Oxfordshire Maternity Voices Partnership have been running a huge number (twice daily most days!) of brilliant live sessions on their Facebook page recently that are still available for anyone (regardless of where you are in the UK) to view anytime on everything you could possibly want to know about pregnancy, labour, babies and the postnatal period.
There are sessions with every type of professional you could possibly come into contact with, e.g. midwives, obstetricians, anaesthetists, mental health teams, feeding teams, physiotherapists, yoga instructors, baby massage teachers, health visitors, GPs, hypnobirthing teachers, doulas, sling experts... covering everything you could possibly think of. It's basically all of the free antenatal sessions you could possibly ever need plus other information you can only normally get by asking one of these professionals directly during a face-to-face consultation.
They've also been doing live tours of different areas of the hospital (even inside theatre for c-sections) and maternity lead units so you can see what they're like, what equipment they're likely to have, what type of staff you can expect to see in these places. Even if you're not in Oxfordshire 99.9% of everything they've been covering still applies to everyone wherever you are.
I honestly cannot tell you how reassuring I've found these sessions. I had been having weeks of horrific pgp, panic attacks, rib pain, and several complications and so far I've managed to ask very specific questions live to an obstetrician, anaesthetist, physiotherapist and midwife and every one has been answered directly. The physio was able to show me exercises live too. Other ladies have also asked questions I hadn't even thought of too so those have been really informative and interesting to watch.
I wanted to share the details here with you all because it's helped me and a few friends I've already shared it with so much. I only found out about it myself by accident and I'm so relieved I did. It also addresses a lot of the issues and worries I regularly read posted on here. My own community midwives are worse than useless so this has been a lifeline for me. I hope it can help some of you too!
www.facebook.com/OxfordshireMVP/