10 Good Reasons to Join an Antenatal Class

When I was pregnant I did lots of research online. I spent hours googling birth plans, looking into pain relief options, umming and ahhing about a water birth and generally trying to get to grips with the fact I would soon be pushing a baby out of my body! 

It was so frustrating. I had to google some very random things to try and get the answers I wanted and usually spent most of my time trying to dodge the horror stories that are out there. 

The internet is flooded with opinions which are being presented as facts. There’s tons of out of date information and 90% of what you read won’t even be applicable to us UK mummies.

So I decided to book an antenatal class. My partner often works away during the week meaning we had to look for a weekend one. It was good! It certainly made me and my partner feel more prepared. 

Want to know the best bit? I made a friend! And 4 years later, we still see each other regularly and compare notes on how we are finding motherhood. 

I was super lucky to meet someone in a day-long antenatal class that I got along with and stayed in touch with. Those kind of connections are far more likely to happen when you get to know someone over the space of a few weeks and you have a class teacher who is helping you to form those bonds. 

I’ve had the absolute pleasure of meeting loads of mums who have attended classes with Kayleigh at The Daisy Foundation. Every single one of them talks of how informative the classes are and how relaxed Kayleigh made them feel. But mostly, the mums just love talking about each other and the friendships they have made and how nice it is to have someone to talk to that’s going through the same thing as they are at the very same time.

Still not convinced?  Let me tell you exactly why you should join an antenatal class: 

1. You realise that everything you are going through is totally normal.

2. You have a group of heavily pregnant women to meet up with when you're all waiting for your little ones to arrive. 

3. You are all genuinely excited for each other when the babies are born and names are declared. (No duplicates, phew).

4. You can share your traumatic birth stories and discuss whether your tummies and vaginas will ever recover.

5. Coffee dates, picnics and baby classes are so much more fun when you have a group of mum friends to share them experience with. I’d like to add champagne and cocktails but that's more a dream than a reality.

6. Sympathy. My baby had a tantrum in the supermarket / threw up all over me / pooped everywhere in the doctors surgery / screamed for an hour in the car.  It becomes a bit more bearable when you share it with sympathetic mums who help you see the funny side.

7. Support. You get lots of support when you decide to get fit, start the diet, or go back to work.  And you get loads of support when you give up getting fit, eat lots of cake, and decide not to go back to work. 

8. Information. You learn so much from each other about feeding, sleeping, and caring for your baby.   

9. You get a whole group of babies to love and watch grow up. 

10. You will hopefully learn some useful tips in the class!

Some birth prep classes also encourage the dads to form friendships with each other which I think is a fab idea. Our lovely husbands/partners are going through a lot at the moment, trying to support us, so how nice would it be for them to connect with other dads-to-be that are going through the same? I can just imagine them all comparing notes on the bizarre things they have been sent to the shops for when pregnancy cravings struck in the middle of the night or the time their wife cried over a photo of a baby hedgehog (the cuteness is just too much to handle!). Or maybe they will use their group chats for more practical discussions like planning hospital routes, packing their own hospital bags, sharing foot massage tips… we can dream can’t we?? Either way, these dads could be spending the next few years attending each others kids birthday parties so they may as well get to know each other sooner rather than later. 

On a final note, friendship isn’t guaranteed at antenatal classes but it’s certainly worth a try!

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like my list of 10 Third Trimester Must Dos and you may find my Hospital Bag Checklist super useful too.  

And just for fun, here are a few snaps of my little one and her antenatal class buddy taken over the last 3 years: