nhs antenatal classes

[KajalTanna22]

Hi all, im a FTM due in December and just wondered how the antenatal classes work? Does your midwife refer you on the NHS? Or do you find and book your own? Any guidance would be much appreciated, thanks!

Remind your midwife. They are meant to book you in or the hospital you have planned to deliver at might ( if they are your primary care). They usually wait til quite late on though. Not sure what’s happening with them re Covid though.

Ours are now a series of online videos due to covid, I think otherwise we were meant to ask the midwife after 20 weeks.

Face to face antenatal classes aren’t likely to be running for a while. At the moment only essential face to face contactus happening in the nhs. Some hospitals have developed online antenatal classes and your midwife should be able to tell you about them. You could also check to see if you maternity unit has a Facebook page with information on it.

I expect you would be able to find private online antenatal classes if you have a google too.

@WorriedNHSer

Face to face antenatal classes aren’t likely to be running for a while. At the moment only essential face to face contactus happening in the nhs. Some hospitals have developed online antenatal classes and your midwife should be able to tell you about them. You could also check to see if you maternity unit has a Facebook page with information on it.

I expect you would be able to find private online antenatal classes if you have a google too.

If going private I recommend NCT and Merry Go Round

My hospital has cancelled all antenatal classes and suggested booking NCT instead. Check with them at the 20 week scan

I am also due in December and have booked private antenatal classes with NCT.
NHS ones are video only at the moment so my midwife advised if we wanted more then that to book privately. The NCT website is very helpful and explains a lot before booking.

Normally you'd have referred yourself but just ate either cancelled or online at the min. X

My hospital are running them online. I’m not paying the ridiculous money I was quoted from NCT plus I didn’t read all positive things about how they’ve been handling things at the moment.

I’m due in November and my midwife has mentioned nothing about antenatal classes. In all honesty here the midwifery care isn’t great due to covid. Even though we are a little town with very few cases. I’m still in a region where we can only have the partner at birth for a few hours, then they go home until me and the baby are discharged. So things may be totally different in your area. We therefore decided to pay the £170 for NCT classes in late sept which have just been switched to online. I’m not greatly happy about it tbh as they’ve only knocked 15% off and we aren’t having the face to face info I wanted.
If I were you I’d ring your midwife, if you can get nhs online videos then I’d opt for that, it saves paying £170 for a 15 hr (over 3 days) zoom chat.

I had to book mine at the twelve week appointment as they booked up fast. Then All got cancelled due to covid. I managed to find a charity that does free online zoom courses and free hypnobirth courses in the end

I'm 36 weeks and at the moment all antenatal classes are virtual with my trust.