OK, so I attended this last weekend and I thought I should update everyone, just in case they are planning on going to check it out...
What they had was a huge truck parked in the lot at the Babies R Us store, with people outside handing out bottles of water (and man, it was HOT that day, and I was there from 10am to 5pm in full sun), a goody bag (with sample products from the sponsering companies in there), and some magazines (mainstream - blah) and other paper information.
As you go into the exhibit (airconditioned, sooo nice hehe), there are 6 terminals set up as viewing stations depicting the first 6 months of pregnancy. Each station has a real-life sized model of how big your uterus and fetus are (very cool to be able to see/touch), and for each month there is a short 5 minute video about what stage of development your fetus is going through.
Then you are ushered into the other section of the truck where they have a quick demo of a 3D/4D ultrasound, and they have a "nursery" set-up with things you can buy from Babies R Us. Then they show you a 5 minute movie about 2 births - one vaginal, one cesarean (warning: be mindful that this is a mainstream event so don't start hollering about changing birth positions etc like I wanted to LOL!). On the way out they had free snowcones, heehee.
Then throughout the day they held 7 different seminars (30 minutes each), and I was peeved to realise that these were taking place outside the comfort of airconditioning (how they expected heavily pregnant women to sit in the sun all day I don't know). I had made arrangements with DP to take my toddler so I could be there the entire day (because I try to attend as many workshops/conferences/expos/seminars as I can - and in my part of the country they are very few and far between!). It was great (but hot lol). The woman teaching them was a chiropractor and Doula herself, so it was so wonderful to speak with another like-minded woman and swap information. Unfortunately, she didn't have any children herself, so I added things that I thought were relevant (without being too much of a pain in the butt), and it worked really well! Not only did I make a Doula buddy (and exchanged info to meet up again), but I gave the mamas attending the seminars some food for thought and could answer a lot of their questions, having been there myself.
Anyways, in all, it wasn't anything fantastic, but it was a great way to spend a Saturday doing something I love!
Is anyone else planning on attending their local event?
Road To Motherhood Tour
Sounds like a good community outreach opportunity, though.
