*Attention Pregnant Ladies/ Parents of Newborns* Advice please on training as a baby natal teacher..

[BeckyMumOfThree]

Hi ladies,

Im new to posting on here and really would appreciate some feedback/ advice on what peoples thoughts are of paying to go classes to learn about the basics of looking after and preparing for a baby. Parents and parents to be will be introduced to a variety of tried and tested techniques and support around various aspects in the "4th trimester" such as feeding, sleeping, bathing and colic. The advice and techniques are shown as options for parents to try and make up their own minds what works for them and their baby. The classes are offered as groups or private sessions ranging from £30-60 for 2 hour session. Some health visitors/ midwives or extra support can sometimes be challenging to obtain after having baby and can take weeks to arrange.

I am debabting whether or not there is a market for this sort of thing before i commit myself to doing the training and parting with any finances. Would people be willing to attend this sort of thing if it was in their area? What would tick everyones box to attend a class (apart from being free?! LOL) Any advice or feedback would be great! Thanks in advance x

In our area, the health visitors ran weekly free post natal classes like this, including weaning, play etc.

I probably wouldn't pay to attend, but some people would like they do for nct

Am afraid am with givemeaclue- you either do Nhs or tend to do nct. I think there is more mileage in being a doula and giving post natal support that way.

A friend of mine is setting up doing exactly that - pretty sure she was going to charge £30 an hour per person for a small group class, think she was going to do a set of maybe 3 classes?? I'd have paid it - I felt that the HV, although lovely, wasn't enough info and it would have been nice to get some more advice, although I think I'd prefer to go to a class where someone actually has an opinion iyswim? There are so many people giving you options but being really vague about it, I think people with newborns sometimes need a bit more definite advice. Even if all you're actually doing is working out what the new mum wants to do and supporting that.

Oh the only other thing is that I know she was trying to work out how to promote herself - the ideal is that the HV would see what you're doing as valuable and point people to you (she was a trained midwife so knew what she was talking about), but she felt that the HV might think she was in some kind of competition? Not seen her for a while so I'm not sure how she dealt with this one...

There's a company near me who offers this sort of class - they do antenatal classes on natural birth techniques (hypnobirthing, pain management etc) then fourth trimester classes once baby has arrived. I didn't know about them when I had DS otherwise I probably would have done them.

I would say your pricing seems extortionate - the one I know of charges £5 per week, for a 45 min weekly class.

It would be way too expensive imo