Birthing class.

Well, this is all become a little too real. I've been to my first birthing class with Tricky in the local Methodist church.

It was a bit surreal at first walking into a big room with a bunch of heavily pregnant women and their partners. All of the partners have a look on their faces – something like worry mixed with confusion and perhaps just a smidgen of panic. Thats the first-time fathers anyway. There were a few who already had children. They just looked tired. It turned out to be quite a good few hours. We went through all of the ways the partner can help during the birthing process. There was lots of massage involved and there was some squatting and there was a bit of moaning (Tricky got the giggles during the moaning – can't take her anywhere.) I also learned an amazing fact about the woman's body. When the baby is born, its head comes out first, right? You might also know that some of the female pelvic bones are specially designed to move and widen the birth canal to allow an easier birth. But did you know this? The coccyx bone (tailbone) also moves out of the way, like a trapdoor and – get this – when the baby is in the perfect birthing position, the coccyx is actually designed to slide over the babies nose and squish the fluid out of of the nostrils. Is that detail or what? Besides that, there are numerous other tiny details that make the whole process flow as... erm well, as nature intended. I'll try to compose a list of them for your education and awe. God (insert deity of choice) has a pretty amazing design shop out there somewhere.

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