Butterfly Kisses

I received a phone call the other day asking for information about my childbirth education classes. The woman was very interested in all the information that I was providing and seemed to really think the class would be just what she and her husband needed to prepare for their birth until she asked how many weeks the class would last. “Twelve weeks!” she exclaimed “You expect me to spend twelve weeks on something so simple as giving birth?” I was truly at a loss for words. Something as simple as giving birth huh? I reflected on these words for a couple of days and soon found myself getting angry. Was twelve weeks really too much time to ask someone to plan for one event? I started thinking about other events I have taken time in my life to prepare for. The only thing that came to mind was my wedding. For over fifteen months I planned. I was on wedding planning message boards, would interview every single person who was recommended to me and spent countless hours agonizing over the colors, the music, the flowers, the dress and everything in between. Most couples I know do the same. Of course at the end of the day all that really matters is that they are able to marry their partner but very few people say ‘well the minister/priest/rabbi etc is the expert on marriage I will just do whatever they say in regards to my wedding’ yet when it comes to birth so many couples simply defer to whatever their doctor tells them is best even when there is no medical evidence supporting those choices. We invested 15 months into planning our wedding which only lasted about 7 hours from the march down the aisle to the last dance. The average labor for a first time mom is 12 hours. Even if you are planning a medicated birth doesn’t it make sense to put even a quarter of the effort into the plan as you did your wedding day?

Is 12 weeks of childbirth preparation really too much time to invest in preparing to bring your child into this world? Honestly I don’t think its long enough and find myself supplementing my materials with emails, articles and research throughout the week. When you really start looking to how to prepare for such an extraordinary occasion I suggest you find the longest, most through childbirth class you can find and then supplement it with as much reading material as you can. When it comes to bringing your child into the world this is truly not a case of less is more.