Antenatal Classes- help!!!

[mzungogirl]

Hi All,
Im a midwife and I am going to start teaching private antenatal classes with a collegue. We need some help from you mums to be if you have the time.....

would you prefer to 6 hour all you need to know workshop so you get it all over and done with in one day. this would include lunch etc
or
2x 3 hour sessions over a weekend sat and sun???

Another question is have any of you got any quirky ideas for a business name? we keep going over and over the same names and have hit a brick wall!

Thanks so much for your time guys and look forward to reading the feedback! :)

I didn't do NCT in my area mostly because it had to include a full 9-5 type day. There is no way I could concentrate for that long and I wouldn't commit to it not knowing how comfortable the place would be where I was going. Including lunch is nice but until about 32 weeks there was very little I could actually eat. (Vegetarian with very bad indigestion who seemed to be made violently sick by everything!) So offering lunch in a practical way might be difficult. That said, obviously lots of people apparently are gloriously healthy when pregnant and would have none of these problems to worry about. So maybe offering a choice of times is the key!

Also, we get 6 hours on NHS in my area so you would have to do something different in those 6 hours to justify the expense - what would you be doing that is 'extra'? My husband went to a men only session with a male midwife and really thought that was good as it was a different perspective. Maybe you should think about specialist shorter sessions rather than a 'all you need to know' type thing as people can already get that for free. eg. I will look at paying for baby first aid as i think that is important. Something on care of babies when you get them home - eg sleeping, bathing, routines etc would be good as NHS covered nothing other than feeding and injections for once the baby is actually here. I assume you know what local NHS provision in your area is though so will be able to fill the gaps.

Also - a bit random I know - but there are no antenatal yoga/exercise classes in my area. At all. I would have quite happily paid for that, especially if run by a midwife so I knew they were qualified to give advice about what is appropriate to do.

I agree with VJ, offering something different to the standard NHS care would be key. For me, a definite emphasis on post delivery care would be appealing - most classes seem to focus on labour and birth, but I would appreciate much more about caring for the baby.

I love the idea of a men's only session - that would be perfect as I think i'm going to drag myself to the NCT classes just so that my partner knows what's coming up.

For my particular circumstance, the flexibility of offering private couples classes would be very attractive. I have pre-natal depression, and the thought of having to sit in a room of couples, all of whom are completely in love with being pregnant (please excuse the judgement but its where my head is at the moment) fills me with dread. A private class where we could get information, but where I'm not forced to 'share' my feelings with strangers would be very welcome.

I would probably prefer 2x3 hr sessions, but over two weekend days, not all in one weekend. It's nice to have a week in between to absorb info, and unlikely I could spare both days of a weekend.
Agree with the others, you'd definitely have to offer something other than the free Parentcraft lessons; maybe something a lot more couple-oriented?
I too would probably be interested in doing private sessions with my husband, as opposed to a group thing. That said, if it was just me going I'd rather do a group thing to meet other mums-to-be.

As for names, I've racked my brains but nothing inspiring has come to mind! Depends what you're offering really...

Thankyou so so much for your feedback girls. I absolutly see your point about doing something different. Maybe I could join up with a pregnancy yoga teacher and do some group sessions, relaxation and yoga class and then q&a with the midwife?

name wise.....any opinions on

Special delivery antenatal classes

Blossom antenatal classes

BABE prepared antenatal classes

Nurture antenatal classes

any more ideas or comments would be very very gratefully received

:)