Antenatal Course near Cheltenham

Cheltenham classes are limited to 8 couples per class, we don’t let the classes become too big as this often means you don’t get the most out of the class and we don’t want you to feel supported as a small group.

Over the four evenings, we cover everything from hormones, labour process, birth environment, pain management, assisted births, skin-to-skin, feeding, and more.

• Hormones
• How labour might begin
• How birth works
• The labour process
• Birth environment
• Positions for labour
• Pain management
• Longer pregnancies and informed decision making
• Massage, breathing and relaxation
• Birth partner support and being an advocate
• Assisted births and caesarean births
• Skin-to-skin, feeding and the fourth trimester
• Safe sleeping, baby care, the early days and easing into parenting
• Physical recovery, emotional adjustment and practical support
• Looking after your mental health

All within a comfortable, safe and totally non-judgemental environment. You will have the course tutors number and be able to contact them at any point during and the first couple of months post-birth, just some extra support and reassurance should you need it at any point.

The course is delivered over 4x 2-hour evening sessions, once a week for 4 weeks.

We will do our best to catch up with you before the next session, or arrange for you to come a little early to the next session for a 1-1 catch up, we will also send you any materials you might have missed.

Yes, you can contact the course tutor at any point during and the first couple of months post-birth for extra support and reassurance.

Whatever will make you most comfortable, a birthing ball if that’s what’s most comfortable for you to sit on, a bean bag, a sleeping bag….anything! Sometimes pregnancy can make us a little uncomfortable, so whatever makes you feel more at ease or lessens any discomfort you might be feeling.

Yes! There’s plenty of time to get to know the others in your group and we will set up a whatsapp group so you can all support each other from pregnancy to birth and beyond! We also have a reunion session that is completely informal and a social event when your little ones are a few weeks old (we are flexible with this dependent on individual parent’s and baby’s situation and journey into the world).

Of course! We pride ourselves on ensuring that birth partners, in whatever capacity, are welcome; we ensure that they are included in the course and are involved in each session, they are an important part of pregnancy, birth and beyond and we ensure that they get as much out of the sessions as the birthing people. Learn more about couples in our dedicated article here.