Most pregnant couples opt to enroll in some type of birth course to prep for the birth of their first child. Guess what? We didn’t.
I’m currently 38 weeks pregnant and with our work schedules and outlook on life, we figured we could do some of the birth-prep leg work ourselves by engaging in alternatives other than taking a course itself. Below you’ll find our rationale and steps we took to get ready for the big day.
We viewed videos online.
While we didn’t enroll in an online course we did find a lot of useful information through viewing childbirth class videos online. Baby Center allowed us to navigate through chapters that were of particular interest to us. This allowed us to view the content from the comfort of our own home. Since this was our first time in dealing with childbirth, we wanted to learn more about the different pain management techniques, signs of labor and how to prep for delivery day. Oh and did I mention it’s free?
We talked to family and friends.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of pregnancy for me was being able to talk to family and friends about their own childbirth experience and lessons learned. This is free advice! Often they enjoy sharing their experience on childbirth and important factors such as where they delivered and whether they were pleased with their overall experience. In my case, a few of my friends delivered at the hospital where we are planning to deliver. They offered advice and “what to expect” scenarios.
We did book a hospital tour.
This is the one thing I would recommend you investing your time in if you’re a busy lady/couple. We signed up for a labor and delivery tour, at no cost, that lasted approximately one hour. Here we were able to find out valuable information such as:
- Appropriate entrances depending on the day/time of your arrival
- Parking
- Visiting hours for family/friends
- What to pack and bring
- How many people allowed in labor and delivery
- Number of visitors allowed along with age requirements
- Designated “quiet times” for parents and baby (no visitors allowed during these time blocks”.
- Amenities available in labor and delivery and post delivery rooms
- What to expect from hospital staff
- NICU unit location
Use Social Media to gain perspective.
Personally , there’s one account in particular that I followed on Instagram that I found super informative. I began following @mommy.labornurse early on before I even knew I was pregnant only because I found her posts so intriguing. She’s and actual labor and delivery RN and provides factual information to help educate her followers. Browsing through her posts and stories sort of helped me feel like I was prepping for baby’s arrival one day at a time. She also blocks out time either on Saturday or Sunday’s to answer questions that were submitted from her followers. Super cool, and again free advice!
Lessons Learned
I gained most information from the hospital tour as I had the opportunity to ask hospital staff and a labor and delivery nurse specific questions. One of the biggest takeaways for me and my husband was that we both learned that the baby will be spending almost the majority of the time with us after delivery. The baby’s first bath will also be taking place in our post-delivery room and parents are expected to participate. I was under the impressions that the baby would spend some time in the nursery to allow “mom” some rest time. I also learned that the hospital really really encourages and promotes breast-feeding. So much that formula will only be administered if medically approved. I’m still not sure how I feel about this particular approach, but I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.
I’ll be sure to update this post after baby arrives to let you know what I may have done differently. Please feel free to comment to share any tips you found useful with your first birth experience.
xo,
The Sun Queen