pregnancy bonding classes???

I am a plunket volenteer in my area and I like to come up with things for mums to do with their children, I myself focus on the pregnancy and birth side of parenting, our plunket no longer run antenatal classes apparently people would rather pay for there class thinking only the single and the poor come to our free classes, which isnt true but thats pretty much why they stopped but someone else has taken over them, only now our new mum classes are dying too because mums arnt seeing plunket til 6wks+.

after some thinking I thought about having a group that is for pregnant mums (and dads too) to come and do things like belly painting and antenatal yoga etc, like a 6wks program like the antenatal but the aim isnt preparing for birth its just bonding with your unborn baby. I myself have never done anything like this while pregnant but would have done a program like it if there was one. have been googling and found quite a bit on the positives of such a program.

so if there was a group like this would you go to it?




Edited by rorylex

I think its a great idea and also a chance for those that didn't "click" with their antenatal group to meet other ladies that are pregnant in the area. I would have loved to do something like that (and also now I have a bubs maybe something that you can go to with a toddler in tow? maybe ideas for settling in with new bubba and toddler as I haven't really found all that much information on it.)

Anyho, I think it sounds great.

I would probably have been keen, but theres not much chance I could have got DH to anything like that!

Perhaps you could look at charging for antenatal classes, or asking for a certain "donation" - and that money could either go to plunket or go towards paying for some experts to come and talk, or goodie bags or something? (If you think that paying would attract people back to the classes).

I was one of "those" people who paid for antenatal classes.

I was another who paid for classes - to be honest it was my MW who recommended them because the fee meant we would be with a 'better' group of expectant parents. In our coffee group now we certainly do all have similar backgrounds so yep - maybe do start charging a (small) fee for classes and you may attract more people back to them?

BecBarrer wrote: A 'better' group of expectant parents?

yeah not sure what you mean by "better" either Isabella - I went to the free ones, and I think I'm a good person, soooo? lol Our group was just a group of normal new mums and dads!

I didn't want to pay for something that quite frankly I could have learnt myself anyways, so free was good for us.

Haha - hmm yeah... I didnt think much of the MW saying that either (hence the '..' - not my words ) Maybe just the region I am in there are a lot of people having babies, some good to be around, some not so good...

lol yeah, I reckon I learnt more from my books and friends and MW than AN class. It was fun to go to and all that, but cant say I learnt a whole lot. I would have preferred to learn about how to care for a newborn etc, we only did one night on breastfeeding as well.

I don't know about "better" but I definitely think the poeple in my Parent Centre classes (which my LMC recommended hence me doing them) were a bit older than the free hospital ones. There were 2 in their 20's but the rest if us (10 other couples) were all in our 30s, which I personally felt a little more comfortable with.
And in my experience the people I know who did the free hospital classes have not kept up their coffee groups or only clicked with one other person, and all the ones who did Parent Centre courses have loved their coffee groups. Our is still going strong over 4 yrs later and some of the people in the group are now our best friends! I think that support to form the coffee group was one of the biggest benefits of the classes we paid for!

I would, and DH would. But only if there was something like this on the Shore.

I would have been keen to be involved in a group that had pregnancy yoga and talks by naturopaths etc. Not sure if I would have taken DH with me though!

I was also one of those people who went to paid Parents Centre AN classes on the recommendation of my midwife. She suggested if I wanted a coffee group that was the way to go, and I have an awesome group now. One of the girls in our group started at the free local ones and confirmed what my midwife had said about most of the people there being quite disinterested in why they were even there.