Online Antenatal Classes Worth it?

[allhappeningatonce]

Hi, would greatly appreciate some advice please! I'm a first time mother to be, currently 30 weeks pregnant.
Due to Covid, NHS real life antenatal classes aren't being offered in my area. I was given a website to use, but it was really basic & kind of geared towards very young parents I suppose.
I do have fairly extensive experience with small babies personally, but not in recent years. My DP has basically no knowledge other than what i tell him. My mother will be helpful but isn't that close distance wise either. I have bought a book & watched videos online of how to bath a baby etc.
Would an online course, like those ran by the Baby Academy be worth it? We looked at NCT, but decided that the cost & the sheer amount of classes you must attend online was a little too much.
My friend is a midwife in & has given me a low down on the birth & preparing for it. I will be doing hypnobirthing and exercise as prep. I will be bottle feeding & im quite confident with that.
Any opinions on whether the antenatal classes online are worth it? Or should we stick to the book & watching videos of anything we're not too sure about? Thank you ☺️

Hi, I did a couple of free NHS online sessions provided by the local midwives which were great - just a couple of hours each - and really supplemented the knowledge I'd gained from reading various books, online forums etc. We also signed up for NCT which we've just done, but tbh I learnt nothing new and they were hard going on Zoom - 2 full Saturdays!!

From what you've said you sound very well prepared so I wouldn't worry about doing any online courses unless you have access to any short, free ones!! I doubt you'd learn anything you don't already know :)

I attended the free NHS ones as NCT weren't running online in my area.

They were terrible! Internet connection really bad and just provided very basic information.

I'm not massively experienced with babies but it was nothing new to me!

Maybe the private ones will be a bit better!

Thanks

I would really recommend Happy Parents Happy Babies - www.happyparentshappybaby.com/our-courses#courses

Their in person courses are mainly London based and I think they do still try and group people there so they might be local to make friends, but they're offering a course over zoom to everyone. The courses are run by an obstetrician, midwife, pediatrician and lactation consultant, so covers so much. We did them for our first and I felt so prepared going into birth, knowing my options and how to advocate for myself.