Group versus one on one pregnancy classes

[Tiara83]

Hi, I'd like recommendations on whether to take a group pregnancy class or private one to one classes in London. Have any of you tried either or both and what was your preference? Thanks

Literally the only point to those classes is to meet people who might become potential mum friends. Nothing actually prepares you for parenting but having some people to cry into a gin and tonic with at 11:30am on a Tuesday is worth its weight in gold!

@fenellamaxwellspony haha thanks!

We did 1:1 hypnobirthing classes becuas we couldn’t make the group ones work, it was brilliant. DH and I could ask all sorts of questions and neither of us felt at all awkward, they were totally tailored to us.
We also did NCT as a group and I am still vaguely in touch with the NCT crowd, we met quite a bit on mat leave, especially at the start but I also made baby group friends and have now pretty much reverted totally to seeing just my pre-pregnancy friends. The NCT crowd are nice but once you are back at work there is so little time it’s hard to keep up with everyone so it’s my longer term friendships that have endured, not ante-natal class ones

They’re all crap, so go for whatever’s easiest, cheapest and closest to you

I did NCT and NHS classes in London. The NCT one was not good at all. The free NHS Ones were good as they gave useful advice

thanks everyone! I've found a private pregnancy yoga service in London where I am based called Pommama www.pommama.com/ which look good as I can't make any of my local classes- have any of you tried them?

Literally the only point to those classes is to meet people who might become potential mum friends. Nothing actually prepares you for parenting but having some people to cry into a gin and tonic with at 11:30am on a Tuesday is worth its weight in gold!

^This. I cannot see the point of 1:1 unless you are the Duchess of Cambridge.

We're in Scotland but NCT class we tried up here was full of snobs and if your face didn't fit then they told you.

We just went to our three NHS classes which went over labour and intervention etc since we were consultant based and people walked out as they didn't want to know- we did them all and information is power.

Will do same ones this time round in July and met a good few people in it who had same experience.

thanks @gryffen. @rexmanning did you not find the yoga helpful for birth or at least to ease discomfort during pregnancy. I'm looking more for this rather than doing this for social reasons :)

I didn’t say that I did yoga but since you asked, I continued attending my normal iyengar yoga class with the teacher’s permission and was practising up to 39 weeks. It made sweet FA difference to my traumatic birth experience but I did enjoy the classes. Pregnancy yoga was far too gentle for me but I’m quite advanced.