Parentcraft Classes? Any Opinions?

[vicsta]

MW harrassing me to attend this class as we are due to be 1st time parents in June. What can I expect and will it be any use to me?

I would say yes go for it definitely - which hospital is it? I'm a healthcare professional that knows quite a bit about pregnancy and birth and I thought it was excellent.

Ours was a good frank chat given by 2 midwives on what to expect at the hospital, what happens physically during birth and how your body will respond to arriving at the hospital, details and consequences of all the different pain relief options, what happens if you have a caesarian, forceps, ventouse, episiotomy, tears etc. I would say it was invaluable for finding out the medical side of things - the better prepared and informed you are, the more in control of the birth and your options. Less fear and cope better than if you have no idea and it's all sprung on you!

We only attended 1 !! I found it patronising, boring and useless!! every thing they told us I already knew from mags and this site!! We had 36 parents in ours. Far too many. I think it only would have benefitted me if I got the chance to meet other mums but the class was too big and no time allocated to 'chatting' to other mums to be!!

Some are good, some are not and what they cover can vary.

When I went to them they were quite good - mostly covering details about giving birth adn your options and what exactly was going to happen.

They went through all the drugs and then things like ventouse/forceps/c section, what the different stages of labour were and how to tell when you were in labour.

Some will show you round the hospital birthing suite.

We also had a session on breastfeeding.

Quite useful.

SOme peopel make good friends from them.

I did NCT classes found 90% of info I had already gained from books etc. However I met 7 fantastic women who I now count among my closest friends.

Hmmm. Obviously I'm dreaming a bit here, hadn't thought about info on ventouse/forceps etc. Think I'm in denial as this will mean transfer to another hospital (currently booked in to low risk Midwife led unit in Llandough Hospital). will change my name to Ostrich. Do they discuss looking after the baby beyond breastfeeding, or is it just the delivery?

that is my main criticism of NCT and nhs antenatal classes, they barely mention past the first day after hte baby is born. But I found NCt invaluable for making friends, two of whom I am still close friends with and it is important to know about the effects of different pain relief on your baby imo.

Definitely worth going to parentcraft classes, if only to find out what hospital policy is, what kind of pain relief is given (for example, not all hospitals give pethidine, I've been told), tour of labour ward and where dh/dp can park the car!!

There were far too many people on the one we went to, it was disorganised, patronising and completely useless. They made us play word games with words to do with childbirth. I kid you not. We really wanted to see the delivery suite and discuss birth options, but we didn't get chance and walked out after and hour.

I enjoyed the one we attended and we met a couple of nice people through it

Oh Jesus wept Strangetown! Sounds like my own private hell. Word play? NO NO NO DON'T MAKE ME!

Hmm, nos 2 & 3 were good, but 1 & 4 were pointless.

Avoid ones that tell you how to eat sensibly (we went to that one via Macdonald's - there were mitigating circumstances, honest!)

The class about first days with baby and what's useful to buy can be informative, although the woman was convinced babies would be strangled by bibs and anything grandma knitted.

The best one was about the labour ward itself and pain relief choices, although you can also get that info through antenatal.

We did NHS and NCT classes, NCT great for friends, we lived in each others pockets until work got in the way again. Thought I knew quite a lot about the physical proces but still found it informative and trying a tens machine was useful, ideas on positions for labour, lots of info on breastfeeding, bathing, dressing baby. NHS class too big a group but hospital tour worth doing although we didn't need to go in as hb went beautifully.

I am doing NCT class right now and find it very disappointing so far. Not actually learning much I didn't already know, and the way the class is taught seems a bit patronising. Also, it's so late in the evening (8-10pm) that I'm having a hard time staying awake! Unless you really know absolutely nothing about birth etc., I'd give it a miss.

I agree the NCT classes focused too much on the childbirth process and not enough about what happens when you take the baby home. Only session I hated was the breastfeeding one with a very patronising BF councillor who basically said breastfeeding was dead easy and no-one will have any problems. Unbelieveably she taught the men the correct BF position whilst the women made a cup of tea - obviously it would come naturally to us!!

The 5 couples we met though have been a fantastic support and we still meet once a week.

Yes, honestly Vic it was horrific. I don't post much but when I read your original post out to DH he said 'you have to reply - don't let anyone else go through what we did' He really hated it

Ours were a complete waste of time for 75% of the classes - the only useful part was the tour around the labour ward/delivery suites. The MW couldn't answer our questions and kept contradicting herself.

Luckily we have a couple of excellent books so think we are pretty well prepared - also my MW team is very good. Depends what you want to get out of it I guess.