Antenatal classes

[bumptobabymidwife]

Afternoon everyone and thank you for taking the time to read my message. I am a registered midwife that currently practices in a hospital (antenatal and postnatal ward, labour suite and birthing centre). I am looking at setting up my own antenatal classes that will take place over a course of weeks in, for example, a community centre. The basic template (subject to change!) would be a class, once a week for 5 weeks, lasting 2-2.5 hours. The idea would be to provide a realistic view of stages of labour, different ways you can give birth, pain management and relief, role of the birth partner, choice and consent, monitoring you and your baby in labour, infant feeding (breast and bottle), birth plans and preferences and life with a new born. The evening would start with refreshments and a catch up and end with a relaxation session.
So my questions are (if this is something that would interest you).....how far would you be willing to travel to a class? Would you be happy to go to a class on a Friday evening or Saturday morning? What are your must have topics? How much would you be willing to pay for a 5 week course? Is there anything else that you think I should take into consideration when putting together and delivering the classes?
Many thanks in advance
The bumptobaby midwife
x

Sounds good, sounds like NCT but with more realistic overtones.

We paid around £300 for our NCT course and in all honesty I wish I hadn’t.

I actually, having had my baby, don’t think the birth bit is that important, interesting, or useful. All the focus on the wrong thing as far as i’m concerned.

A bit of training for both mum and dad about those first six weeks would be more useful.

Thank you for the reply. Very useful x

I’ve just signed up for a midwife led antenatal course. It’s called Baby Journey and it’s based in Cheltenham

Thank you. Will have a look x

I guess your main consideration would be, what would make your course the choice for women rather than NCT? I did NCT and loved it. I found it a realistic yet positive course and very informative. Making lots of friends on the course was an added bonus. How would your course stand out from NCT? I guess cost would be a major factor so if you were planning to be significantly cheaper than NCT that would be attractive to some people. You might want to consider the demographic you're aiming for - for instance, NCT usually attracts middle class professionals (and the price reflects it!). The relaxation bit you mentioned and is something we didn't do at my NCT course but did do a lot on my hypni birthing course. I guess what I'm trying to say is, what will be your unique selling point and how will you stand apart from the other antenatal courses on offer (including the free NHS class)...

Oh and if you had 5 classes over 5 weeks you could market it as a step by step journey (5 steps). You could even call it 'Baby Steps' 😂

Are you qualified to teach paediatric first aid? That's one thing that would have attracted me to a course as I had to sign up to a separate course to do that!

The only reason i didn't do the NCT course was because it was in the evening (i very much like being in my PJs then 😁).