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If you are having your first child, then I will have to say YES! Childbirth and Labor classes are definitely worth taking. Being a first time parent can be very scary. Not knowing what to expect or the things that you may end up going through during labor is something that everyone thinks about. What will it feel like? Will it be painful? How long will I be in labor for? These are all questions that I'm sure all pregnant women have on their minds.

For me there was no question about whether or not I would take the Childbirth classes. Hey, I was pregnant with my first child. Of course I had seen videos of women giving birth before and I had watched TLC's Birth Day every time it came on TV during my pregnancy. But what these shows don't tell you is how your body works once you are in labor and even the weeks or months leading up to the birth of your child.

During the classes which I took, they showed videos of what happens inside your body, the different stages of labor, how to time your contractions and different breathing exercises. The instructor spoke about her experiences during the birth of her children just to give us an example of how different each birth can be. She also talked about the pros and cons of having an epidural.

Before I took the childbirth and labor class I didn't know very much about what to expect. I had my friends tell me that I should "DEFINITELY get the epidural". What does the epidural do though? What most women know about the epidural is that it numbs you from the waist down so you can't feel the painful contractions. Doctors will normally suggest getting the epidural if they are planning on inducing labor or just giving you petocin to increase the contractions. One problem with the epidural is that, well it works against the petocin which in turn will make the labor last longer.

I was in labor for a total of 14 hours. I was in pain for only 1 hour though. The doctor had given me petocin to speed up my labor. I decided to go without the epidural based on what I had learned in the childbirth and labor classes. The way I looked at it was that the more pain I was in, the harder I would push.

Thanks to my knowledgeable instructor I think I was pretty well prepared for labor. I would highly recommend taking the classes for 1st time mothers. But I wouldn't need to go through the class again for future pregnancies.

Learn more about this author, Danielle Difrancesco.
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