Pregnancy: Our 3rd Antenatal Class with TMC

Last week, we attended our 3^rd antenatal class by Thomson ParentCraft. It’s held at AMK Hub’s My little Skoolhouse and conducted by the very reputable, Mrs Wong Boh Boi. Even though I’ll be delivering at Parkway east Hospital, I chose TMC’s antenatal classes because of Mrs Wong. I’ve read many excellent and wonderful reviews about her on forums, thus my choice! It also helped that the classes are conducted at AMK Hub instead of the highly inaccessible TMC.  

There are a total of 6 classes for the entire antenatal programme. Each class has about 25-30 couples (so many preggies together!) and we’re all made to sit down on mats + pillows provided on the floor for the first few classes. This was still manageable since most of us ladies aren’t that heavily pregnant yet. G and I always sit right behind so that we can learn our backs against the wall hehe. Sitting for 2.5 hours without any back support can be awfully torturing!

For our 1^st two classes, G and I learnt the following which we found super useful:

-          Correct postures for sitting/getting up and sleeping

-          Stretching and strengthening exercises

-          Massage techniques for daddies to practise on mummies

-          Bonding with unborn baby through touch, words and music

-          Recommended diet

-          Confinement myths (yay I get to shower!)

-          Pelvic Floor exercises

-          Breathing techniques for adoption during childbirth (deep breathing + shallow breathing)

-          Types of Pain relief (eg. Epidural)

For our 3^rd class yesterday, before we revised all our stretching + pelvic + breathing exercises, we watched a video on 6 different childbirths. These included natural delivery, water birthing and Caesarian section. To be honest, I was quite overwhelmed and traumatized watching the videos as they were rather graphic and totally not censored at all. They practically show babies coming out from expanded vaginas and you can see the pain that the mothers go through. -_- It made me wonder whether I should just opt for C Section! Lol.

During the class, Mrs Wong also shared on what happens during childbirth and how a baby actually moves out through the cervix/birth canal (i.e baby first faces downward then turns to the left side before coming out). Found this really useful because now I know what to expect during labour. More importantly, we had a practical exercise of simulating childbirth where all the mummies had to breathe with chin in, lean forward and pretend to push whilst exhaling. We were taught that when the midwife/nurse calls ‘stop!’, that means baby’s head is already out and there is a need to halt the pushing by panting. This gives the midwife/nurse time to ensure umbilical cord is not strangling baby’s neck and make the necessary adjustments. So many things we learnt about!

So far no regrets on taking the class! =D

Can't wait for our class tomorrow!