Childbirth class: making the men "feel" contractions

MommyandKate

I had my childbirth preparation class yesterday, and the instructor wanted the men to experience the pain of contractions, so she had them hold an ice cube in each hand for the length of a "contraction" and use the breathing techniques while the women were the support person.  The point was for them to experience the increasing pain as they continued to hold the ice, and the repetition of doing it again when they were still in pain from the first time.  Then the third time, she gave them women a third ice cube to press against the guy wherever you wanted, to show them that the pain isn't limited to one part of your body.  The whole thing seemed a little mean to me- it doesn't make me feel any better to watch DH in pain, especially if it's a totally different kind of pain from what I will experience.

Making him wear a fake pregnancy stomach during the class to feel the weight of pregnancy, on the other hand, would have pleased me greatly...  especially if we could then have a "pick things up off the floor" exercise

acia

I hated this exercise in the prenatal class we took! But it wasn't just for husbands - we all had to do it. I hope contractions are easier, because I swear I had frostbite from that activity!

iris427

Yeah what is with that exercise?  That is so not what a contraction feels like LOL

I like your idea of having the men wear a fake belly!

ToledoDeux

Ditto pp - in my class, we all did it - and it was more to demonstrate the need to breathe and refocus outside of the pain.  And DH was better at it than me!  lol.

.happy.as.just.kim.

I guess it is a bit mean, but sorta good too. We just had a very basic class w/ just one of the L&D nurses, DH and myself. At the end she asked me if I had a high pain tolerance. DH literally snorted and was like "hahaha- her pain tolerance is SO low". Ok, so I can be a baby when it comes to certain things, but he has NO IDEA what I've been going thru for 9 mo thankyouverymuch and NO IDEA what labor will be like either. I shot him a total go-to-hell look, replied to the nurse that yes, I would be getting an epidural I was sure. Then on the way home I told DH that if he wanted to make fun of me or my pain tolerance he was free to birth baby #2 without a fight from me! So, yes, while the ice cube thing sounds mean- perhaps my DH should have been in that class to get what I will go thru any day now (I hope!)

MrsPatterson

Wow it never occurred to me that they would do anything like this in a birth class.  Mine is in September and my DH already doesn't want to go, so I don't think I'll be mentioning this to him until we're walking in the door...

lovesazzie

That is really odd, and I agree with you that I think it is a totally different kind of pain and I don't get the point of the exercise at all.

The belly exercise would be so awesome though!

Ambabyh

we did this in our class too and DH took some time to get serious and actually support me while I was holding the ice so when it was his turn, I laughed in his ear to make him understand how annoying it was to be laughing instead of supporting.  The belly thing would be priceless though!!

thatgirlang

I've never heard of that! It sounds mean.... and yet, not mean enough. LOL

dandelion17

I don't have my class til Sept. but this actually makes me laugh....only because although it won't be at all like contractions, it's kinda neat that they do something to have guys understand even a little what we might be doing or going through. The belly idea is way better though, because my BF doesn't seem to get that my belly is starting to be in my way.

smilelari

I read Birthing From Within and that's how they have you practice relaxation techniques.  I've been doing this a little.  It is completely different from how a contraction would feel, I would think, but really how else do you practice relaxing through some sort of pain without actually hurting yourself?  The only problem I have is that you can't practice very many repetitions because eventually your hand gets numb so you're not sure if you're not feeling it because you're getting really good at relaxing (yeah right) or because your hand is numb

sam19

I'm glad we didn't have to do this in our class. I would have loooved if they would have made the men wear the fake bellies though.

Blackvelvet

I like the belly idea a lot. We didn't do any exercises in our class but I'm sure the pain is so differnt it wouldn't make him understand.