the antenatal class

I'm 35 weeks now.

So naturally the comment I've been getting now is,

"You're 35 weeks and you haven't attended antenatal class? You should go to antenatal class! They tell you everything"

Because despite the belly getting fuller and heavier, I have nothing to prepare for birth, except the hospital bag -____-"

So we went to our very first antenatal class yesterday.



My colleagues have been telling me that these classes really help on your preparation for labor, and since I have zero knowledge about it, I figured I might as well enroll and see if they help. Plus, I get to drag the other half too - he's the reason all these started, after all. Hehe.

We decided to attend the one hosted by An-Nur Specialist Hospital in Bangi after browsing through the pamphlets on the net - this one seems the most promising i.e. with longest hours of talks, best of speakers and widest scope coverage from pregnancy to post-natal care.

Also the cheapest too!

Some of the topics I found helpful :

Healthy diet during pregnancy

Had a full hour of the speaker reminding us, the mothers to keep fit while eating well - veggies, fish, fruits are important! And since the speaker is from Enfamum, she kept telling us that calcium is the most important thing to consume while pregnant so we must take milk every single day. And that Enfamum is the best milk for preggers out there.

I wanted to tell her I'm lactose intolerant and have been taking calcium tablet all these while, so your milk is no good to me, thank you. But that'd be too rude.

What to do after baby is born, in Islam

This, I found very helpful. As it is our first time, there are so many unclear about the process in Islamic perspective - so to summarize, this is what I learned from the session :

There are 7 things to do after your baby is born, as per what the Prophet saw practiced;

- the daddy to Azan to the baby's ear
- tahnik : the practice of chewing dates and rubbing it in baby's mouth
- giving the baby a good name either on the first, third or seventh day after he was born
- cukur or shave his whole head
- aqiqah
- sunat or circumcision.

I forgot one point -_-" Will update soon (when I get to curi Shahrul's notes. Yes, he took notes!)

Breastfeeding

All breastfeeding 101. You'd have to take it serious if you're a pro-breastfeed person - I haven't made my decision yet, but yes, I do realize there are a lot of good things human milk actually provides compared to cow's milk (or goat's milk, in that context).

The speaker taught us how to properly breastfeed too, which I find most helpful. Shall revisit the notes again after the delivery!

A joke one of the speakers made which made the whole floor laughing,

"I heard taking goat's milk is good for jaundice and even better than other milk, is it true?"

"Well..let me put it this way - susu kambing untuk anak kambing, so good for anak kambing lah.."

I swear it was so funny we were still laughing in the car.

Preparation for labour, breathing exercise and massage

Most helpful session of all. The instructor made the husbands lean against the wall to be the wives' "sofa", and they have to "pinch" the wives as an indicator of each time the contractions come, and she would show us what to do. Then she showed us the right breathing exercise to do every time the midwife says "push" and "tahan".

I was asked by the instructor,

"What is your biggest fear during the delivery?"

"Episiotomy. Because I can't imagine that area getting cut by the doctor"

She brushed it off, saying mehh you won't even feel it with the labour pain and all but still, I was serious -_-"

She even showed us a birth video - one where the mother had a normal delivery with epidural and no bleeding at all, because - there were no vaginal tears or episiotomy!

Gasp. It was our second time watching birth video (the first time was accidental, and it haunted me for the rest of the day) but this one seems less scary because the doctor didn't have to cut anything, there were no tears and no blood.

A girl can only hope.

It was a great session, and even though it took so long - we were in the room from freaking 8.30 am until 6.00 pm - it was worth it, because I had the husband with me. He was so attentive to every topic the speakers mentioned, taking notes of everything and constantly massaging my back whenever I felt uncomfortable sitting down for too long.

We even made jokes and made fun of other couples too, so the sessions weren't too dull (some first time parents are very entertaining). At this point, I'm glad I married a funny guy haha (or at least, he's funny to me -_-") because at the end of the session, I realized there is no other person I would like to accompany me in going through this, except him. He makes everything easier for me, and the relief of knowing I have someone as good as him makes everything a lot less scarier.

I rarely talk about pregnancy because it's a scary thing to me and I am clueless on what to expect, but now, I feel like I can do this so much better. 5 more weeks, will get through insyaAllah!