July 6th was our last Lamaze class. We missed last week’s class because Bernard was out of town and I didn’t want to go by myself; also, I was post-call and had a presentation to give the next day. It doesn’t seem like we missed much, except for some more graphic videos. Those might have been good for Bernard to see, but on the other hand, I’m almost certainly going to have a C-section, so he won’t have to actually deal with the goriness of a vaginal birth. (In case you didn’t read the last blog entry, we found out at our last OB appointment that now both babies are breech, and I scheduled my C-section for August 2nd!)

The instructor noted that we weren’t there last week, and she said that she thought I might have been put on bedrest. The other couple who were expecting twins as well dropped out of the class for that reason. Actually, I’m surprised that I’ve made it this far. Only about three more weeks to go! And I’m still working–although no overnight call, thank goodness.

This class dealt more with post-partum stuff and a little bit on breastfeeding. Actually it was useful for me to hear about the mother’s recovery since I haven’t had any post-partum patients since medical school. The instructor mentioned that there would be quite a bit of bleeding after the delivery, so I repacked our hospital bag with extra large “overnight”-sized maxi pads. (I only put regular-sized pads there initially.) Also, she encouraged us to ask the nurses to teach us how to massage the uterus after delivery since apparently it’s a lot less painful if you do it yourself. I’m not sure I’ll be doing this post-C-section though.

At the end of class, we practiced our breathing techniques again. Bernard and I have the techniques down pretty well. Of course, things are more relaxed now that we know that I might not actually go into labor before the scheduled C-section!