First time Mom - Due Oct, overwhelmed and panicking over antenatal classes

[GBBO45]

Hi all,

I am a first time Mom due in October and feel so overwhelmed. I have no idea what I'm doing and haven't purchased a single thing. I plan to get most of the buying out of the way next week hopefully.

But I am extremely worried about the antenatal classes. The NHS obviously aren't offering them, and NCT have no availability. I spoke to the woman who said the majority of the NCT classes are about labour and delivery so I guess I can google this stuff. I know people have found the network of other Moms they met through the classes invaluable, so that is something I will be missing out on. Aside from this, are these classes of real importance? Is there anything significant I am missing out on? On the verge of a melt down :(

I m having my first in October and decided not to pay for classes, there's videos on youtube by some NHS hospitals that explain everything they would have done for classes and I ve also read a couple of books .
I don't think I m missing out on anything :)

Hi OP, I’m a first timer and due in October as well. The same things have been crossing my mind too as I feel really unprepared and overwhelmed. I can’t offer much advise but just wanted to offer some support

first of all, congratulations! A few companies are offering online antenatal classes, I'll link one below that you can look into. It also allows access to a facebook group to do with the antenatal class, so you can have interaction with other parents in the same position through that. Try having a google as well of 'new mums in __ facebook' as you might find a local facebook group set up for mums in your area.
www.thematernitycollective.co.uk/online
mumsnet have also published a list of newborn essentials that you might find helpful as you can tick things off as you buy them
www.mumsnet.com/pregnancy/newborn-essentials#:~:text=%20What%20to%20buy%20for%20a%20newborn%3A%20The,give%20birth%20during%20the%20autumn%20or...%20More%20

all the best x

My hospital is running them online, have you asked your midwife?

Spare yourself the agony.

Inform yourself on YouTube. You don't have to travel and you don't have to share a room with other women you don't have anything in common with beyond a baby.

Really, I could have given the course I attended. The techniques on coping with labour (the most important bit IMO) and formula they didn't do.

The other mums weren't that delightful either.

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

It has been a really crap time to be pregnant and especially for first time mums I'm pregnant with DC2 (due in September) and it's been tough, but I am grateful that it's my second and not first time.

My advice is to do an online antenatal course, I hear really good things about the Positive Birth Company and I'm sure there are plenty of other options to consider. A local one might be a good idea as you could hopefully meet up with some of the mums in real life at some point!

I have been really missing pregnancy yoga (which I found great in my first pregnancy) and I'm thinking about trying some online classes, I don't have long to go now but better late than never!

I'm also expecting my first in October. Someone on here mentioned the other day that The Baby Academy are doing free 2 hour baby care workshops online. I've signed up for one tomorrow morning, not sure how often they happen. It's easy to find their website if you google it.

Have you tried the apps Mush and Peanut? They let you find other mums and mums to be in your area, that could be a good place to find other people in the same situation as you and people to meet up with, good luck with it all!

I second the Positive birth company. I am having my 2nd baby, and finding it so much more useful than face to face classes I did before I had my DS.
Although they don’t teach you bathing baby/changing nappies. But you can be shown that when little one is here, or have a look of YouTube xx

I'm also due in October. I've done the Positive Birth Company online course which was like £30-£40. I also did NCT which was £150. I learned way more from PBC than NCT - would definitely recommend it!

My hospital are running loads of classes still, just they are online. They are also producing some excellent content on Facebook. Have you checked the situation with yours?

We’re also doing NCT classes but they’re crap in comparison with the hospital ones so don’t feel you’re missing out on much!

I was quoted in excess of £300 for NCT! No way was I paying that.

My midwife offered to do a double appointment with me to go through labour and a birth plan as the NHS course was cancelled. Luckily I did end up doing NCT so didnt need this, but is this something you could ask your midwife for?

Honestly I found the NCT classes worse than useless - they put such a strong emphasis on natural birth, breastfeeding etc that I felt stressed out and a failure for going with different options. I think they vary a lot by teacher.

You can get all the actual information you need by googling (and asking on mumsnet!).

In terms of making “mum friends” - it’s a bit harder than usual because so much stuff has closed down due to covid. I’d really recommend signing up to something like antenatal yoga or pilates if available in your area, as you’ll get chatting to other pregnant women. You can also sign up to various websites/apps to make new friends.

Pregnant with my first too, due at the beginning of October, and my trust has online antenatal videos (vimeo.com/407602408, there’s around 10 videos in total)

I’m another one who has purchased the digital course from the Positive Birth Company (£39). It is a hypnobirthimg based course and I haven’t got through all the videos yet (There’s about 6 hours worth) but I’ve actually found it really helpful, informative and reassuring, I’m already feeling more confident about giving birth. I am really considering paying for their other course as well (postpartum course) as everything so far has been explained so well. As apart of the course you get access to their Facebook group and there are loads of women sharing their positive birth stories and I love reading them.

When I was pregnant with my first, I found this online series by a midwife in Canada, and it is honestly excellent!

DH and I put a morning aside and sat watching it together

Here’s the link

We also attended a hypnobirthing Course which complimented the above midwife talk very well. As previous posters have said, there’s lots online and people speak highly of the positive birth company

X

La Leche League are doing free online breastfeeding courses.

I would also recommend the Positive Birth Company course. Although it’s got a hypnobirthing focus, it’s also very sciencey which I loved. I felt it really helped me understanding what was happening when I was in labour. I found it far more helpful than the face-to-face classes I attended.

I didn't do nct, went to 4 nhs classes which were pretty rubbish in my opinion.
Got more information from these forums.

I did hypnobirthing including parent education in my last pregnancy and honestly it wasn't worth it. I feel like I've got more of a network from people I've met on a Facebook group through here. By the one I did the class I already knew everything (apart from the fact you can use a balloon and ping pong ball to demonstrate labour 😂) and learnt absolutely zero. And my partner fell asleep, twice, during the Hypno part (someone else's did too so it wasn't just him).

I really feel for FTMs, I have a close family member in this situation who feels she's just been left to fend for herself. The classes are all online now so unless you're the sort of person who is good at virtual networking may not be useful for meeting people.

Until baby groups start again I don't think there will be much chance for anyone to make new mum friends but at least everyone is in the same boat.

Our nhs is doing online classes or a course you can watch. To be fair when we went to the face to face classes last year we didn't learn much that I didn't already know. You can find a wealth of information online. I agree though this has been getting overlooked during the Covid times.

I honestly didn't learn anything that I hadn't already googled. It's a waste of time really.

Ftm due in October too, agree with everything everyone has said so far. My hospital had online nct classes but didn't learn much. Seen far more people talk about the Positive Birthing Company. Future Learn are also running a free course on labour and what to expect atm.

Honestly the best advice I've got is from two October baby Facebook groups I'm on. There's a good mix of new mums and more experienced mums who have great advice on what to buy, what not to buy and any worries you might have on pregnancy. There's also a great group of us on the thread Early October Babies here (don't be put off by the name, our due dates range from September to November) where I've learned loads too. Plus it's a great place to have a vent when you're feeling down.

You've got plenty of time to buy things, I found hipno birthing online videos reassuring. I've got plenty of friends who didn't have antenatal courses and were just fine.