Fully educated

We’ve completed our three sessions of “Parentcraft” classes (that’s ante-natal classes to you and me) run by the midwives at our local hospital, so we can confidently say that we now know exactly what to expect of this whole childbirth malarkey.

I hadn’t been sure we’d need to go to the classes, and was concerned beforehand that we’d feel out of place as we’d surely be among the oldest present. Our town has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the country so I really thought we’d be twice the age of many of the mums attending. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised: there were ten couples at the first session, and not only were most of them around our ages, seven were married. (The group did dwindle somewhat over the three weeks, and last night at the last final session we were five couples – including one expecting twins.)

So – what did we learn?

Well, nothing new really; just all the stuff we’ve already been reading about, with a few local specifics (like where to park when you come in for delivery!) and opportunities for questions and worries. Last night we moved on to post-natal care, breastfeeding and a little about nappies. To give us an idea of what to expect to find in a full nappy, the student midwife had kindly brought in three full ones demonstrating different kinds of poo at different stages of feeding. And passed them round. How lovely.

Thank God she’d made them up out of various foodsfuffs! (Marmite, pesto, and korma sauce if you’re interested. I’m sure the real things will smell somewhat… different.)

It was nice to get to know a few others in the same boat as us, and we arranged a "reunion" for when all the babies are a couple of months old. I do hope everything goes well for all of us.