Antenatal classes. Yes or no?

[SurprisEs]

Pregnant with DC2. I didn't go with DD as my employer had the amazing ability to make me feel bad about having a life that didn't evolve around work.
Would like to go this time but not sure if it is worth it as I have already had a child before.

Please let me know your thoughts and experiences.

if it's NHS and free why not if u don't like it don't go back thats my plan.

Yes, go. I'm going along to prepare for DC2, even though I did the NHS and NCT ones last time. I think it's good to be as prepared as possible, and there are bound to be things you have forgotten from last time, or didn't happen in your particular birth experience.

What was your first birth like and what do you plan this time? I think it depends. For example, if you've had a section and are hoping for a VBAC, you might be better finding someone (a doula maybe?) who could do a one on one session with you, because a lot of the general stuff will be more useful if tailored. Personally I found the antenatal classes I had with DD1 useless at dealing with her birth (v. long, OP, stuck in 'latent' phase for days in lots of pain), so perhaps I'm a bit of a sceptic.

Thanks for the replies. Definitely considering it.

Labour with DD1 was very similar to yours by the sound of it. That's why I was hoping for a little bit more help in dealing with the pain. Gas and air was useless, pethidine made go a bit coocoo so a bit more understanding of things would've been great. Just don't want to be in a room for hours listening to things I know all about. I want to learn more, not to lose valuable working hours...

We didn't go with DC1 either as I had such low blood pressure that I couldn't make it to the class.

We are lucky in that the local NHS classes are great, went along and learnt some things I didn't know even though I'd had one before. It helped both DH and me get in the right frame of mind too.

If I hadn't had the option of the NHS ones then I would have done the NCT refresher.

Hhm, personally if you've got a previous experience you want to 'de brief' from, I'd see if you could find a doula or someone to do a one on one session with you. Some of them will do birth prep even if you're not a client. I found it very useful with my doula to say "this happened" and have her respond with some of the other options for dealing with that scenario. It would certainly save sitting around being bored. It is probably cheaper than NCT classes too. If you've got free NHS ones, I guess there's not a lot to lose though.

The things that helped me with DD2 were not covered in NCT or NHS antenatal classes. I had a weird labour, in that my contractions remained irregular, but strongly in my back and intensely painful. What worked for me was getting into some increasingly strange positions for the contractions (one leg on a chair and the other on the floor for a lot of it) and a lot of shouting my head off vocalising. I had niggles for about 24 hours beforehand, but nothing nasty and once it kicked off it was only about 10 hours. DD was born at home, with no drugs at all and it was totally amazing (was off my head on gas and air for the anaesthetic for the stitches though ). I'm not some natural birth fanatic, but for me those techniques were a million times better than the epidural I had first time, which no bugger warned me might not help back pain that much.