Any UK single mums antenatal classes or mum groups for single mums in their 20s ?

[NordStar]

Hi,

I’m 26, currently 33 weeks pregnant and soon to be single mum here and I just need some advice/help and a little bit of a rant, does anyone know of any single mums/solo parent aimed antenatal classes in the uk or even 20s centred mum groups ?

I found out unexpectedly I was pregnant back in November (I’ve always had quite bad gynae issues and was told multiple times I couldn’t have kids naturally so it was bit of a shock) and unfortunately despite telling me he would step up if I chose to keep it, my baby’s father ultimately decided he wanted nothing to do with me or the baby and I’ve been blocked since I was 7 weeks pregnant.

I’ve found the pregnancy quite hard for example at my booking appointment the midwife kept making comments about the father not being involved and made a snide remarks questioning whether I even wanted to be pregnant, and I’ve gone to all my midwife/hospital appointments alone etc.

However tonight I went to my first antenatal class and the whole class were couples which I guessed would happen, the teachers waited til I sat down in front of everyone to ask me whether I was being joined by my partner for the class despite watching me be dropped off by myself, then they went round couple by couple making them each one introduce themselves, they all excitedly going “we’re so and so and we are 32 weeks or we’re 34 and expecting…!), they then did a exercise on feelings and emotions during the pregnancy with everyone replying in their duos about how happy and excited they were and fun little antidotes, after this the teachers said “now we are going to couple swap ! 5 couples over here, 5 couples over there etc”, I stuck out like a sore thumb and all made me feel a bit shit, when the exercise started I took one of the teachers aside and told I was leaving and that I might be back next week.

Unfortunately after looking online I’m struggling to find any classes just for expecting mums (there’s dad ones !) or even single mums in general, I’m also struggling to find any other women or mum groups aimed at those in their 20s or even early 30s in the same or similar position as me, I’ve downloaded Frolo and joined gingerbread but there doesn’t seem to be anyone who’s the same age as me on there, I’d appreciate any help

I don’t know of any ante-natal classes or groups aimed specifically at single mums, but once the baby is born, when you go to baby classes you will be absolutely fine.

You’ll meet loads of different mums from all sorts of backgrounds and relationship statuses. I’ve found that your relationship status is pretty irrelevant at baby groups, and they’re aimed at mums to meet other mums. They’re very different to ante-natal classes and aren’t couple oriented at all. You’ll hopefully make some new friends. I met loads of single mums at classes I went to, and hopefully you can build a network of mums through different baby classes.

Good luck OP. It sounds like you’re doing amazingly, and best of luck with the rest of your pregnancy.

So weird they were that insensitive to people who weren’t in a couple… you’d think they’d be considering this when writing the class plans? It’s their responsibility to be inclusive of all parent setups. And ew ‘couple swap’ I’d be outta there too, so cringy never mind insensitive.

sorry I don’t know any specific groups, I just went to the nhs one. If you’ve paid for this one, I’d get my money back (being clear about why) and try another. Hopefully it was just bad luck.