Were Your Hospital Ante-Natal Classes Adequate? (Post Baby)

[BellyBelly]

I'm running two polls to get an idea of what your thoughts are on ante-natal classes offered by your hospital. The first poll will be for those who have had ante-natal classes but not had their baby, and the second who have had ante-natal classes and had their baby. So please be sure you vote for the right one which applies to you!

[Astrolady]

I think this is the right one... can I blame preggo brain if it isn't rofl

I found our ante-natal classes (when preg with Kameron) really boring, as did Andrew. Best one was the tour of the maternity section at the hospital. Andrew didn't like the one where the mothers and fathers to be are split up and go and do their own thing, we had physiotherapy and not really sure what they did.

Love

[Lucy]

I had my antenatal classes in Darwin, at DPH, and looking back, they were pretty
ho-hum.

Because of BB and my own reading, they certainly didn't teach me anything new.

The birth videos totally totally freaked me out.....not helpful at all.....I had a panic attack in the car on the way home, crying to Andrew, saying "Noooooooooo, I can't do it, I don't want to have to push this baby out" LOL!

The one benefit was that the other potential parents there were all first timers too, and one of them ended up delivering her little girl at the same time as me in the next room, & we are still close friends now, which is nice, but a bit of a fluke!

[Mumma2three]

Not overly helpful for me, but for Tim they were a real eye opener, i think they gave him alot ot think about. He was totally clueless before. (It was bub no 2 for me, no 1 for him). I also LOVED meeting people in the same sitch. Found the support nice, and being able to get together nad talk about what we were going through xo

[christy]

Not at all for us. The information given was stuff we had already read about and looked into and even the breastfeeding time was tedious to sit through. They basically read out pamphlets that we had already digested. I liked the tour... but that was about all.

[Tigergirl1980]

I said not really beneficial. I knew most of the stuff from BB and reading the books that I had read. We got along really well with the other couples from our class (we are all around the same age) and we've gotten together since being in the class, but other than that I didn't really learn anything, oh except that amniotic fluid is corrosive That I did not know/

[Liz]

I was at the same hospital as Fletch, and I also put somewhat beneficial. Having done a lot of reading and research (thanks to BB!) they didn't teach me anything I didn't already know, but I did think they had a very balanced view of pain relief (actually encouraging drug free and how to do it... much to one young girl's horror LOL) and encouraged breastfeeding and keeping baby with you etc etc. The tour was good, so learning about the hospital itself was beneficial.

I think the class would have been reasonably sufficient for those who didn't do their own research. I agree with Fletch - the booklets were great for Mum and Dad.

I didn't pick very beneficial, as I found my own research was necessary to work out what it was I wanted. But the midwife was great at answering any of the questions I raised

[Tobily]

They were boring.
I knew everything LOL. Three years of hanging out on pregnancy boards was better pre birth education for me
I felt like they were covering things that most people should already know.

[Astrid]

I put very beneficial, as even though I had already read a fair bit about labour and birth, they actually covered more than that. I found the classes beneficial in the following ways:

Familiarisation - getting to know the birth centre and the various midwives. Getting used to the parking in the area (which really sucked) and what services were available in and around the hospital
Hospital procedure - from having been on BB for awhile, I got the impression that each hospital/birth centre does things a bit differently, so it was good to know exactly when we were to call the birth centre, when to come in, why we could be refused birth in the centre and under what circumstances we would be transferred out and what would happen then.
After birth - the was a whole class on what happens after birth, what it is like with a baby at home (how long feeding takes etc), it was a real eye opener for all the couples. The best bit was a new mum brought in her 22 hour old baby and showed us how to bath her.

Downside - not very clear on the role of the support person, we learnt more about that by doing an active birth class.

[lollylegs]

Very helpful. I was in Armidale NSW. I thought the classes were great. The whole thing was really relaxed. We learnt different exercises to do at home to prepare our bodies for birth. Perineium massage etc. The videos were a tad dodgy as they were old and dated. But the other talks given by the midwives were great. Wasn't too impressed with the tour though as there were too many ppl in the class and it was too uncomfortable to be able to have a proper look and ask questions and we were really rushed through it. But other than that it was fantastic. Watching the fellas do all our pregnancy exercises was a good laugh as well

[Pandora]

I said not really beneficial, mainly because I knew most of the stuff they covered from BB and elsewhere, and because the people in our group were so uninterested they ruined it for the couples who actully wanted to know stuff.

That and we watched a 40 minute video of Jo Bailey telling us to have an epidural (no offense if you want/have one, I just thought a 40 minute sales pitch was a bit OTT)

I also went one of Rhea Dempseys talks, this was much more beneficial and relevant to me personally.

[kmh]

i didn't really find my classes very worth while, they didn't cover anything on having an emergency c/s which i ended up having. The only things i liked was the midwife which she was lovely and the info about drugs in labour.

[Gemma]

We went Private and I felt the classes were only there for preparing us for a medically assisted birth. They showed us all the things they could use forceps, epidural needle etc. We went through all the pain relief options and were shown where the gas was on our tour. One of the two videos we were shown was a caesarean birth. We actually had to ask to see some videos of ‘natural’ births which we took home and watched.

I thought it was very strange that they didn’t cover breathing techniques in the classes. Surely that is common sense when preparing couples for the birth of their first baby. Also I think more focus should be towards breastfeeding. This wasn’t covered much.

We were very disappointed in the classes and thought it a waste of $160. The other couples seemed clueless about the impending birth and when asked about the stages of labour, they had not idea. I really think my many hours a day on BB back then helped a lot. The classes may be good for people that don’t read up about birth and caring for a baby or go online for some info but for us it was a waste of time.

For us, I ended up having a caesarean because I wasn’t progressing naturally and the cord was around Amy’s neck twice but the classes didn’t make any difference.