Antenatal classes essential or not?

[MatronicO6]

Currently 25 weeks and starting to get anxious about exit strategy. A few people have mentioned antenatal classes to me and I did look but all the in very limited in person courses were sold out and the rest are online. I'm pretty reluctant to spend a couple of hundred for an online course when I have first hand experience on how awkward, unengaging and challenging learning online is.

And now I'm panicking that I won't be prepared and will be completely hopeless in labour. Just wondering about thoughts ont antenatal classes. Are they essential?
Should I just try to engage in the online ones?
Are there other options to help prepare?

Hypnobirthing digital pack by the positive birth company for £39 and covers all the options.

I did positive birth company alongside their app and got it on a sale day for less than £20 although full price I still think it's worth it.
For me it helped me understand the process and my options and the breathing technique enabled me to stay at home until much nearer the birth than I would have managed without.

Also really recommend Milli Hill the positive birth book. A clear and easy read about birth and options.

I didn't find them useful personally, DH did but he had no idea about childbirth and pain relief options etc. I'm

Not essential at all but I did find them reassuring. Does your hospital not offer free ones? They're also great for meeting other mums (even the online ones).

If you decide not to bother then I recommend reading this book: First-Time Parent: The honest guide to coping brilliantly and staying sane in your baby’s first year https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0007269447/ref=cmswwrcppapiglttfabc47A8E867ZY61WY2B4TX3

I did NCT which are expensive but cover much more than labour - also feeding (breastfeeding, formula feeding and pumping), bathing, changing, swaddling, techniques for helping baby to sleep etc), and gave me access to a network of mums in my area due around the same time as me. If you are on a low income, NCT can subsidise some of the cost.

I see so many threads of MN with really basic questions that are covered by all antenatal classes so i think it is worth getting information from a reputable source. Fair enough if you don't want to spend £££ on NCT but i'd definitely look for something - either some of the ones mentioned above or ask your midwife if there is anything running in person locally.

Isn’t it mostly for socialising with people who will have a child the same age as you?
It would be useful to know about the signs and stages of labour but Wikipedia or YouTube would probably be enough. You also need to know what the ring of fire is otherwise it would be a bit of a surprise.
I watched some YouTube videos of sections with my second as it was planned but you’ll know if you’re the kind of person who would prefer to know exactly what’s going on.
A lot of these birthing philosophies work as placebos, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, placebo’s a hell of a drug.

Didn't do them or read books and all was fine for my 2 :)

Might be worth seeing if there are any on YouTube that talk about birth, pain relief etc and any other topics you want to know about such as breastfeeding, what to expect in the days following the birth etc

i didnt attend any , but when i went into labour the midwife talked me through the breathing techniques for the gas and air , and then you get a bit of health with the breast feeding on the ward , i managed fine without them to be fair

These classes are a funny one to be honest. The people I know who have got the most out of them have been the ones who ended up with a group of new moms with babies the same age. A few of my friends have issues with NCT etc as they said it all felt very aspirational and didn't really prepare them for giving birth or the realities of having a baby. They felt things like epidurals and formula feeding were looked down on even though lots and lots of women end up taking this route. I did a course with my local children's centre with my first but it was nothing I couldn't have found out on YouTube and didn't make any friends from it so didn't get much out of it. Maybe go on the NCT Facebook and read recent reviews of people's experiences. I'm 20 weeks pregnant and briefly considered it purely for the friendship side of things but all my groups are online - it's very expensive for a zoom call! You could look at your local yoga studios to see if they are doing a pregnancy yoga course which could be good? In all honesty, I'd probably do some research on YouTube and then trust that my midwives will guide me through what's to come. X

I signed up and sure it will be a waste of time especially as I am having a much frowned upon elective c section
We are doing it for the same reason as our friends which is the what’s app group. (I am not even sure this was needed as having researched it breast feeding cafes and baby groups are aplenty in my area)

Ours starts in Jan and has been moved to virtual which will mean it’s extra rubbish

Emily oster books crib sheet and expecting better are likely far more useful as well as YouTube videos on breast feeding, how to hold and how to change baby.

Don’t sweat it.

Im 31 weeks today and started to worry about this. Going to watch some on youtube instead of attending groups at the moment.

No, I didn't do any. Didn't see the need, I assumed my body would just do what felt natural. But I wasn't anxious about it, if I was it may have been helpful. I had planned home births, but only got 1 out of 3.

I signed up for NCT as when I did it was in person but only had 2 sessions before it swapped to online which I think they all are at the moment.
We cancelled and got a refund as soon as it went online as whilst our instructor was quite nice, she was very mumbly and rambled on quite a bit and admitted she was dreading them going online as she's not good with technology! I also agree that online zoom call things are not necessarily great in this scenario.
Though to be fair to our instructor when she realised our 2nd session would be our last in person, she did stuff like nappy changing, swaddling, birthing positions with a ball. Though I'm not sure how useful practice on a plastic immobile doll is for nappy changing!
Even the in person ones weren't great for socialisation as you can tell the classes are set up to originally be all group work to allow chatting but since we had to sit far apart and wear masks the whole time it was difficult to even introduce ourselves! Though everyone there seemed to be keen on the social aspect so we did try to chat during the breaks.
I just messaged a few of the ladies privately to explain we were cancelling but that I'd like to keep in touch & we're meeting up next week.
In terms of the actual information for labour & looking after a baby, we did some free online classes that are just powerpoints with q&a at the end, which for free was useful enough and gave us a good starting point. As others have said, there's lots on youtube & I think the positive birthing company looks good, I'm considering it.
We've more been googling particular things that worry us, like breast feeding issues, how to encourage sleeping through the night etc and then finding that relevant associated information comes up too so we expand from there. We're also doing a baby first aid course.

