We started the Pink Kit DVD, and I'm really glad. I've been looking forward to this part of the kit, which has a bit of a more “multimedia” and interactive feel. I'm completely spoiled by a multi-media world :p
It's also good because we get to see women using the techniques we read about. That's really helpful to me.
Some Repetition
Scott is frustrated because he feels like the written material is repetitive, and thus decided not to read the two pages on breath in Essential Preparations since breath was covered pretty extensively in New Focus. I find reading all the material helpful, however. I can almost always take something from it.
I find repetition on something like breathing to be quite helpful as well. Reading about it and practicing it over and over means it's going to come naturally to me during labor. I also want it to come naturally to a coach because I know for a fact that having a coach breathe with me has been helpful in labor.
I liked the video segment on Breath, which is what we watched last night. It was good to see the demonstration. The video covered directed breathing. One bit showed focusing the breath into the sacrum area (and showed exactly where that is). Just like the section of New Focus that talked about breath into the pelvis I found this section on breath into the sacrum very helpful.
Practicing
I've been thinking about directed breathing all morning after watching the video last night. I've had a bit of a queasy tummy (isn't that supposed to be gone in the first trimester???!) and spent some time on the couch focusing my breathing around to relax.
As I've practiced breathing and relaxing through braxton-hicks contractions and when I've gotten stressed in the past few weeks I've noticed I have a tendency to pull my belly muscles in. So it has been good to focus on consciously relaxing those and throughout my pelvic region. The Pink Kit has been so helpful in bringing my awareness of that tension and relaxation to the forefront of my mind. I enjoy practicing throughout the day and internalizing the skills, because I know they'll be with me in birth.
I've also been able to share with Scott about things like my tense belly muscles so he can help remind me of that during labor. I certainly don't want to make things even more tense down there when a contraction is already squeezing – I want to get the rest of my muscles out of the way so my uterus can do its work effectively and with less pain for me :p
So the breathing and tension exercises have been nice for me, as has the increased awareness. I also like that when I'm focusing on that I tend to focus on the baby. And I like the feeling of preparing for birth, which is becoming more and more urgent as we get closer to the time he'll arrive.
Our next section is on the Bony Pelvis and we get into the nitty gritty of anatomy. Scott has assured me he'll read that section since we've not covered it yet 😉 And then we'll work through that portion of the DVD this week. I'd actually like to get through the next couple of sections or three sections this week as they're all inter-related. And I'm eager to learn the Pink Kit skills so I can begin being aware of those things and practicing them throughout my days too 🙂
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