I signed up for the classes. They were interesting but to be honest, I was exhausted and it was really hard no to dose off. Although I don’t remember a lot about the actual material taught in the class, I got a lot just from letting myself sit back and relax while she read through the scripts.

When it came time for my baby to be born the only thing I remembered about the breathing exercises was to breathe in to the count of 4 and breathe out to the count of 8. “Calm Breathing.”  When I felt a contraction start I took a deep breath into my lower abdomen. In… 2 … 3… 4… pause … and by the time I was ready to breathe out my contraction seemed to disappear. I felt a little bit of tightness and pressure but the contractions never peaked the way they did with my other two labors.

This went on for a couple hours. I thought I was in the very early stages of labor. I was sure it would take most of the day. I felt crampy in the middle of the night but wasn’t sure if I was in labor. Around 7 in the morning I was sure I was in labor but the contractions were very mild and were staying about 10 minutes apart. I let my midwife know that I was having contractions but they were slow. By noon my midwife had gotten there.  No change in my contractions. I still figured it would take all day.

Suddenly, around 12:20 I had two strong contractions back to back! I could feel that the baby was ready to move through. He was born at 12:25. I never even had a cervical exam! He was already coming out by the time the midwife was ready to check!

Even though I only remembered one breathing exercise, I know the classes were what made the labor so smooth and quick!