Sunday was the last in our series of four birthing classes at Enlightened Mama here in St. Paul. I’m a little sad to say good-bye, mostly because I’d gotten used to our Sunday ritual: morning full of whatever we felt like (often cleaning for me and dog park for Steve and Tivo), a few hours of class, grocery shopping at Aldi, dinner and quiet time at home. A perfect end to the weekend. I’m sure we’ll survive with the extra afternoon hours, but it will be hard to top lounging in a giant bean bag chair while learning about what life has in store for us.

Much of what was covered in class was information that both Steve and I had already encountered in our at-home reading, but there was something nice about gathering with other parents-to-be each Sunday afternoon. Plus we always got snacks. Lots of snacks. Delicious snacks.

Our instructor, Erin, was the perfect balance between earthy mama and science-influenced adviser. I think the latter might be the only reason I got Steve to stick out four full weeks of hanging out with strangers, and talking about babies and bodily functions and feelings.

Although there were many activities involved in class, my favorite was a process of elimination game we played to determine what the top three most important aspects of labor/birth are to each of us. We had double-sided cards with varying options on each side (midwife vs. OB/GYN, able to move freely during labor vs. labor in bed, etc.) for which we had to choose our preferred side and then eliminate options until we reached our Big Three. It was really interesting to see what a difference in essential factors there was from group to group, even though I’d say that everyone in the class was fairly like-minded regarding birth practices.

The point of the exercise was really to help give us focus when constructing a birth plan. As much as you can plan birth, you know? So that’s next on our to-do list (and should probably be ready to go for our next appointment with the midwives): write out our birth preferences.  Better get to work…

(You probably noticed the photo fail. No pictures. Only boring text. I’m just leaving room for improvement.)