My experience with my midwife has put me off completely. I have had no support from her at all . She hasn't mentioned anything about the antenatal classes (not sure if I was suppose to ask to jog her memory?) which I am now too late to start. Did anyone else not bother with the standard NHS classes? What sort of information did they tell you? Am I missing out?

I was wondering about when the hospital tours start and whether she is suppose to book this or is this my responsibility?

I'm just grateful I have this site, and also my friend (who happens to be a midwife, just a shame she looks after a different area!), I just don't know what I would have done without you

I have had no antenatal classes never discussed my birth plan and only seen my roper midwife about 3 times in all the time i have been going if i have wanted something i have had to ask or do it myself like the grants you can get and stuff. As for hospital tours we don't get them here.

TBH my midwife is lovely and the ther ones i have seen have been lovely so i don't really have anything to complain about and don't worry about what am missing out on because if i was that desperate for it i would of asked about it.

It's not necessarily your midwife's role to book classes and hospital tours for you hun... we went for NCT classes in the end which were fab and MUCH better than any of the NHS ones we went to...

Best contact your local NCT office though sooner rather than later as the courses tend to get booked up very early!

Give your primary care trust a ring (you can find their number on the internet) and ask them about NHS classes and tours etc.. or try your local Sure Start centre as they may be able to help too.

My midwife has been wonderful, so I feel very sad for you that you haven't had a simialr experience x

I'd phone and ask if i were you. Depending on how often your antenatal classes run in your area you might need to get this sorted asap. I found the NCT classes in my area were fully booked by the time i got round to thinking about it at 30 weeks.

Even if your mw doesn't sort these things for you normally she'll be able to tell you who to contact to arrange it yourself.

As someone else said, its not a responsibility of your MW altho most will readily give out this info. I asked my MW when i would be able to do antenatal at about 20 weeks and she gave me local info. I also asked about tours, and our hospital don't do these but have an online tour. Have you not mentioned this all to her before now?

Well all though it is not your mws responsiblity to tell you, its wrong to assume mothers automatically know about these things and she SHOULD tell you really,a good midwife would and is what they are trained to tell you at my uni anyway. Some trusts dont do hospital tours which is a bummer (mine dont!) and i got told about antenatal classes at 29 weeks but they were booked up!

Hiya Hun

I had my first antenatal class last night n it was CRAP!!

The midwifes were lovely but tbh i already knew all the stuff they were talking about,most of it was common sense ie when to call hospital (when contractions are 5 mins apart)
How can you tell you in labour (when u get strong contractions)


Really kinda dull tbh i was hoping to find out more info..

D
xx xx

I was disappointed in the prenatal approach of my midwife. I wanted her to be someone who would comfort me through all my pregnancy complaints but she was very practical. She was almost like a man in the way she responded to me--saying stuff like "that's what it's like and you just need to cope." I was really worried about her supporting me through labor but i stuck with her because 100% of my numerous friends who had used her did nothing but rave about how amazing she was.

I'm glad I did. She was a completely different person the day a delivered. She gave me EXACTLY what I needed. I learned that labor and delivery is her domain and she does it well. She could use some improvement with the prenatal bed side manner but she was superb where it actually counted. I'm glad I stuck with her because I've had doctors who were great prenatal and cost me so much because of their poor choices on labor day.

My midwife did nothing to set me up with birth classes and hospital tours. I asked her and she directed me after I asked but I had to do that myself.

My MW only told me about a mid week swimmin class they do & thats about it. I took it upon myself 2 pester her about parentcraft class (which i'm goin on nxt sat wiv tour of hosp) Been goin 2 free surestart classes 1 thursday of every month run by a local MW on birth, bf etc but again only knew about this as saw a poster in GP & rung up. Found them really good. U about same week as me so I'd ask ur MW can u go on nxt parentcraft class as think they only do em monthly Good Luck xxx

I would have thought she should have at least told me when to start looking into classes, its my first so how am I to know what to do and when? Even when I found out I was RH-, she just gave me a leaflet and said 'read this'! It wasn't until I mentioned this to my friend who explained how dangerous it could be and what symptoms to look out for!
Mind you, I never have good luck so this sounds about right for me! Nothing ever goes right!
Don't think I'll bother with the classes, there's probably better information on this forum!