A dirty secret about pain relief in labour

We attended our second and final antenatal class, the one that's kind of scary, where we talked about pain relief and intervention. You know, the one that makes you kind of nervous and apprehensive and makes the voices in your head scream "you have to get a BABY out of you!!!"

Anyway, one thing did amuse me somewhat. I was curious to learn about pethidine, as it's one thing I don't know that much about. I learned that it's an opiate, and interestingly, that a lot of hospitals are now replacing it with its relative, diamorphine. Wait a minute. Isn't diamorphine the clinical name for heroin??? So, you spend your whole pregnancy avoiding alcohol and cigarettes and a heap of foods, and then in labour they shoot you up with heroin??? Come on guys, that's pretty funny!

Antenatal class

I didn't really know what to expect from antenatal classes. I was hoping it wouldn't be too scary! I really didn't want to have to watch childbirth videos, nor did I want to do anything too "earth mothery" like sitting in a circle doing breathing exercises and touchy feely sharing. Luckily none of these things were involved. It was a great class. The teacher was very matter of fact and down to earth, offering just the right balance of reality without being too in your face. We were also relieved to find that the other couples (the group was 8 couples in total) were very nice and similar to us. We all ate lunch together and everyone seemed to get along and have plenty to talk about, baby/pregnancy-wise and otherwise. I was recommended NCT classes over hospital run ones for the very reason it is a good way to meet other people who live locally and I would have to agree it's worth the cost.

The class was also very well structured and provoked a lot of interesting and worthwhile discussion, not only as a group and as mums-to-be and dads-to-be, but also amongst ourselves as couples. It's invaluable for dads in my opinion. I mean, mums-to-be naturally get into discussion with other women and generally have access to a lot of information, but for dads that is less available and this class seemed to me a good way for the dads to take all this information on board. I was really impressed with how involved all the men in the group were and how much they wanted to participate. It opened up a lot of discussion for hubby and myself and although he has been supportive from the start I really feel now like he's really there for me and understands it all better.

If there's anyone out there who is considering taking NCT or equivalent antenatal classes I would highly recommend it.

NCT social

Things started to ramp up noticeably as I slid into my third trimester. All of a sudden the calendar seemed to be filling up with baby-related events. Aside from appointments with doctors and midwives and various other medical testing type people more or less every week, NCT events were starting to make an appearance. We got confirmation of our antenatal classes in October and all of a sudden I was getting emails and an invitation to a Yahoo group for local mums-to-be. I am pretty excited about being involved and going to events. I plan to join the "bumps and babies" weekly get-togethers when I start maternity leave (when is that again?!) to meet other mums in my local area.

We went to our first social evening at a local pub. I wasn't totally sure what to expect but it was a good night and we chatted to some nice people. Most if not all the people there seemed to be of similar age and background/lifestyle to us. I wasn't sure how Hubby would feel about it all, I didn't know if I was dragging him there against his will, but he seemed to genuinely enjoy himself and got talking to people. It was something of a relief to feel like the choice to join the NCT was a good one and I started to look forward to meeting more people and attending the get-togethers and classes.