Class for Grandparents Is a Time for Family Sharing

At times, 57-year-old Bess Osterhues spreads herself out on the floor and pretends to go through labor pains.

Her graphic position and simulated discomfort occur during the childbirth classes she teaches for parents. Considering that she has three children and has worked around babies all her adult life, Osterhues is pretty good at the re-creation.

But these days Osterhues, the perinatal health coordinator at St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton, is also teaching a more mature group of people--the grandparents. Although she isn’t one herself, Osterhues knows all about that too.

In her class, the registered nurse tells grandparents how the philosophy of raising a child has changed since they had their children, and what their children believe in and practice today.

“Now the focus is not on the process of the birth but on the whole change in care,” Osterhues said. “These days, we look at the whole family participating, and it has been fun developing a program that values and appreciates what each family member contributes.”

That practice, she added, includes having parents in the mother’s hospital room during labor.

Osterhues said she was able to observe some of the labor and delivery experiences of young women at the hospital. “Hopefully, I have learned the things that are important to them and the things they see as being helpful without being intrusive,” she said.

Her class attracts upward of 20 people for each session in the hospital’s maternity wing, and the idea is for the grandparents, especially those who have had more than one grandchild, to share their experiences.

Grandparents are asked to remember some of the things that happened with their first child, said Osterhues, who became a registered nurse in 1954 and, at age 45, went back to school to become a nurse practitioner.

Now, she is studying for a master’s degree in health education at Cal State Long Beach “to broaden the way I can look at health care and open my eyes to provide and help promote health care at (St. Jude) hospital.”

“In general, young couples are sensible and able to make their own decisions,” she said, adding that young people have shown a renewed interest in sharing their thoughts and feelings with their own parents.

“They remember their parents survived having children,” Osterhues said. No doubt when her children have children, it will result in her being a superstar grandmother.

Guido, a 9 1/2-year-old German shepherd police dog who will officially retire from the Tustin Police Department on Feb. 1, was toasted at a retirement party at the police station.

Cake and dog bones were served.

And his handler, Officer Ron Frazier, who bought the dog from the city for $1 and will keep him as a house pet, said Guido will also receive a proclamation for his 5 years of service at a City Council meeting where officials will congratulate him and shake his paw.

Anthony Monzo’s love of comic books may turn into a career for him.

“I’ve enjoyed reading comics for a long time,” said the 21-year-old Costa Mesa man, who is learning printing and publishing skills at the North Orange County Regional Occupational Program.

The first issue of his Quad Star Comics firm, all 800 copies, will be distributed next month at 75 cents each. Monzo, a graduate of Loara High School in Anaheim, is the owner, writer and only employee of Quad Star Comics. But he said he has friends doing the artwork.

“I hope it gains a lot of interest and sells well so I can support myself,” Monzo said. “It’s a trial-and-error thing because there’s no manual on how to get into the comic book business.”

His first comic book is called “Terror Syndrome,” and the plot includes horror and violence. “I’d really like to make the next book more like old-time horror movies that were exciting, but never really showed much violence.”