Did everyone go to an anti-natal/birthing class?

[Babushka]

We went to the first one out of 5 & didn't go back. It wasn't really our thing & to be honest, I can't be bothered going out at night (it's winter here). The emphasis really seemed to be on a natural birth & being my first, I'm going to leave my options open when it comes to drugs.

I agree with you, there is plenty of info on the net and we can always ask other mums.

 

[MrS. MaBrEy]

we are americans who live in Germany and they only offer classes in German here. neither of us are fluent enough to get anything out of the classes so we opted to do hypnobirthing via reading the text and using the streaming mp3's we found online for free. we also read other books with other methods (Lamaze, Bradley etc.) and settled on hypno. i feel confident that we made the best possible decision for our situation.

 

[xdxxtx]

I didn't go to anything. I just let my body guide me and trusted that it knew what it was doing. Labor and delivery were both delightful experiences for me, and not having all the horror stories of what could go wrong and all that really helped to keep me calm. Now, I've got a little bit of experience under my belt, and I'm excited to experience this again.

 

[easyrhumba]

We didnt go to any and did just fine! The nurses and my doctor really helped out while I was pushing for 45 minutes and ended up with a c section so I didnt matter in the end!Good luck!

 

[Equreuil]

I was never offered them, or even told if my hospital offers them. But, even if I had been, we'd have probably opted to not do them, as our hospital of choice is a 45 minute drive.

Between the probable cost of the classes, plus the cost of gas and probably at least one meal out each time (due to time and distance involved), not to mention the time off from work we'd have to take to make the trip. It all adds up to something we wouldn't have been able to afford.

 

[nzjade]

I went to ante natal classes and a free breastfeeding class run by our local hospital - both were sooo helpful. I thought I knew everything and I definitely didn't! They're not all about pregnancy and labour, but also helpful tips for once the baby is here like sleeping, breastfeeding, ours also included first aid etc. Go for it - especially if you can find free ones

 

[Mum2BKW]

Just had another thought - at one of our NCT classes it was mentioned that ours are a bit cheaper that some areas (£160) because the course fee doesn't include the first years NCT membership, which apparently a lot of the courses do as standard. So if you wanted to do NCT maybe you could ask if they can take off the membership fee if it's been included?

 

[Lawgirl]

Just had another thought - at one of our NCT classes it was mentioned that ours are a bit cheaper that some areas (£160) because the course fee doesn't include the first years NCT membership, which apparently a lot of the courses do as standard. So if you wanted to do NCT maybe you could ask if they can take off the membership fee if it's been included?

Good point. They included the membership fee when they first sent me the invoice and I told them to take it off.

 

[NinaAutumn]

I didn't go to anything. I just let my body guide me and trusted that it knew what it was doing. Labor and delivery were both delightful experiences for me, and not having all the horror stories of what could go wrong and all that really helped to keep me calm. Now, I've got a little bit of experience under my belt, and I'm excited to experience this again.

I like your point here. I wonder if the more I know the more worried I would be? So far my pregnancy has been fine and if anything goes wrong in labour I would want to be guided by the experts.

I feel like even though this is my first I do understand the process.

I do think I will go to one of the NHS ones at my local hospital just to find out about their policies and look at the birthing centre but not necessarily for labour classes.

 

[Whimsy82]

I feel like the more I know, the more relaxed and excited I am about it.

But I agree that if you feel comfortable with the process and understand how it works, then you probably don't need to go to them.

For me, personally, it's just one of those fun things to do that goes along with me being pregnant. And it's still helpful to me at the same time (Though I don't exactly consider myself TOTALLY stupid about pregnancy.) It's just fun for me