Today, I received my Official Coach Card indicating that Carolyn and I have completed our Bradley Method training in preparing for a “natural” birth. I (and I believe Carolyn) certainly benefited greatly from Tera Nelson’s training, and feel much more prepared now than I(we) did even a scant month ago. Still, there’s a twinge of nervousness (sometimes more like panic) about this very physical and quite unknown (to us) process that we have coming up. Not to mention that at the end of this process, we’ll have a baby.
The baby, of course, being the whole purpose of the labor. The baby who will be a source of wonder, joy, and darn, there’s that “panic” word again. Generally, I don’t mind a little fear. It’s information. I can do something with it. The thing is, fear can be contagious and there’s this “Fear -> Tension -> Pain” cycle that we’ve been trained to avoid. All we have to do is be confident, calm and relaxed through this long, painful and totally new-to-us process. No problem. Of course, it’s a little troubling that no one can really describe what to expect to us because “Every Labor’s Different”. I feel a little like Neo in the “first jump” in the Matrix. Except, it’s not all in my mind, it’s all in her body. No problem.
I also get a kick out of my coach’s card itself. The title across the top is “Official Coach Card” [emphasis mine]. It was already in the back of the workbook when we bought it, it just hadn’t been filled out. It’s kind of like a restaurant with “Fancy” in the name. You can be quite sure that it’s not actually fancy, but it has designs on being fancy once it outgrows its awkward teenage years.