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Taking birthing classes as a first time parent should be a top priority. When becoming a parent, you are entering a whole new world. There are some things that you just shouldn't be suprised about. Carrying the baby for nine months is the easy part. When you go into labor, you will want to be prepared as possible for anything that could happen.

It has been many years since I had a baby. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I didn't take the time to take these classes. I was really sorry that I didn't. I was totally unprepared for the things that could happen. Even just the basic things were foreign to me. When I had my show of blood, I thought something was wrong. Yet it was a very normal thing to happen.

My daughter was rough on me during labor and delivery. I was in major pain and I didn't have a clue how to try and relieve it or how to calm down. This added stress to me and the baby. Her heart rate dropped drastically and I thought for a while that I might lose her.

When my daughter was pregnant with her first child, she asked me to go to the classes with her. I more than gladly did that and realized how much I missed out on when I was pregnant. They taught both of us a lot and I had already had two children. Things that would have scared us half to death were made a little easier to understand. This kept the worry down to a minimum.

My daughter then went into premature labor and had to be flown out to John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. It was a scary time for everyone. However, because of these classes, my daughter was able to stay calm and collected. She never once got hyper, barring the thought of the helicopter ride.

She understood the things that were happening and understood that her baby was in the most capable hands in the world. The stress level was down for my daughter and her baby.

The bottom line here is that you should take the classes. You may not need to use a lot of the information that they give you, but you might need it. Even with a small chance of something going wrong, it's worth knowing about it ahead of time.

The worst thing that can happen if you take these classes is that you will learn something new. The worst thing that can happen if you don't is that you find yourself so stressed out that you have no clue how to settle yourself down and neither does your coach. My suggestion is to do it!

Learn more about this author, Dawn Hawkins.
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