Crack of dawn...

...was about when I gave up trying to go back to sleep. My shoulders are killing me. The massage yesterday was lovely. I will go back for more. But it's so not enough to counter balance whatever it is I do in everyday life that cause me to have chest/shoulder/neck muscles of steel. I really need to heal this before the baby comes. I don't want to be in such pain that I can't comfortably carry and breastfeed our tiny treasure.
And by the way, yes, the massage table w the cut-out for your preggo belly was all it's cracked up to be.
The massage therapist told me she'd tried to convince a bedding company to make mattresses for the market from a similiar design since all the preggos she saw was in complete extacy over it.
No one wanted to do it yet.
Perhaps I'll make my own.

Anyho, as I laid in bed, tossing and turning,I was contemplating everytning from my career dive to how on earth I am going to raise and be responsible for another human being for the rest of my life. I also thought of breasts.



Let me explain.
Last night wifey and I was at our second parent training lecture at the hospital. This time it was about nursing.

The first time was a 4 hr long ordeal with a midwife who spent her time terrifying every woman in the room of the PAIN of giving birth, and then going through all the pain medications available.

She also told us that babies feel no pain for the first 20-30 mins of their lives ( I thought we abandoned that myth about around the time when Dr Mengeles heydays were over?). And that no matter how tired you are you need to get up and move around and be active during labor for it to progress.
Unless you have an epidural. In that case, I quote; "you will be so RELAXED your body will do the work for you even if you are resting".
Ok.
I actually raised my hand in this auditorium of about 100 terrified parents-to-be to ask her if you were allowed to rest and let your body do the work for you through relaxation instead of vigorous physical exercise.
She said "well, relaxation is the key". Not really answering my question and moving on to ceasarians. Wifey was so upset by all the nonsens this woman spewed out, she wanted to leave.
I wanted to stay and hear the full extent of the craziness being portrayed as the ultimate truth.
Know thy enemy. Forewarned is forearmed etc.
We need to be prepared for how hospital births are conducted in this country so we know what to say no to and what to accept.

Needless to say, expectations for no 2 in the lecture series was very low.

We were greated by a woman with a baby-doll on her arm and a gigantic plastic boob in her hand.
She waved this boob around now and again during the lecture and we were all terrified she was going to strap it onto her chest to do a nursing imitation.
At one time she said she was going to show us nursing and started pulling at her bra- strap under her blouse.
You could hear the half empty auditorium (apparently we weren't the only ones being put of by the first lecture in the series) gasp for breath and then sigh of relief when she adjusted her strap (without pulling out her boobs) and put on a video of breast feeding.

Now, the video showed breasts left and right, and ofcourse, they needed to do that to demonstrate nursing I suppose.
But what caught on was the casualty after givning birth. The bright lights, the naked mother and baby, hospital staff chatting with the new mom, commenting the baby etc.

And that's what kept returning in my mind. I am NOT comfortable with being naked with fully dressed strangers, no matter if I've given birth or not. Perhaps ESPECIALLY not after doing something so intimate as giving birth.

I don't want to show off my tits and my private parts in a bright room, fully lit, and with a hoard of fully dressed hospital staff poking around.
(Ok, it would be even worse if the staff was naked too.)

But you know, PLEASE, some privacy? Some modesty? I don't want strangers commenting our beautiful little baby. I want that to be a private moment for me, wifey and baby.
When our baby is slowly adjusting to the outside world and rooting for my breast, I don't want some frisky nurse or midwife (who also might have nagged me to run laps in the hallway all night to speed up labor)like a sports commentator telling our baby she's doing good, to go for it etc.

The birth of our baby need to be respected as something as beautiful, tender and sacred. Not like an open sports event where everyone gets to comment on your performance.

By the way, I couldn't help noticing all the babies on the video squinting when trying to look at their parents. No wonder when you have those bright lights in the room.

What animal in nature goes up on the brightest lit mountaintop to give birth to her babies? And in front of an audience? And do physcial exercises to "speed things up"?
From what I remember from nature channel, all animals seek a secluded, dark, safe place to birth. And the lay still, panting, doing so.

Oh well, each time and culture have their view of birth.

I must say that despise of the boob overload, I liked the lecture way more than the first one.
At least this woman seemed intuned with nursing and having a natural approach to babies and mothers (and plastic boobs).
Though I don't think it would have killed them to include at least one woman in the "father" part of the video and atleast titled it "What is the job of a father/other mother".
Atleast they could have let a non bio mom clear out the dishwasher or such.