These classes are something that were relatively unknown to your grandparents and in essence they are designed to up skill new parents in what to expect, and more importantly, what to do and how to prepare for a new baby. In England these classes are given for free by the good old National Health Service, or for a fee, you can attend the classes of the National Child Trust (NCT). Your parents, being very eager by nature, decided to attend both!
The antenatal classes are broadly divided into three sections: the Labour Workshop, Breastfeeding Classes and Parenting Classes. The class of the NHS is given by a qualified midwife in the St Thomas hospital, where you will be born if everything goes according to plan. It is very informative and especially the Labour Workshop gives you a very good idea of what can be expected from the birthing process itself. After three hours of hearing about contractions, epidurals, gas and air and third degree tears, it is safe to say that we are aware of the fact that it is not going to be easy!
The classes given by the NCT broadly follows the same script, however it is given by a volunteer parent who obviously went through this whole process herself. The difference is that it is based in your area and attended by people local to you who will all go through the same experience. Your dad loves to say that the NCT is essentially a dating agency for expecting parents!
Our NCT group consist of seven couples, all living in the Clapham area: Tara and Simon, Rachel and Mark, Sinead and Liz, Isabelle and Steve, Lone and Jon and Rachel and James. Even though we only spent a little time together, it really seems that we all "clicked" quite well and we really hope that we will spend a lot of time together in the future once all the babies have arrived. However, it remains to be seen who will stay in contact, and who won't.
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