"It is through our hands that we speak to the child. That we communicate. Touch is the child's first language. Understanding comes long after feeling". Frederick Leobyer.
Mr M & I have finally started our antenatal class held at our Knox Private Hospital. It's a four hour session over two Sundays followed by another 3-hr session on breastfeeding! You never stop learning in parenting hey?
I was actually surprised by the 15 couples who were all expecting the same time as us (cos usually antenatal classes commence at 28wks not at 35wks!) so we've all left it to the last minute!
Our Mid-Wife Jenny, who was our teacher for the 4hr session taught us a lot of informative things that I thought I had already knew. It goes to show that you can never know too much....
Here were some of the learnings I bet some of you didn't know either:
1) When a baby's head first comes out during delivery, they are actually facing down so the mum can only see his hair and not his face (eg. backwards to mummy). When their head is out of the cervix, they will then automatically rotate their head onto the side looking at mummy's thigh and then finally the entire body will pop out! Amazing!
2) I always thought giving birth meant sitting/lying on a hospital bed. This was probably the case in the olden days, but now, you can choose any position you like. So that means a lot of women actually stand/crouch/four legged on the floor/lying on a chair/lying in a bathtub full of water (aka water birth) to deliver their babies...
3) When baby is out of mummy, they have these white gooey creamy stuff on their skin called Vernix which is actually really good for them as it provides a natural barrier against minor skin infections. So midwife tend to not wipe them off or give the baby a bath until 24hrs later!
4) The poo in the mother actually provides the baby with Vitamin K which helps to clot blood later on in their lives (ie. Vitamin K helps to prevent serious & continuous bleeding).
5) When baby is freshly born, they are either purple/blue in colour (due to the lack of oxygen since they would need to learn to breathe themself instead of via the umbilical cord connected to the mother). Purple/blue in colour is absolutely normal vs a white baby.
6) Research has found that parents speaking to their baby while they are still in the mother's womb will help them recognise their parent's voice once they are born.
7) I always thought Epidural was just a needle injection into the epiduaral space in the woman's lower back to help relief the labour pains. This is somewhat correct. The full correct definition is that epidural also means the mother will also need to have an IV drip and a catheter to empty her bladder. That means there will be a tube connected from the mother's spine to an infusion/drip for the duration of the labour! yikes! The downside of epidural is that the mother is more likely to need an assisted birth as she has reduced sensation of teh contractions & therefore pushing can ebe impeded. Yikes again! Great there I was thinking Epidural will solve all of my pains!
8) Women in labour can also opt of other medical techniques to relieve labour pains such as
A) Gas - breathed in via mask/mouth piece. However this technique may cause nausea/vomiting.
B) Pethidine - given by intramuscular injection which usually reduces pain but can also make the woman sleepy. The downside of this is that it can cause nausea.vomiting & headaches and the new born baby may also feel drowsy and slower to establish breastfeeding.
C) T.E.N.S - which is a small device that can be operated by self without any assistance that basically zaps electrons into the mother's back to relief her labour pains. Some women likes it while some on the other hand finds it more uncomfortable.
So there you have it, the four different medical techniques for labour pain relief. By the sound of each, I don't think I'm going to go for any! I will just need to pray hard for a natural delivery drug-free! My cousin sis all have done it, so I will be motivated to follow their fine example ;) ok fine.. I will try ler..
