Ante-natal class #1: If all goes well...

We went to our first ante-natal class last night.

The class was given by one midwife who works in Heaton Moor. All the people there were apparently from the Heatons area so that we could start to network. We had chance to chat to one couple, Anthony and Sarah who are expecting their baby (their first) early in August.

Last night the focus was on a normal labour and the stages that the woman goes through: when to come to hospital, the likely sequence of events, etc. There were lots of large laminated pictures of a baby making its way out of the womb and into the world in nice problem-free stages.

We got the chance to ask lots of questions - which we did - but I felt the whole thing was a little unstructured. Topics seemed to crop up and be dealt with in an arbitrary order. There was a lot to take in and I wished I had taken a notepad, not least to remind me look up more information when I got home on subjects where the coverage had been sketchy or a little confusing. For example, she explained that ideally the waters should not break as the baby has maximum protection against infection. But then she said that a woman can be sent home for as long as 5 days after her waters break to wait for labour. These facts seemed rather contradictory to me and when I quizzed her the vague answer I got left me feeling it was a risk we had to assess ourselves.

Overall it was beneficial and we came away with some useful reading matter.

Next stop: a tour of the delivery suite on Saturday morning.