Pregnant ladies - did you/do you go to NHS (parentcraft?) antenatal classes?

LegalBlonde

As the title says really I am just really curious about this.

I posted more on the boards in my early pregnancy, I have been a bit of a stranger lately due to different things but am always reading along trying to keep up to date

I am 28 weeks now and getting pretty big with lots of kicking.

One of the midwifes mentioned these classes to us very early on and we weren't fussed. A few friends/family said to go even just for the hospital tour.

At my last midwife appt (she was very good) at the end when she booked the next appt I said "so is that when we discuss emmmmmmmm how we are going to get this baby out of here?" :rotfl::rotfl:

She said no "dear" what happens is you go to these classes and they discuss it there, then she showed me all the standard birth plan info etc that is in my maternity notes.....I have seen about 4 different midwifes overall so I know it won't be the same ones but I tried to say well don't we chat about it rather than just a class and she said after the class etc etc.

Well while I don't think they are compulsory I tried to play it her way and rang for the classes but of course have left it far too late and they are mostly booked up until May. Although I was happy to book in for the weekend 10 days before my due date :rotfl::rotfl:the lady on the phone wasn't very happy doing this and told me I should really try to get along to one starting in March, which I had already told her there is no way I could make.

Now to keep stress low I am trying to remember I didn't even what to go on this course in the first place :rotfl:

but could do with some reassurance - did you go, if so what was it like, am I missing out??? Did you/do you not go??

Thanks for all your views, like I said to the lady on the phone when she hesitated about me going so near my due date, I have never been on these classes before and have no idea what they are all about so would love some info/views

Thank you

Aimless

It depends on the area really, mine was only a single session that they run once a month, but I think they've stopped running even that now! I went because it was my other half's first baby, but don't think there was anything I couldn't have got elsewhere, except maybe the chance to talk to a midwife who isn't really busy and running late.

I've forgotten already exactly what we did? There was a relaxation exercise, but she talked us through it rather than actually doing it. A discussion on pain relief and she handed round a few items (for example the epidural tube and a book that shows cervical dilation with holes to poke your fingers through ). There was a birth video, but I left before that, not because we were squeamish, but because I was in agony sitting in their chairs all day.

LegalBlonde

Thank you Aimless

We had said to the MW as horrible as it sounds we don't know if we will have time to go and she said oh don't worry these days they want Dad's involved it is 1 Saturday class.

Well when I rang the booking line it is a 10 hour course, either over 5 evenings or a weekend Saturday and Sunday. We would have def went to weekend but like I say the next one is 10 days before I am due and she was not happy to book this and told me to at least check if I could go to the only other available one starting in March (I had already told her there is no way, due to a bereavement) . I even said, my options are either not going at all or going 10 days before, surely the latter is better than nothing and I can always cancel if something happens before then.

I just didn't like how it was presented to me at the MW - we will discuss giving birth after you have been my next appt is 3 weeks so I will just have to say there were no places and will they just have to discuss the birth options with me I am well aware the birth plan might go out the window anyway :rotfl:


The classes I am talking about are at the main hospital, it is all the same Trust but when I told her what area was in, she said "they" might have some in that area, I presume she meant NCT but I looked and their classes for people due when I am are long gone

balletshoes

I don't remember anything much at all from my antenatal classes - i only really went because it meant i got an afternoon off work in the winter for 6 weeks .

don't worry, nothing you learn at antenatal class is a revelation, in my opinion. I didn't do any special breathing etc while I was in labour, and you'll have midwives with you anyway when you get down to the business end of the birth.

Aimless

My midwife never discussed birth options or a birth plan with me at any point. Not sure if it was because I'd done it before? The only thing I was sure on anyway was that I didn't want to cut the cord immediately but leave it till the blood stopped flowing through it, the rest I was open on.

Oh, we don't get a hospital tour here, I know some do.

curlytop12

we went to NCT classes,as at 32 i felt ancient at the NHS ones.they were fab,and we made very good friends there too.

Make-it-3

I think the midwife was just trying to avoid having a long meeting with you. They really don't have time to sit down with each patient and discuss their birth plans. Birth plans are really for the mother/parents than anything else. By the time you are in labour nobody has time to read your carefully crafted plan, you just take decisions as they come.

I don't think there's any harm going to the classes that are scheduled for 10 days before hand. At least things will be fresh in your mind. How much you get out of them depends on you. Many people find useful to meet other about-to-be parents. The content of the NHS classes tends to vary wildly. But apart from the hospital tour (if one is included) I don't think there's anything much you can't research for yourself beforehand.

scottishchick27

balletshoes wrote: »

I don't remember anything much at all from my antenatal classes - i only really went because it meant i got an afternoon off work in the winter for 6 weeks .

don't worry, nothing you learn at antenatal class is a revelation, in my opinion. I didn't do any special breathing etc while I was in labour, and you'll have midwives with you anyway when you get down to the business end of the birth.

I could have written this post, my experience was exactly the same.

msb5262

Hi OP,

I went to both - NCT and NHS - because the NHS classes were too far away to be any good to me in terms of making friends etc, but I did want to go to the hospital, talk about what happens during/after birth, see the equipment etc.

The NCT classes were great for making friends (much nearer home) and for learning a lot about breastfeeding and different positions for delivery etc. The NHS classes were also very good and I did get to see the delivery suite etc before going in to give birth. (I also asked to see some forceps, the Resuscitaire etc and this was arranged) Really simple things like under what circumstances you can have a water birth at the hospital, how they put in an epidural, how the bed can be moved up/down/bent into a useful position for you....they were all useful and made me less anxious about the birth.

It was also great to get to know some of the midwives and one of them turned up to help deliver my third baby, four years after the first one. Another lovely thing they did was to invite a newly delivered mum and her baby down to a class so we could chat, ask questions and admire the baby - and the parentcraft midwife did a demonstration bath with the new baby, which showed us how tiny the baby was as well as things like cradle cap, an umbilical cord clip and what a meconium nappy looks like. When I had my third baby at the same hospital, I was the demonstration mum for the parentcraft class and it was lovely. Altogether a great experience!

HTH

MsB

grey_lady

Call the NCT, they're bound to have something close by you can join in with and although a bit to much like the breast feeding police they are actually very nice and dont actually stone you if you choose not to breast feed.

shellsuit

I've had 3 children and didn't attend any parentcraft classes.

All births were fine, all vaginal and I didn't need stitches for any of them, as the best piece of advice I was given (by a friend), was that when you're told to STOP pushing, STOP (so that you don't tear.)

Even though the pain was awful, I remembered that with all 3 births.

I don't know what I could have been told in a parentcraft class, than I hadn't already read, whether that be leaflets, notes, books, magazines or on the internet.