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.
