Hi Kaz, welcome to BB.

I did my classes at 31,32 and 33w - that would have been the same time I did the private classes, if we had gone for those. We had a very good midwife take the first two at the hospital so I can't fault them (DH did think they were a little repetitive, but I pointed out that's what pregnant women need!), the midwife who did the third was a little more fixed and only really offered her pov. The first midwife went through how to avoid intervention and why as well as what it was and when you would want it, as well as how to ask for it and things like that - information with only a slight bias to the natural birthing. But then I want no drugs, so I didn't really notice the bias too much!

I understand that the more pain relief, the more likely you are to tear simply because you're relying on someone else telling you when to push rather than feeling when to do it yourself. But small tears and/or grazing are almost expected when birthing from the statistics I've seen!