Birth classes. But which ones?

During my pregnancy with my eldest child Mr. Large, my husband and I attended antenatal classes in the UK. They were brilliant, because as well as being informative and having a really lovely teacher; I formed some firm friendships with fellow mothers to be. Even though we would never have met or been friends under regular circumstances, we all bonded under the mutual terror and excitement about what labor and parenthood would be like.

All these years later and half a world away I am still in touch with some of the girls from those classes.

Back here in Australia, we are really lucky to have access to a wide range of ante-natal classes that allow mums to prepare for birth. I know most hospitals offer basic antenatal classes over a series of weeks. However, I have to admit for our second and third child we didn’t go to those, instead opting for the “crash course” ones that we took just a few weeks before our bubs were born. There simply wasn’t time in the evening the second and third time round to go to the classes and by then, we kind of had the basics figured out.

I also did some antenatal yoga throughout each of my pregnancies which was wonderful. I suffered really bad back pain in each pregnancy and these classes were a great source of relaxation and pain relief.

If I could do it all again I’d definitely give aqua natal classes a go. The thought of floating in water while I exercised is very soothing. As well as loving water I think it would be far gentler on my body than the walking I did throughout each pregnancy.

A girlfriend of mine and her partner recently attended a Calmbirth weekend workshop. She told me that while it was quite expensive, it was brilliant in terms of teaching her and her partner how to approach the birth process. It focused on teaching her to relax and visualize a positive birth of her baby. I look forward to seeing how successful it was in a few weeks time when her bub is due.
What classes are you going to go to?