Ante natal classes

[Beansprout30]

Did anyone not bother with nhs/nct classes? I don't know why but I just don't feel like I want to go, they run 5 nhs classes in my area and the only one I'd be interested in is the actual labour/giving birth but they don't tell you what's on and when.

Would you recommend going or will I cope just fine if I choose not to? My midwife made it sound like more of a social gathering than anything and that doesn't really excite me!

I've been going to nct and also daisy birthing classes.

I wouldn't bother with nct again to be honest but I loved daisy birthing

I'm not doing NCt - it's a lot of money for me and I'm happy to make friends through baby groups etc. Might try and find a pregnancy yoga class soon as a way of meeting people. I am doing the 1 day nhs course as it's free and it's my first plus I think it will help my DH as he's less likely to do any reading etc before hand

We have just finished the two NHS classes we get in our area. I would take advantage of them if you can...they are free after all. My husband found them really useful as I'm sure like many men he hasn't bothered to do any reading on what's actually going to happen/what it will be like. Our first class was all about labour which we found the most useful as the rest was about caring for the baby in the early days. Could you speak to the people running your classes to see if they can tell you when they will discuss labour...that way you could just do that class if that's all you want out of it? We had a few couples only come for the labour one then didn't show for the next class which the MW said was quite common.

Daisy Birthing is amazing. I did it first time round and am booked in again for DC2.

It's a mixture of antenatal teaching, gentle yoga and stretching.

I did NHS ones.....what a waste of time and effort.
It was as if the midwife was teaching primary school children how to take care of a baby - she was really patronising! - especially to the dads who attended.
When it came to the nappy changing part of the class, She made a big point of talking veeerrrryyyyy slooowwwly when she said "if you have a little girl, you must wipe from back to front" Well thank you midwife.....I've been taking care of myself for 20-odd years with no issues so I think I've got that one covered The actual labour and birth part of the class was like being back in a biology class at school - was given no constructive advice about coping with pain etc - just the mechanics of how things work.
I didn't pay for private classes, but I would imagine they would be better than NHS ones as you are paying for it? I would hope so anyway!

I hope she actually said front to back!

I did nct with DC1 and having booked onto a refresher course for DC2. We had a brilliant group and they were my lifesavers during the first year of DC1's life!

We're doing the refresher as my DH wants to go through the breathing parts again.

A huge word of caution on making friends at groups... It's not that easy! With antenatal friends you can have established some form of relationship before babies come.

You don't know how you will feel post birth (especially if you have a section) and I can tell you, being stuck inside unable to attend groups with a newborn is zero fun!!!

euro that's what I meant the baby brain has begun already I fear

Thanks all for your replies, the five sessions they run are all women only and then they do one for partners too, which I think we will attend. I was hoping more of them would be for couples, as I'd like dh to be just as involved. Unfortunately cannot afford to book anything privately due to everything breaking on us within the last two months and money is now too tight!

If you go to NHS ones, hopefully the midwife running them will be a bit better than mine was - the lady who did the very short active birthing section was so much better than the one who did the rest of the classes....just seemed like she didn't want to be there

I didn't go to any due to lack of time and not really wanting to go! Just watched a video on YouTube/googled everything and asked friends!

I want to do the NCT ones but they are £319 in my area. I was more interested in doing it to meet some new friends but I'd rather be a hermit than shell out that much. Especially if I didn't get on with anyone!

I had my first NCT session today. Yes it's bloody expensive but so far so good! I did nearly cancel a couple of months ago as I was worried about wasting money.

I saw the other mums from the nhs classes quite s lot in the early weeks. It was really good to have others with babies the same age when they're at that stage they are changing daily!
Most of your existing friends will gave jobs and not really want to spend hours sitting around feeding and chatting in a semi awake sleep deprived haze.
When the babies were a bit older two of the ladies became my running buddies - getting back into running after birth and while still bfing has its own challenges it was nice to be able to share.
I went baby swimming with two others.
None of them became my best friends for life but I'm still in touch with two who I see occasionally with ds (he's 2.5) but they were great company in the first six months or so.

I didn't go to any, I didn't get round to it ! I did however read the antenatal info on the babycentre uk website which I thought was excellent. Covered everything. The nhs ones I know do vary in their content. The hospital I went to did 'active birth' classes and a nearby hospital did birth and newborn babycare.