NHS Antenatal Classes

[loopy82]

Has anyone else heard that the government are cutting funding for antenatal classes so they will no longer be available on the NHS? One the girls in my aquanatal class was told this by her midwife last week and then checked it with the hospital. I can't find anything official online but will be checking with my midwife next week. If it's true I'll be so annoyed because it's too late to get on a NCT course in my area now.

 

[Lamsbump]

When are they cutting the fund for them from? i have not heard anything about them being cut!

 

[Kimboowee]

I've not heard anything either. I didn't even get offered any last time, and when I asked at 28 weeks it was too late!

 

[Bellie710]

To be honest I found them totally useless so wouldn't be a great loss as far as I'm concerned. I thought they would be all about breathing etc and we just sat listening to a woman drone on for 90 mins!

 

[Lamsbump]

i have to say i have found mine to be very informative (i was expecting the opposite) due to what i had been previously advised. Yes there are some boning parts

also for another note our MW ho take the class said that they dont teach you the old breathing anymore but go with the slogan of "if in doubt breath out" or "Slow sigh out"as we apparently are a nation who are good at breathing out but not in but if you breath out deeply your body automatically takes a deep breath in. She did how ever say that if they see ladies getting panicked then they step in with the breathing and lead you.
We have been told that we will be learning about baby massage, tips on breast feeding and she has already give us details on other classes that are available to us.

 

[NOMORENUMBERS]

i think it depends on your hospital and the specific midwife teaching it but mine was horrendously crap waste of time and a fiver!!!! for the car parking!

we didnt do breathing techniques
we didnt do any massage as in dh learning what he can do
we sat around fore 30 mins thinking of 5 questions we wanted to ask
then we asked them

some classics were

am i going to poo
can you tell me exactly how long my labour will be as dh has work during the day
does it really come out of there
can i book a c section
am i going to make a lot of noise and will other people hear me

we didnt look at positions of birthing

i tell you one thing for free! the tour around the maternity unit is a must because you learn a lot more than you do in the antenatal class and as there is a smaller group of you - like 6 couples as opposed to 15-20 - you can actually ask more of your own sensible questions

 

[lynzlogan]

when pregnant with DS (in 2007) i got a call to attend the classes 8 days before my due date pmsl!
I told them no thanks.

 

[CharmedKirsty]

My hospital do a workshop rather than classes.

 

[bumpy_j]

83billion in cuts so i'm not surpised

i didn't go for NHS classes in the end because i got a 90% percent discount off an NCT course, but all these cuts are driving me mad, there's SO many

 

[winegums]

loopy nct will take you on at any point, i booked nct classes 3days before they started.

i think nhs classes are pretty awful to be honest anyway in a lot of areas - if not dropped they should definately have some sort of reform

 

[loopy82]

Just wanted to update this now I've seen my midwife and talked to a couple more people. Looks like the classes are up in the air because everything has changed with the maternity services in this area recently and they are getting back on track now. So it seems it's not country wide and it might be one thing the government isn't actually cutting back on!

 

[lightweight]

Am due to start my NHS classes next week. Have also booked onto NCT ones which start in a couple of weeks as NHS ones were only in day time and none in evenings or weekends, so wanted DH to come along to NCT.

Not sure whether to go on my own to NHS ones or to take Mum along for moral support!