Pre-booking session

We went to our pre-booking session today. Essentially it was a group session where a midwife support worker runs through the basics (no yummy cheese (i.e.: brie, stilton etc), no pate because of the mould (there's mould in pate?? I'm so glad I'm vegetarian!!) and the like. She also gives us a feck load of forms to fill in so the midwife doesn't have to do it in the booking session. It was quite a lot to take in, but...I am a geek and have read up a lot already so most of it was old news. I bought Your Pregnancy Week By Week by Lesley Regan. It's really helpful and totally non-patronising, unlike some of the other books I've browsed in Waterstones (such delights as "let's face it, there's nothing much you can do while you're pregnant so you may as well eat!" er...no). I thought it was all rather marvellous until I read the section on pain during labour and felt pure panic wash over me right down to my toes. All I can say is, man it's gonna hurt like hell. As much as I'd like to feel nothing I don't think I would want an epidural. How much of an experience can that be - being told when to push because you don't know? I'm sure there will be a load more bumph thrown at me by midwives etc about my options for pain relief, different types of birth etc. Bring on the raspberry leaf tea!

Talking of bumph, there wasn't half a lot of adverts in one of the packs she gave us today. One thing I found really grim was a little card saying "the first time you saw me" with a space designed for the first scan image which is very twee and quite a lovely idea if it didn't have Pampers plastered all over it. Even Mastercard are at it! There's much encouragement to join "the best Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting Club - Bounty" which, as far as I can tell, means you get a load of free samples of baby products full of horrible chemicals, most of which I have no intention of using! Like...Pampers. Uh...LANDFILLS ANYONE?? So anyway, I might give that a miss and speak to people I meet along the way.

The next appointment, by which time we must have done our homework, bring on the forms, is 20th January. Hopefully Simon's work aren't stingy about giving him the time off. Hmph. Stupid work.