I'm 30 weeks pregnant with first baby and planning to give birth at St Thomas' London. I have tokophobia and PTSD so was assigned to a specialist midwife who has been great and also referred to the perinatal mental health team for counselling which has been excellent also. All involved so far agree with my instinct that a planned section is likely the best option for me. I have a couple of questions/concerns though and was hoping anyone with recent experience of delivering at Tommy's or with experience of tokophobia may be able to shed some light.
Firstly I signed up for the hospital's free antenatal courses, the first is on labour and birth and the second on caring for your baby. I am apprehensive about attending the first one as am worried that the explicit descriptions of vaginal birth and all that may go wrong will be extremely triggering for me. A part of me feels I should attend just in case, worst case scenario, I go into labour early and can't get my section in time - but given I almost certainly won't be birthing vaginally and the risk to my mental health progress so far I am thinking of not attending. My husband is supportive either way and pointed out that I can probably find the information I need through other less intense/in person means (i.e. reading, my doula etc). Has anyone experienced the Tommy's antenatal classes, what were they like, would they be likely to trigger those with an intense fear of childbirth and would it be easy to leave the room at short notice if necessary? More generally how essential would you say this class is given my circumstances?
Secondly I have heard mixed reviews about postnatal care at Tommy's especially after a section and I'm particularly worried given I'll be giving birth in January possibly during one of the worst winters the NHS has ever seen with lots of employees going on strike potentially. Has anyone has recent experience giving birth there and how did you find it? Anything you wish you'd known, or advice to make a good experience more likely?
Thanks so much!