I was sorry I didn't join the NCT as I didn't meet any mum friends around me and found myself feeling isolated.

I didn't do any classes or read any books. Had a look at a few articles here and there. Mainly to do with safe sleeping but apart from that just did my own thing

I completely agree with PP who said that you will know if you’re the type of person who will benefit from this sort of gig or not. If you want basic information which covers the most likely scenarios (and what a ‘normal’ birth looks like) and touches on the theory of breastfeeding and caring for a baby, then whatever the NHS is offering these days is probably fine. I believe people do NCT and similar in order to gain a social group of mums with babies the same age.

I’m an academic (my field is biological anthropology) and I personally wanted much more information than any standard antenatal class could give me, particularly about what happens when things go wrong, the various interventions and associated risks, optimising biologically normal processes such as breastfeeding… so I read lots of papers, books and watched a ton of videos of women giving birth. This was at the height of the pandemic in June 2020, when maternity services were sadly deficient. Even having read so, so much material, I was surprised by how ‘different’ my birth story ended up being, as well as my own capacity for pain. Baby was ROP (back to back). Although I had largely dismissed hypnobirthing, when I had no other option (Covid-related/excused) I survived 60 hours of labour on breathing alone. Then my labour was augmented with The Drip and I had three failed epidurals. Then a rotational forceps delivery. Only took 72 hours start to finish Basically nothing could have prepared me for that. I kept my goals simple (wanted a vaginal birth and wanted to breastfeed to natural term) and that way I was always winning, even when everything technically went to sh*t. And I’m doing it again now with baby #2, so it was eminently survivable.

One thing I would recommend watching is the BBC series Life and Birth - not sensationalist or gory but covers lots of different birth scenarios (and great for a good old cry at new babies)
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000hk2j/life-and-birth

Hope it’s ok to post that link, and wishing you all the best for your pregnancy and birth!

I didn't find that all that useful. My husband did, though, but he hadn't looked anything up. For me, there was nothing in the classes that I hadn't already found out about online.

As others have said the main advantage of NCT is the WhatsApp group and having a network of parents. I haven’t managed to meet up with my NCT mums after the birth of our babies yet but we have a WhatsApp group. It could be more active but it’s helpful to have some support sometimes. I was struggling with having to top up with formula and then eventually stop breastfeeding entirely, it was helpful to put it in the group and know that all but one of the other mums have had to top up with formula and most of them have stopped breastfeeding.

The NCT classes themselves are quite idealistic. They didn’t cover the challenges that you might have with breastfeeding. Talking about induction was made clear that you were definitely going to have interventions (I had an induction at 38 weeks and had no interventions). NCT said I had to be mobile during labour and I just find that I wasn’t able to be mobile but that didn’t impact my labour. I find they also didn’t cover aspects like your milk coming in and how frequently baby would feed as it came in or after care, the midwives filled me in on this. I found some bits helpful like how to swaddle a baby, how to bath baby and safe sleeping.

I did the bump to baby chapter hypnobirthing course (£39). I found this covered the processes of induction, c-section and labour quite nicely without favouring one option. I knew I would be having an induction and so I didn’t want a course that would tell me that induction was a failure. The bump to baby chapter framed an induction as a choice I was making to keep myself and/or my baby safe. The course had the breathing techniques that I could practice beforehand and so I could do it quite easily while I was in labour. There are breathing techniques on YouTube though and you can find out about the process from articles, I think you would just need to find some that don’t make you feel like a failure if you end up with a c-section or induction or can’t/don’t want to breastfeed.

I was on the fence about classes but we did NCT and enjoyed it loads more than we thought we would. Think I've been quite lucky compared to others here as our NCT classes covered a lot about formula, c-sections etc and it didn't feel preachy. It was great to meet other people and we're all now approaching due dates so it's really nice to keep in touch over whatsapp! If you've got the money I would go for it but if it's a bit too expensive I would maybe try the free or cheaper classes first.

We did a class similar to NCT, but privately ran. We did it more for the social side than the info side of it. Our babies were all due December 2019/January 2020, so our WhatsApp group was great to have once lockdown started! And between lockdowns, we've had catch ups both with the kids and without. Obviously some of the mums are closer and see each other more often, but it's nice to have a group of women in a similar position to you, and at least 1 other kid will probably be doing something similar to yours (tantrums, no sleeping, food refusal to name a few)

I found the hospital tour and classes (water birth and pain relief) more helpful, information wise but I presume most of these are cancelled at the moment. So that's not much help

Op nobody tells the animals how to give birth.

I missed my NHS antenatal classes because I was in hospital unwell. Asking what have I missed, a MW scratched her head 🤔 Emmm I can't remember what they tell you....just don't come to hospital too soon or you'll end up in a bed with nothing else to think about....at home you'll do stuff, make tea, watch telly, take your mind off it.

Just before I left to go to the hospital I called them they said remember your breathing, slow it down, in through your nose put through your mouth.

Two babies later that is the entire extent of my antenatal experience. Would I spend £££ on it no I'd feel robbed.

I wouldn’t take any comfort from animal births, the ridiculous size of the human head is the reason we have all the problems we do. Definitely inform yourself, but there are various ways of doing that.

I did the hospital parent class
Was some good information, covered loads of things and gad great q&as
Included a tour round the labour and aftercare wards too to mentally prepare for where you were going to be.
Covered different delivery types,pain relief , feeding, caring for baby and baby’s development. Also had the blokes try the pregnancy belly too 😂
No cost and definitely helped me!

I didn't do them because I thought they sounded boring . I know that's a terrible attitude though.

DS and I both appear to be unscathed.