to antenatal class or not

my MW came today and we spoke about antenatal classes I am sort of keen to go cause this is my first time through this btu someone told me its a total waste of time. Any thoughts would be much appreciated

If you have a local Parents Centre, I totally recommed there a/n courses! You do have to pay I think it was $180, but well worth it and you get coffee group out of it and some great new friends with babies the same age as yours!

Well well worth it IMO!

yeha i asked about that..she said it was an antenatal class..implying before baby is born..I'm like yeah but they will all be born eventually then what...seems to be a sink or swim attitude..which sucks really:(

i did the parents center one and it was free. i too thought it would be a waste of time but i got heaps out of it. and then afterwards i went to the baby and you classes and learnt heaps there too.

I too asked where was the info about looking after the baby! There response which I thought was a very good call was, when you are pregnant you can't actually see past going through labour and birth, so teaching you about looking after baby would go in one ear and out the other. I think they were correct in saying that as all I was worried about was getting the baby out first of all!!

The other courses that Parents Centre offeres which are included in your membership fee are Baby and You, Moving and Munching, CPR along with others and I have found these courses are absolutely fantastic and they teach you all about your baby and what to expect!!

and coffee groups rock

Me and DF are going to them, Id rather go and learn some stuff than not go and wonder what i could have learnt. They are free, so I dont see why not Plus, I think it will be good for my DF to hear all that stuff from a real person rather than reading a book, it will make him listen and learn better

Edited by Sheza

Just wondering when did you book your courses?

I found I didn't learn a lot more than I had already found out for myself (reading books, magazines, OhBaby! etc), but would definitely recommend attending one.

I found my DH really benefitted - he's not much of a reader and I'm sure half of what I told him went in one ear and out the other! Plus it was great to have that support of other first times mums after the birth, they understood what you were going through and feeling - like when I looked at my bloated feet and burst into tears!!!

From memory I booked the class around the 20 week mark and started attending at around 28 weeks.

We went, I don't think they covered anything that I hadn't read but it well and trully opened DH's eyes. I found it impossible to get him to read anything he just kept saying that I could tell him what was going on...erm not when I'm in labour!!!! so from that point of view it was good. I won't be going with my 2nd cos I don't think it would be worth our time having been through it for real already.
They did cover a bit of stuff for when baby comes at our one, like how to breastfeed, how to bath and even how to make a bed. Would have been handy to have had some time spent on ways to settle and common baby complaints like what to do with colic etc though. I booked around the 20 weeks mark.

I booked in about 9 wks and I can't believe everyones Parent Centre ones were free. We had to pay $205 which included membership, AN course and the Baby & You course!

If it were free I'd definitely say do it. For what we had to pay and what we learnt (further from what we already knew ourselves) it wasn't worth it for us.