A little while ago I've been to a 4-day course at my chosen birthing center Medlife where medical staff came to teach future parents the ABCs of taking care of a little human. Personally, I didn't find the courses much enlightening or the staff very well prepared with useful information and wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for courses of this kind.
Maybe they will improve this area in the future, but for present time I also tested the courses provided by
Crucea Alba which I found much more closer to my informational and emotional needs.
One moment I could not forget, or apparently get over was when the nutrition teacher brought up one things I've heard a lot of people around me saying to pregnant women or women with very little kids (Approximate reproduction):
"I am sorry to tell you this, but you need to not to do and eat this and this and this anymore (insert half hour long list). Now that you need to take care of the little one inside you don't matter anymore, he or she does. The only thing that is important now is the welfare of your newborn, etc, etc"
I perfectly agree that once a woman become pregnant she needs to take as much care as possible of herself in order to give her child the best and healthiest start in life possible. Nothing more true.
But I also know that this doesn't come easy for everybody. Personally I miss a lot my old lifestyle, foods, vices and all. Lifestyle which needed a hell of a lot of adjustments which still don't come easy to me even after 7 months of pregnancy.
Feeling this way does not mean I don't do the needed changes and requirements anyway, or that I think less lovingly about the little man growing inside.
So while I totally believe that the lady there had the best intentions at heart for the mother and baby and provided her advice without meaning any harm, I felt totally depressed after leaving the center.
I don't know about you, but personally I don't like to think of myself as a walking human incubator, or a person who lost her right to matter once she got pregnant. I also believe that nobody, woman or man deserves to be told they as a person and their needs don't matter anymore. Especially during one of the most demanding periods of one's life.
I totally agree all those things need to be done, no argument there. But I also think that the way the information is presented makes a whole of a lot of difference on whether a person will be able to cope and find motivation or will get into a depression.
So having encountered this way too many times, I'd like to see more doctors wrapping their advice and lessons in a way that targets not only having a perfectly healthy body to produce children but also a healthy mind to be able to adjust to the changes happening in the new course of life.
I'd like to hear them telling women that they are important, that what they feel, need and crave is important, that being able to find joy in new things might mean being referred to a course of therapy to help obtain those targets.
I'd also love to hear your opinions on this. Have you been in the same situation? How did you handle it? How do you think things could be different?
Thanks you all for taking the time to read my thoughts and see you again soon!
