What happens at antenatal classes?

simu · 26-04-2006 9:51pm #1

I've booked these at a local hospital but I was ondering what exactly they cover. Any ideas?

Karoma · 26-04-2006 9:53pm

Antenatal classes in Ireland provide you with information about pregnancy, labour and delivery, and baby care. The classes will also allow you to discuss any concerns you might have with other expectant parents. Many antenatal classes focus on labour and delivery alone, but others include practical advice on how to care for your baby and adjust to parenthood.
Taken from Oasis
They vary a lot, but a video tends to be common... just... don't bring popcorn...

Which hospital?

simu · 26-04-2006 10:02pm

Erinville, Cork. Hope they don't show graphic vid - I would rather not see tbh.

embee · 26-04-2006 11:57pm

Heya simu,

Ooh, you haven't too long left now!

I went to ante-natal classes in Drogheda, and they covered pretty much everything, from birthing positions, breathing techniques, what to bring to the hospital when you're having your baby, breastfeeding, physiotherapy for third trimester pregnancy (that was brilliant), and (by far the one I had most interest in) pain relief.

They were great, very informative, and I found them a great help. I had been reading a lot of pregnancy books, but its good to get info face to face from a midwife.

They did show a graphic birthing video, but quite honestly, it meant nothing to me. I kind of said in my head that I had no way of knowing my delivery would be anything like hers, it might look worse, it might not look half as bad. Eitherway, I wasn't going to be able to see what was going on at my own delivery, if you know what I mean. There's no point in watching it and having expectations as a result - if that was the case I'd have expected a long, long, ardous labour with loads and loads of screaming, shouting, crying, loads of pushing. My own reality was that from waters going to birth was 3 hours. I had no pain relief bar gas and air (even if I had wanted an epidural, there was no time, as I went from 2cm to fully dilated in less than 2 hours), I was pushing for, in total, 25 minutes, and it wasn't constant pushing (as I had seen in the video). There were defined gaps between pushes, of up to 2 minutes, so in reality, I did between 6 and 10 pushes and she was born. Perhaps I was lucky, but, in my mind, the women in the video had a much harder time of it than I did. (In fact, 20 minutes after my daughter was born, I turned around to the midwife and said "I could do that again, it wasn't so bad!)

Bear in mind too that different hospitals have different approaches to things like birthing positions, pain relief, c-sections. The hospital I went to were very much pro-natural, and would favour more "natural" birthing positions (squatting, standing, on all fours) than the traditional sitting or lieing down. When it came to pain relief, they were sort of negative about the epidural (truth be told, they frightened the life out of me when they told me about it). I wanted a natural childbirth though, so I suppose I went to the best hospital for my wishes.

Theyre great, but beware of agendas being pushed is the crux of what I wanted to say.

(sorry if too much info re my birthing experience)

simu · 27-04-2006 12:03am

embee wrote:

(sorry if too much info re my birthing experience)

No, it's all good! Interesting post!

dbnavan · 27-04-2006 12:09am

simu wrote:

No, it's all good! Interesting post!

agrees~~ Wife due in September, our first ,in Drogheda

Oryx · 27-04-2006 5:12pm

embee, you lucky thing, I hate ya

Like has been said, the classes give you info on pregnancy, birth, labour, basically how to care for yourself before, what to expect and how to cope during, and baby care after the birth. Some classes give lessons on positions for labour and breathing during contractions and delivery. Yeah, the video can be graphic, you may hear horror birth stories, (our midwife doing the classes scared the bejesus out of us, mustve had a difficult time herself!) but bear in mind every birth is different, dont go in with a set plan for whats going to happen. And its only one day out of your whole life and the results are worth it.:)

nlgbbbblth · 07-05-2006 4:25pm

We went for four weekly sessions - two hours each.

Pretty informative - three other couples there. No video thankfully. One impression I did get was that the midwife looked down on natural births (without epidural). She was a little dismissive of cloth nappies too ("don't know anyone who uses them" etc).

Femelade · 07-05-2006 5:12pm

simu wrote:

Erinville, Cork. Hope they don't show graphic vid - I would rather not see tbh.

went to those classes in the erinville 5 yrs ago when i was pregnant with my daughter.

i dont think they showed a video, at least i cant remember if they did but i'm sure i would remember if they did , right? so lets say there was no graphic vid.

it was just a nurse teaching breathing techniques etc. telling you when to push, when not to push etc.

i remember i was due on the 21st of march. i went in at 2am on the 21st of march and the pains got very bad about 3-4 o clock that afternoon, i was finally taken up to the labour ward at 7am on the 22nd in tremendous pain.

a doctor put in the epidural....didnt work.....did it again......didnt work......the bloodly director/owner of the the hospital came down with his suit on, threw off his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeve and tried to put the epidural in again (made some joke about using the strongest stuff they have for the bigger women - i wasnt big really - so i wasnt impressed with that and gave out to him for calling me an elephant, then i wanted to brush my teeth...

finally it worked and i fell asleep for about an hour, they said my contractions were strong and it was time to push...but shannon (my daughter to be) had fallen asleep so they had to prod my stomach to wake her.
finally she woke but still wanted to stay put, the epidural had worn off at this stage and i had got a top up...then after another 2 hrs of pushing or so, the epidural wore off again..dr was doing an emergency section so he couldnt come down to top it up, went through the next hour and a half (i thought it was about 10 hours after) in emence pain..finally dr came , topped up epidural, and shannon was born at 6:05 in the evening of march 22nd. 8lbs 2.5 oz......

and yes, i would do it all over again if i had to.

oh and i forgot everything i learnt in the classes.....oops!

corkee · 22-08-2009 12:43pm

simu wrote: »

Erinville, Cork. Hope they don't show graphic vid - I would rather not see tbh.

I think all those graphic vids are optional. I know there's a tour of the new hospital in cork on DVD now as it helps with infection control problems. I think this will still be included in my antenatal class even though Im not going to the hospital ones, but I dont know if I should expect anything graphic, has anyone seen that DVD?

Deliverance · 23-08-2009 11:38pm

simu wrote: »

I've booked these at a local hospital but I was ondering what exactly they cover. Any ideas?

If it's worth anything... I was one of the few dads that was there for these sessions and they showed what to expect at the birth. Mostly breathing excercises and how the short breaths worked for the big push. Plus they handed out a model of a baby and we had to guess the weight etc.

I was doing really well with all the questions and seemed like the best student. Untill the nurse asked the fathers what is the best thing to say during the birth process... I piped up in my confident studenty state by saying 'Relax' and all the mums and the nurse turned on me immediatelty, apparently saying that is the worst thing you can do.

I was doing so well up until then.

So all I can offer to you is... under no circumstances mention the word relax.

What happens at antenatal classes?

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