Can I ask a few questions about ante-natal classes / parentcraft?

[DisasterArea]

i'm a student midwife and doing som work around parentcraft/antenatal groups. NHS ones not NCT or other.
would any one be kind and answer a couple of questions?

how were your classes arranged? one off whole day sessions or a series?

did you find them interesting/useful?

what was the most useful part?

would you find a DVD or CD-ROM useful? perhaps given at booking appointment, contining a video of maternity unit/ward, breast feeding advice, demos of bathing and sterilising? anything else?

this isn't for 'real' research and you wouldn't be quoted in anything. i'm just starting to think about possible future uses and which way antenatal information is best given to parents.

Our sessions were 3 morning sessions. The most useful part was meeting other parents and subsequently becoming friends. The least useful was the feeding part, not enough actual info on breastfeeding and what to expect just the usual it will be so much easier than FF.

A video of the maternity unit and delivery suite would be useful that could be loaned beforehand perhaps with tips from other mums about what they took, how they managed etc.

Overall I was dissapointed with the level of information and felt it was very late on in my pregnancy.

A day session would be good, at the weekend so that partners have the chance to attend.

HTH

sessions - 4 evenings, 2hrs long at hospital. was long-winded, said nothing that you couldn't have read on here or in the parenting mags. too late in pregnancy - think I was 34wks, rather have had this around 29/30. think one day would be better and on a weekend. also in a less formal environment - ours was in the ante-natal waiting room. also more of time to chat with other mums, encouragement to exchange numbers, email. coffee and biscuits would have been nice too.

most useful - visit to ward and delivery being tagged on, didn't need to make a seperate visit.

dvd would be great for 2nd time mums especially if at a new hospital or large age gap between dcs - things change and in our area nhs classes are for first timers only, no exceptions. oh, our nhs is trialling a dvd at the moment, not sure if they've dropped the classes in favour of dvd though.

we also have post-natal groups for first timers - these are much better, much more informative and lots of opportunities to make friends.

Good information about the hospital and delivery suite would have been great. Hospital visit for ours wasn't until I was 35 weeks and in fact I had had my baby when the people from the class came round.

So, when I was admitted with PPROM, I had no idea what the procedure was for being admitted etc which made the whole thing even worse.

The post natal group was great

Oh by the way, there was no hospital visit. In our area they don't do them.

thanks.
so if official class was scrapped would that be a big loss?
and 35 weeks is too late?

I would think it would be a big loss if the classes didn't happen. Mine were one a week for about 4 weeks I think, and I missed the last class due to already having had baby (at 37 weeks), so yes it would be good if they started them earlier.

mine was about 36 weeks too and there was a phsio there to give tips but most of them were too late and would have been useful earlier on in pregnancy to avoid things like bad backs.

It would be a loss if they scrapped nhs classes imo, even with their faults.

My hospital did del/MLU suite tours twice a week which were very good, just turn up.
But by the time of my booking appt (21 weeks) there were no more antenatal classes available at all. You pretty much have to book when you conceive here.

So a DVD would be really good as backup - luckily I got a place on a NCT course but that involved time off work and £280 which lots of people can't do.