Reader's Story

How I help my Antenatal Class

I think knowledge is a wonderful thing. And when, like me, you have rather a lot of it, I believe it is only fair to pass it on to others. That’s why I still attend every antenatal class available, even though I’ve had two children already. It’s not to gain more information, you see, it’s so that I can pass on my expertise to the new mothers – those who are going to be utterly clueless. It’s what I call, ‘putting something back.’

I’ve had both types of baby, a girl and a boy, so I have all the bases covered. I don’t profess to be an expert on multiple births (although, to my mind, a little common sense and a positive attitude should work just as well for twins as for singles) but I’m able to help out with most other subjects. In fact last week, the Midwife leading our group said she may as well leave the room and let me take the class!

There’s always some little nugget of advice I can give, whether it’s how to manage your nappy storage requirements, how to crochet bottle warmers, or how best to get babies to sleep through. Both my babies slept through from the minute I got them home, so I should know. One of the mums-to-be, Karen, said she thought I was lucky to have such good sleepers, but I told her – luck didn’t come into it! I just made sure my babies had a nice, calm bedtime environment and stuck to a regular routine.

By the way, Karen is the only other mum in our group who’s had a child already. She’s only had the one though, and still seems very much at a loss. She’s a lovely girl, but not a ‘natural’ if you know what I mean. One of the nervy ones, possibly a little neurotic. I’m very perceptive about people, you see – it’s a gift of mine – and I can tell that Karen finds the prospect of another baby worrisome. I never see her look relaxed in class. It seems to me she frowns and sighs more and more each week! On one occasion, when I brought up one of the trickier areas that our midwife had overlooked, Karen just sat there with her head in her hands! I’ve done my best to tell her not to be so anxious. I said, 'Karen dear, if your baby knows you love them, they’ll forgive you all your little slips.’ Do you know, she was so touched by those few words that think I saw a tear! She’s so emotional, poor lamb.

Karen is one of three in our class who want to try a water birth at home, but I warned them – all those gallons of water sloshing about can make a sorry mess of carpeting, not to mention what I’ve seen it do to woodblock. My next door neighbour had a home water-birth and, as I told her when I popped round during the happy event, ‘You’ll have to get a suction vac on that carpet PDQ or it’ll go right through to the underlay.’

Luckily for our little Karen, it turns out she only lives two streets away from me. So I was able to reassure her that I could pop round anytime to help her out. She was so overwhelmed with relief, she cried and cried!