At our childbirth prep class tonight we spent the first half talking and watching another labor/birth video (Mr.P says he doesn't know how many more birth videos he can stomach watching, ha ha).
After the video we did a practice contraction/coaching activity. To start, each couple sat together on a foam mat. The instructor handed each couple a bag of ice and a wash cloth. We were instructed to each put a hand in the bag of ice and grab a handful to squeeze for about a minute. I think Mr.P and I were the whimpiest couple there, we were both yelping in pain over how bad our hands hurt from the cold ice. Following that the instructor had just the guys grab a handful of ice to squeeze for a minute while us ladies rubbed their backs, whispered encouraging words in their ear and encouraged them to breath. This was so we could show them how we would want to be coached if the roles were reversed. Of course that is what happened next, us ladies had to squeeze the ice while our husbands comforted us. (The wash cloth was to dry our hand after each "contraction").
I have to say, that being massaged and comforted made the ice squeezing less painful than the first time when we grabbed the ice without any comfort. We practiced this exercise several more times, each time using a different breathing pattern the instructor taught us. It was pretty cool because with the pain of the ice, I really did notice that difference breathing patterns worked or didn't work for distracting me from the pain in my hand. It's one thing to just sit and try breathing differently, but to do it while experiencing some sort of pain made it feel much more applicable to what labor will be like. While it may not be labor, repeatedly squeezing a handful of ice cubes for a full minute is pretty painful!
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