Last night, Tim and I ventured out to our first pre-baby class, this one on Breastfeeding (yes, they do have classes on this and yes they made me bring my husband). I actually had every intension of not bringing him, but the people at the Pump Station in Santa Monica where I signed up for my class scared me into thinking I would be the only person there without a husband, so Tim came with me in full support and with little pushback. I was very proud that he would come so willingly.
The class was three hours - yes 3 hours - which in my mind could have been dwindled down to about 90 minutes, but I am in PR and I believe in the quick pitch versus a 3 hour class where I am getting about an hours worth of information. Not to mention that you are asking pregnant women who are within a month or two of giving birth to sit in uncomfortable chairs, in the evening which for some of us is following a long day of work, for three hours to talk about how to breast feed. So, I had an issue with the length of the class, but overall I am glad we went. I think there were some general helpful nuggets that we were able to take away from the class that will help us with this potentially difficult process. I will tell you, the class kind of scared me a bit, I mean breastfeeding sounds like a lot of work...but then again, having a baby is a lot of work so I need to start mentally preparing myself for this! I have been so focused on having her get here that I have not been thinking through the actual day in and day out work that I will be doing (I should say what Tim and I will be doing as he plans to be as involved as possible). I know it will all be worth it, but the class did leave me feeling a bit nervous and adding several more items to my list of more baby accessories to buy.
A few key things we took away from the class - we bought the right pump, the Medela Freestyle that offers a handsfree attachment, we should not start introducing the bottle until about 2 weeks after baby is born (Tim has 2 weeks off basically), you need some accessories to take care of any potential "issues" you might encounter during the process and we got to see a video on how the baby basically feeds off of you. Interesting and informative for sure.
I can say that I do like the Pump Station in Santa Monica for their overall commitment to helping moms before and after baby arrives, the great merchandise they sell and the teacher was in general informative. Just cut the class in half next time, and I would recommend it to anyone.
Next up, a birthing class.
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