Any thoughts on legalities or chances of success of private birth prep. classes?

[happynappies]

Have had an idea for ages now about providing private birth/parenthood preparation classes locally. I'm a qualified lecturer in FE and my background is in psychology, but obviously I'm not medically qualified. I was wondering about providing nice informal groups for people nearing the end of their pregnancies, with a focus on group discussion and the preparation for parenthood rather than the medical stuff you get on NHS antenatal classes. Is there any reason why someone can't set up doing this? Do you think there would be any interest? Any views really welcome.

is that not what the NCT do?
and antenatal yoga teachers
and the laleche league

quite a crowded market

As TP2 says the NCT pretty much have the middle class market (which is who can afford them) sewn up. The courses do touch on the sorts of things you have mentioned. They have become more commercial, replacing their volunteers who used to organise the admin for the classes with paid workers to ensure they can meet the demand/provide a better service.

Having said that it depends where you are. They cannot always meet the need. And what happens around here is the trained NCT teachers do their NCT stuff and then private classes as well - so there is enough demand for both.

I might be wrong but I think the focus for most pregnant women/couples is the birth. And whilst we should all consider the other stuff, it is a bit difficult to see beyond that esp with DC1...?

However, I could see a market for "how to cope with being a parent" support group once you have the DC. But not sure would be great money generator.

Sorry to be negative. Hope you work out what you want to do.

I think this would work really well in areas where demand for classes frequently exceeds what the NCT can supply.

The main stumbling block would be in obtaining the necessary insurance for antenatal classes (for even if your emphasis is elsewhere, some birth preparation and life with a newborn has to be part of the package). IIRC, such insurance is readily available only to those with relevant HCP, NCT or Active Birth qualifications.

Might you want to start by investigating training with one of the latter two organisations?

Have you thought about training as a HypnoBirthing tutor? It might appeal to your psychology background, and the course I did included prep for birth etc. The lady who used to run the course was not, to my knowledge, medically qualified, although the tutor who took over from her and who taught my course (when she gave it up for personal reasons) is in fact a long-qualified midwife. A lot of HypnoBirthing tutors are not midwives though.

Tbh I would not be terribly interested in attending ante natal classes taught by someone without any relevant qualiifcations, but that's just a personal view.