what to expect at ante natal class?

Synyster Shadow

I'm booked in for next week I just need to ring and confirm or decline I know no one in the family or any friends ever went to one so was just wondering what they'll do and are they actually beneficial?

mary1978

the ones we went to in the coombe were good. just practical advice from midwives. there were 5 evening sessions all on different topics. cant remember exactly but i think
- how to know you are in labour / when to go to hospital
- all about the process of having the baby . options for pain relief, birth plans etc etc
- how to look after your baby once born. what to buy, what to bring to the hospital, breast and bottle feeding, bathing etc etc
i thought the ladies running the classes in the coombe were excellent. made the whole thing good fun and relaxed and lots of good advice.

Gee_G

Synyster Shadow wrote: »

I'm booked in for next week I just need to ring and confirm or decline I know no one in the family or any friends ever went to one so was just wondering what they'll do and are they actually beneficial?

The one good thing I found about it was we got a tour of the delivery suite which me a little less anxious on the "big day".
I would recommend it even just for that.
They talk to you about feeding, changing, bathing etc. We also had a physio come in to Talk about pelvic exercises, posture etc.
Yeah sorry, forgot about pain relief, how to know you're in labour etc.

How Strange

My husband and I went up the Coombe one too which was run on a Saturday. Before that we'd done a private one which looked at natural birthing, explained interventions, pros and cons of the different pain reliefs.

I have to say the Coombe one was excellent and every bit as informative as the private one. We were really glad we'd done it. It also explained the hospitals policies on labouring, episiotomies etc. It also touched on post natal depression and the midwife explained to the dads what signs to lok for as they're usually the ones closest to the mums to notice changes.

I'd definitely recommend you attend the classes.

elly123

SS i would defo recommend the ante natal classes, i've only done 2 classes so far third one 2moro night, i didn't know what to expect at all, had this image of everyone sitting around in a circle with birthing partners behind us etc like what ya see on tv in films.
The first class like the other posters said was all about the signs that you might be about to go into labour, labouring how to deal with the early contractions how to keep yourself busy at home etc in the early stages, when to contact the hosp and when to go to hosp, the midwife also gave us the list of what we need for our hosp bag for yourself and for baby. My OH found it very interesting.

Second class consisted of the different pain methods available and we were put in groups and you wrote down what you knew about each method which was interesting, the midwife then went through each method and explained some pros and cons.

The third class she said we were going to discuss the reasons why interventions such as foreceps and ventouse maybe needed

Fourth class will be about breast feeding and the fifth was about how to look after baby and when you get home how to deal with it all.

In the second class we were given leaflets on what we discussed in the first class and also on the pain methods, at the end we were also given the leaflet on the perineal massage.

They do show some video clips but nothing extreme at all. The last clip we seeing was how the baby moves down in the birthing stage and this was animated which is so much easier to watch.

lazygal

I'd recommend them for a first time mum, even just to hear about the signs of labour, the procedure for induction, pain relief, hospital policies and to see the delivery suite. We did a one day private one which was also good, and then I went to the hospital ones on my own. If you've any questions the midwives are there to answer. Some of them can be a bit patronising and 'pat you on the head' but I was firm when I asked a question that I wanted a straight answer and not 'you won't even be THINKING about that'.

Quirkygirl

Hi girls on my first baby I went and found the first one helpful but then the next a bit of a scaremongering which was a pity, the midwife was saying we needed to decide on pain relief and lots of the mums to be we're quite scared. I explained I was going to use hypnobirthing as my method during childbirth, I was greeted by mixed reactions. I didn't find the classes very helpful for me and didn't return as I was reading my own material and I have since had two births in same hospital using hypnobirthing and it was amazing. I simply found the classes very medical and not very supportive of a natural birth. But everyone is different, I think you need to be prepared and have all your info.