh, so that's you?"

It's a really new thing, and apparently one of the things they talked about today was that the first person had already made an appointment for an initial consultation :)

Stella blushed bright read at the "Oh, so that one person who's the lucky first is you guys?" ^^

We also finished earlier, after only an hour and a half rather than two hours, so that people could go home and watch football :P

Next time, we'll be looking at the delivery rooms.

Comments

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

New? Midwifery? Wow, that's been considered pretty normal (at least in my community) for quite some time now. There are even birthing centers that resemble homes - just with extra equipment, just in case - so they're comfy and relaxing.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Well, midwives have been around for quite a while here as well, but they always needed to have a doctor present as well, even if they did most of the work.

I don't know whether there were legal reasons involved with this or what.

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

Oh, of course. I had quite forgotten about liability issues. But then, I don't recall y'all being quite as sue-happy as a lot of Amis.

I think it's really awesome that Stella is going the midwife route. The Monsters were both born in hospitals because I had complications, which made the whole thing a lot more stressful than it needed to be.