Zatera Ul

Dr. Sanity has a good post on the psychological defense of anticipation (including a description of a Mars Mission medical simulation (!)):

Anticipation is defined as the realistic planning for future discomfort, and it involves something more than simply making long to-do lists, or even obsessive and careful planning for some event in the future. In particular, it necessitates both thinking and feeling about the affective components of potentially stressful or threatening future events.

We had our first childbirth class with our midwife last Saturday, and I was surprised how weepy I got while watching the birth videos. I will be giving birth myself in not so many weeks, and then I’ll get to see and hold our baby….. I’m getting used to being pregnant, but I almost feel like I’m going to be pregnant forever. Hard to believe that the baby is going to come OUT, and is going to STAY out.

The last birth video, a painful labor with the baby in a posterior position, was hard to watch. Our midwife has been emphasizing Optimal Fetal Positioning (described here) pretty strongly.