Antenatal classes

[Fibilou]

When did you all get your info/book on the classes ?
I'm 30 + 3 today and still have heard nothing. MW said I will receive information "soon" and I was wondering how "soon" this is likely to be. It's sent out by the hospital, not by the community MWs - the main issue is that DH has to plan time off a long time in advance to arrange cover and the longer it's left the less likely it is that he'll be able to come to the classes.

And another thing, are they actually useful ?

I went to NCT ones and thought they were well worth it and so did my partner. You have to pay but at least you know the dates and what is going to be taught on them. Most of the peopel I know that wentr to the free ones said they weren't that great. I only got dates for free ones at about 34 weeks.

You'll get a letter with dates. It can be only a few weeks before.
Surely if you phone and explain about your DH they will try to let you know sooner?
Are they useful? .
A little bit if it's a first baby.
Sometimes with NHS classes, the emphasis is on pain and pain relief. Not useful to expect pain which = fear and fear in labour and birth will = pain!
If you are tense, not breathing and full of adreneline it will be bloody painful.
I am on 2nd baby and have found hypnobirthing the best thing ever. It teaches an old hand like me a lot about birth id never have known! Im glad I have these skills now and am looking forward to the birth.
Google hypnobirthing now and see if you fancy it.
Go to your classes too though, you might meet potential buggy buddies to go for a coffee with. Im still good friends with my whole class and DS loves his little friends.

My midwife does the NHS ones and hasn't organised them yet (I'm 32 weeks!) so I'm glad I've been going to NCT. I can thoroughly recommend the NCT ones. See if you can get on a course. It costs though, but I think worth it.

PS its definitely worth going to something, rather than not bothering at all. Its been really informative and reassuring in alot of ways, and when you can discuss it, it seems to sink in more readily than just reading books. Its also great to meet other women at a similar stage to your pregnancy. I'll probably go the NHS ones as well even though I've done the NCT. The NCT were all in the evening and I think the NHS ones in my area also will be, so you may not have problems with your DH being able to go.

Hello, I'm 20 weeks and booked onto NHS classes last week, have had confirmation letter and everything with dates.....have got them in February, I'm going on these classes because I'm very keen on bf but haven't the first clue, first baby and all

I waited for my MW to bring up the topic and she never did - finally asked her about NHS classes and she gave me a form to fill out and send in to the local hospital. Once that was in I got a letter back the next week telling me when my classes were.

There were three 2-hour sessions. The first I missed, the second was very unorganized and minimally helpful. She passed around all the various bits of equipment (epidural needle, fetal scalp monitor, etc) you might see in hospital, which mostly freaked us out but I guess some people would find that interesting. The third was about postnatal care - for baby and mum - and the MW who led that session was hilarious. I really enjoyed it. (Especially the part where she emphasized that DH needed to do all the housework while I recover ) No idea what the classes in your area will cover, though!

Hoops, where are you ? When I asked my MW at about 20 weeks she practically laughed at me !

Hi fibilou I'm in Bournemouth, I got the leaflet for the classes at my booking in appointment, it's called Birth,Babies and Beyond........

It said on it that classes have to be booked at 20 weeks because they get booked up so quickly, so as soon as I turned 20 weeks I booked online and within 3 days I got the confirmation letter through email.

I think my hospital is just very organised!