Back to the Books!

Yesterday, I had the exciting experience of attending a prenatal classs for birth mothers at the LDS Family Services office in Centerville. After working with the agency for 3 1/2 years as Church Service Missionaries, it has been hard to leave such a wonderful calling. I had told our supervisor that I would love to be involved with the prenatal class, but he indicated that there was not an opening at the time. But, a couple of weeks ago, I got a call saying that they had lost a nurse and would like for me to be involved. I was really excited!

At the class, there were 2 birth mothers, both 16, one who came with an aunt and one who came with her best friend. One was 7 months along and placing her baby boy and the other was 4 months along and undecided at this time on whether to keep or place her baby boy. Since both were past their first trimester, the lesson focused on labor, birth, and postpartum.

The nurse who taught the class was so cute and she did a great job. When I met her, we both thought we knew each other. It turns out that she was a friend from high school of my daughter,Julie. She has not been able to have children and she has adopted two children through LDS Family Services and has been a volunteer for years, in various capacities. The atmosphere was very friendly and casual and lunch was served, so it made a very comfortable experience for the birth mothers. A cute adoption case worker was there, so she participated, and I was able to make a few comments, as well.

I am excited about this opportunity to teach and to serve. It will be a fun experience, but I'm afraid I am going to have to do some studying about obstetrics. My experience has been in Allergy and Urology and it has been a lot of years since my OB/Peds classes and rotations at the hospital. The manual for the class is wonderful! It is very comprehensive, with lots of pictures, illustrations, and diagrams and it is very understandable for the birth mothers.I've also pulled out my book from nursing school and I have a copy of The Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy. It would be great if I could attend a labor and delivery sometime. Maybe I will have the opportunity with one of the birth mothers, if they need a support person during labor and delivery. The other part of the assignment involves attending the birth parent support group one or two times a month, to be on hand for questions that may come up and to encourage attendance for the prenatal classes, which are held every other month.

I guess I'm official since they had me listed on the card that they handed out to the birth mothers. Now I'm on-call for questions and issues so I'm serious about getting back to the books and learning so that I can be prepared!