Baby Classes in October?

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I live a long way from family and close friends for my partner's job. First baby due early October.

I was looking forward to maternity leave as a way to make friends in my area. However midwife has told me there will be no antenatal classes and suggested facebook as an alternative.

Any predictions on whether baby classes will be available in early October? Will people go if there are social distancing measures in place or think they will still want to stay away?

I'm working from home at the moment and very lonely. I know a lot of people find maternity leave isolating and I'm worried without friends in the area it will be miserable. Reassurance/ ideas how others are getting through would be great.

I don't have an answer to your question, but I'm in a similar boat! First baby due in November, not many local friends and none with babies. I've been crossing my fingers that in-person antenatal/NCT classes might be up and running by October, and baby classes after that, with social distancing in place. I would certainly go! But it's so hard to predict.

You're not in Glasgow are you ProfessorPlum? That would help me out a lot, lol!

I'm afraid not, sorry! That would have been an easy fix

I think it could go either way.

How about trying mush or peanut - they're sort of like dating apps for preggos/mums. You could make some connections that way.

@KatnissMellark I had no idea that was a thing! Have you tried either of those apps?

@ProfessorPlumInTheLibrary yes, I've used them and made some local connections who I'll try to meet up with once lockdown is over.

I think they will be... most of those groups are small businesses run by local mums who will want to keep their income. They’ll find a way to adapt.

You could do NCT to meet people before you have a baby? And then you've got a pre existing group of friends in your area for when baby is here. They're currently doing the sessions on zoom and appear to have good feedback. My NCT ladies have been my saviours for the last 15 months.

Otherwise I've head of the apps mentioned although haven't felt the need to use them. I did go to a social event arranged by Mummy Buddy which was alright, would have been better if I'd gone alone tbh. You could see if they have something in your area as there were pregnant ladies there too.

I'm in the same boat! I'm due late October and the NCT courses in my area are still available in September and October. I've made an enquiry to see if I can sign up. As PPs have said, they're currently doing Zoom meet ups - but I really want to meet other couples in person if possible. Fingers crossed OP!

That's the thing @Cardboard33 @BabyDancer - I was really keen to do NCT classes, but I'm less keen if they're over Zoom. I just can't imagine getting to know people online in the same way you would in person. Maybe I'm being overly negative though, and you can still connect with people in that format. But I was hoping they might be in person by October!

@professorpluminthelibrary I know! It just won't be the same. I mentioned it to my midwife on the phone today and she didn't seem very positive about baby classes being in person again by October. You never know though. I probably won't do Zoom classes - but I'll sign up for some sort of fun baby activity classes after the baby is born to meet other mums worse case scenario!

To be perfectly honest you don't really "connect" with the group until you've had your babies and your what's app is buzzing at 4am. We were all strangers, often running late from work (Londoners) and on our best behaviour in the classes - they went round the room and asked what we hoped to get out of it and everyone said variations on "I want to meet others in the same position for mat leave" and we weren't really in that position until we'd started to have our babies. The dads in my group haven't met since the final NCT "meet the babies" session. It's all very hypothetical until the babies actually arrive and tbh I could have done without the actual in person classes but I couldn't imagine the last year without the other mums that I connected with following the classes. That's what you pay for, in my view. But then I also met my husband online (not via a dating site, just via a mutual interest) so doing NCT online wouldn't have bothered us one bit.

I think NCT are doing online classes mine was a 6 week course I did mine pre-lockdown with my first and I found them really helpful! Xx