On
my 25th week appointment with the midwife I was told that in our area
they are no NHS antenatal classes as such, the only training or
support they give is with breastfeeding and it will be 1-1 session.
It's
been a week since my appointment and I still feeling very
disappointed and let down in a way. If you follow my blog for a while
you know how unhappy I am with rare (in my opinion) appointments with
midwives and that it makes me feel neglected. Perfect example of
neglect is my booking
appointment.
I have learnt more from books, internet, other mums (to-be) than from local community. And the fact that due to cuts midwives can't give me enough support and provide appropriate care is appalling.
I'm
not so bothered really about breastfeeding and early days with baby
as I know my instincts will kick in, as much as I am bothered about
labour as I need reassurance and all valuable advice from a
professional.
Lovely
mum-bloggers directed me towards Mumsnet and Netmums
websites, where I could find antenatal classes in my area. I came
across NCT, Laizy Daisy and Your birth and babies etc etc.
In
the past 6 months I have heard a lot about NCT classes, however I
have heard more about people making friends rather than what you can
gain advice and support wise. I do appreciate that everyone have
different opinion about classes and want different things from them,
but I'm more determined to learn new things than to meet new people.
I'm not afraid to be alone, I already found lots of support online
and 100% sure that when we start going to children centres we will
find friends.
When
I enquired with NCT they could only offer classes in a town 6 miles
away as all classes in my town were booked. The
cost of the course is £201 per couple, including one years
membership with NCT; £161 with no membership plus you can have 1-1
classes where 1 hours costs £57 (they recommend that 2
hours is enough, but there is no agenda), a discount can be applied
if your income is less than £26K. But even with discounts the price
is the highest I have ever seen for courses.
Lazy
Daisy offers
weekly antenatal classes for women only (£54) classes
are a combination of yoga-like movement, active birth education and
self-hypnosis/relaxation; and
couple workshop (£75, which is discounted to £60 if you book women
only classes) 4 hour session. The
couples workshop goes through everything from the women only classes
but you don't practice exercises on the day they will be just showed
to you. It is a slightly cheaper option, but I'm not really into yoga
and hypnotherapy, a couple workshop sounds like a better option, but
still not sure that it is worth £75.
I
have also found Bounty webinar which suppose to have online antenatal
classes, in reality it consisted of 2 minute videos with mums
discussing labour.
In
the end I managed to find classes which are not quite local (24
miles) but they offer exactly what I'm interested in (labour, birth,
pain management) and for the right price- the first workshop option
is free of charge and follow up workshops are £10 each (in total
£30), which is brilliant!
Finally,
I'm stress free! Hope that my post will help if you are having
dilemma with antenatal classes.
I love preggy tummy! I miss mine! I didn't go to ante natal classes though. I am glad you sorted yours =)
ReplyDelete#binkylinky
I suppose cuts are making it harder to deliver care that is needed. Glad to hear you are stress free now though, not what you need at this stage.
ReplyDeleteTo be totally honest, In retrospect, I don't think antenatal classes about labour were useful, I prefered watching One born every minute. All labours are so different and so varied, it will never go according to plan so watching the programme gives you the extremes.
ReplyDeleteI wrote my birth plan with info I got from mumsnet.
On the other hand, The first days are so very tiring, a little preparation is useful, like how to bathe and change your child. Instincts kick in yes but I was soooooo tired, they didn't kick in as quickly as I wished and without a bit of prep, I would have gotten myself in a panic. I had a DVD on breastfeeding on a loop to make sure I knew how to do on the D day. i'm glad I did, I still needed help! I had stuck a piece of paper on my wall with instructions on how to give a bath to my baby, it gave me reassurance the fist few weeks. I had another post it with all the emergency numbers and the BF consultant, I called them many times!!
But of course that was me. Our hormones make us all feel differently ;)
I made a conscious decision not to attend antenatal classes and I'm glad I didn't; from listening to the experience of others, it sounds like the classes stressed them out a lot! Instinct will kick in xx
ReplyDeleteI had one antenatal class and it wasn't very informative or reassuring for me if I'm honest, I hope you have found what you are looking for now though, you clearly did your research! #BinkyLinky
ReplyDeleteIt really isn't easy finding the right thing but it feels so good when you do find it :) I read lots of books and went to pregnancy yoga (which helped immensely). It was postnatal that I found some long lasting friends. Thank you for linking to PoCoLo x
ReplyDelete