Before your baby arrives
A first-time parent class, while you still have the time
Antenatal preparation tends to stop at the birth. This is the fortnight after it: the part that lasts longer, is harder, and almost nobody talks through in advance.
Why it exists
You are taught to give birth, not to run a household with a newborn in it
Birth takes a day. What follows takes months, and preparing for parenthood is usually treated as a shopping list. A first-time parent class with an endorsed midwife gives it proper time instead, in your own home and before your baby arrives. Below is what the session covers, who tends to book it and when it fits best.
This session is about the ordinary mechanics of the first fortnight: how the days go, what a newborn actually does, what will surprise you, and what the two of you should agree on now while you are both rested enough to have the conversation.
General preparation rather than clinical advice. Anything specific to your pregnancy stays with your GP, hospital midwife or obstetrician.
What gets covered
A first-time parent class: the first fortnight, walked through
Shaped around what you are worried about, which for most first-time parents is more specific than they expect. A first-time parent class at home covers the same ground as a newborn care class, with your own cot and your own questions in the room.
Your baby
- What a newborn does all day, and how little of it is a problem
- Handling, wrapping, bathing and nappies, shown rather than described
- Feeding in the early days and how often is normal
- Safe sleep, and setting the cot up before you are exhausted
- What is worth ringing someone about, and who to ring
Your household
- Sleep, and how to protect one unbroken stretch each
- Dividing the load, decided now rather than argued about later
- Visitors: who, when, and how to say not today
- Meals, washing and everything you can lower the bar on
- What help to accept, and how to ask for something specific
Mostly first-time parents, not only
First babies are the obvious case. Second-time parents book it too, usually because the first postnatal period went badly and they would like this one to go differently.
Parents whose baby will arrive early, or who will have a stay in special care, often want it earlier and in a different shape.
The same midwife can visit once the baby is here
Preparation only goes so far. A great deal of what settles the first fortnight is having someone come to the house, look at what is actually happening and tell you whether it is ordinary.
Late pregnancy, with room to breathe
Most families do this in the third trimester, often in the same visit as their antenatal class. Late enough to feel real, early enough that you are not doing it in the last fortnight alongside everything else. Pregnancy, Birth and Baby's guide to the first few weeks is a good companion to a first-time parent class.
Arrange a session
Book directly with the midwife you choose
Every midwife takes her own bookings and can tell you how she runs a session and what it costs.