Growing Baby Online Class Review

Today was a little tiring but still very fulfilling because I get to join a Growing Baby class and it is filled with good things. I learned a lot about pregnancy, labor and birthing as well as breastfeeding, baby wearing and cloth diaper all in one day! How amazing is that? Imagine how much information my brain was taking in today. So I napped after the full day session, I wasn't even been able to do a live video on my YouTube channel even if it's my schedule day because I was already tired.

So, this blog is a review on the class that I had enrolled for Php 2,600. It may sound a little pricey but as a first time mom who lives in the city with no other companion than my husband because of the current situation, I thought there's no other way that I can be very prepared with my upcoming baby than enrolling myself into this.

I still doubt that my parents and parents in law will be able to come to Cebu City even with the general community quarantine and so to prepare myself, I decided to get into this class which was also recommended by one of my church mate and small group member.

Image source: Growing Baby Classes

The class was done via Zoom meeting because again, we are currently on a quarantine. Technology has been very vital in whatever activities we do today, our gender reveal, the surprise baby shower and other gatherings are now being done online so I am thankful for technology that learning about birthing and baby care and all of that is still possible through these platforms.

At nine in the morning, the class started with introducing the participants, there were around seven mothers, six of whom are first time moms. The first lesson on pregnancy, labor and birth was handled by Hillary Overton which was really informative. I guess I am now more confident if labor comes because of what she mentioned that there's a purpose in our pain. Labor and giving birth is part of being a woman and our body is designed to do it so pain is definitely part of it and we have to face it but we need to also be knowledgeable of why we are feeling the pain and what to do to overcome it.

I like how she stressed on making sure we have a focal point which we have to remind ourselves during the labor, we also have to get our nesting place ready as it will be our comfort zone during labor. There are many many ways to combat pain during the labor and she discussed it so well it made me felt secure and able after the discussion. Oh, we also drew our reproduction anatomy which is really important to understand well our pregnancy.

The second topic was about new born care and breastfeeding handled by Dr. Marnini who is a breastfeeding advocate, actually, all those who handled the lessons are breastfeeding advocates and I had already set my mind that I will be breastfeeding my baby.

This part was emotional because Doc Marnini showed us a video of a child's first crawl and it was just so touching to see a new born baby crawl up to find his mom's breast. I learned a lot of things as well on this part and I also had my questions answered such as the stuffs to bring at the hospital, what happens after birth at facility and what to expect if the baby is separated from the mom.

The third part was about baby wearing which I was not very familiar about. I didn't consider this part actually of my pregnancy and I am glad they had included it and I am now trying to look for these baby wearing options for my future baby. It looks stylish and it has very good advantages for the mom and the baby so I am definitely looking into it.

Last but not the least was the Cloth Diapers. As a reusable napkin/panty liner user myself, I already had set as well that I will be using cloth diapers for my baby. But today, I bought some disposable ones just to make sure that my baby will have diapers just in case my order from Shopee won't arrive on time. I ordered 24 Alva Baby cloth diapers and it says it will arrive in 10 days. So, I still had questions about the topic and the facilitator was able to answer them all.

Overall, everything was good but I believe that this experience would have been better if done in personal because there were so many things that we could have done if we were just in a regular class setting like the exercises, the breathing practices, even the breastfeeding portion and the baby care. But I understand that this is not possible at this time due to the pandemic.

Another thing that was a problem was the internet connection. This is a third world country issue and so I totally understand there will be challenges. We lost around twenty minutes I guess because of the internet problem that Doc Marnini had with her connection and her slides were not clear on the screen because of that. There were also delays and some video buffers here and ethere but after that, everything was good.

I highly recommend this class most especially for first time moms. They were also kind enough to share some video links and some snippets of the slides on a Facebook group created by Doc Marnini so we can go over and check it out after or in the next days.

What else did happen today? Well, my neighbor also gave me three sets of bra. Yes, I was really surprised about it. This neighbor or ours really had been very generous to us and since these items fit me well, I told her I will pay for it. After a lot of persistence, she agreed but she still gave me discount. 

Also, I bought a pre-loved polka dot wrap dress. I will then be wearing it in my next doctor's appointment later this week.

Thanks for reaching this far! I hope you had a great Saturday too! It's already June!