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Free Antenatal Course

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FREE

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We are delighted to provide you with a completely FREE antenatal course. There are seven classes in the programme. Each class is cut down into bite-sized topics, giving you the opportunity to work through the course at your own speed.

This course will help you start getting ready for your baby’s arrival. You will learn about:

your third trimester
labour and birth
feeding and caring for your baby
plus, how to look after your own mental health and wellbeing as a new parent.

What’s included?

Register for this free antenatal course today. You will have 60 days to complete the programme. The course materials include:

38 x videos, with transcripts
PDF downloads
Articles
Links to organisations for additional support
7 x Lesson checklists

This course is a snapshot of what we cover in our standard antenatal course. If you’re interested in joining one of our group classes, click here to find out more.

Course Content

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Introduction

Welcome to the course 2 Topics

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Lesson Content

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Pre-course survey

Join our community

Antenatal Course

1. Things to think about in your third trimester 7 Topics

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3rd trimester – topic 1

3rd trimester – topic 2

3rd trimester – topic 3

3rd trimester – topic 4

3rd trimester – topic 5

Lesson one checklist

2. Early labour and coping strategies 7 Topics

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Bonus topic – massage techniques for labour

Early labour – topic 1

Early labour – topic 2

Early labour – topic 3

Early labour – topic 4

Lesson two checklist

3. What to expect in established labour 8 Topics

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Bonus topic – active birth positions

Established labour – topic 1

Established labour – topic 2

Established labour – topic 3

Established labour – topic 4

Established labour – topic 5

Lesson three checklist

4. Planning for the unexpected 6 Topics

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Planning for the unexpected – topic 1

Planning for the unexpected – topic 2

Planning for the unexpected – topic 3

Planning for the unexpected – topic 4

Lesson four checklist

Recap: Labour and birth

5. Feeding your newborn 10 Topics

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Feeding your newborn – topic 1

Feeding your newborn – topic 2

Feeding your newborn – topic 3

Feeding your newborn – topic 4

Feeding your newborn – topic 5

Feeding your newborn – topic 6

Feeding your newborn – topic 7

Feeding your newborn – topic 8

Lesson five checklist

6. Looking after your mental health and wellbeing as a new parent 6 Topics

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Looking after yourself – topic 1

Looking after yourself – topic 2

Looking after yourself – topic 3

Looking after yourself – topic 4

Lesson six checklist

7. Newborn health and wellbeing 7 Topics

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Newborn health & wellbeing – topic 1

Newborn health & wellbeing – topic 2

Newborn health & wellbeing – topic 3

Newborn health & wellbeing – topic 4

Newborn health & wellbeing – topic 5

Lesson seven checklist

Recap: Caring for your newborn

Next steps 1 Topic

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Ratings and Reviews

4.6

Avg. Rating

13 Ratings

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What's your experience? We'd love to know!

Mollie Devereaux

Posted 1 month ago

A snapshot into labour and becoming a parent

Full of great information, reassuring advice and preparing you for birth and becoming a parent.

Melissa Hall

Posted 6 months ago

Great Course!

Really informative, really reccomend this to everyone!

Simona Maria La Rosa

Posted 8 months ago

Very helpful course

It shows you all essential things that might looks superficial but they're not especially if you're a new parent

Ellen Turnbull

Posted 9 months ago

Great free course

Thank you for a very digestible course covering the basics in a short period.

Dani Coombs

Posted 9 months ago

Great course

Really informative and a great start to learning about what lies ahead in my pregnancy journey - thank you

Show more reviews

What's your experience? We'd love to know!

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Positive affirmations are positive statements that

Positive affirmations are positive statements that help you challenge negative and unhelpful thoughts. They can be beneficial during pregnancy and childbirth, as it's a period of significant change and heightened emotions.

There are various ways to use affirmations, depending on what you are trying to achieve. You may use affirmations to enhance your general wellbeing or you may focus on a specific issue that comes up.

Make sure your affirmation is in the first person and present tense. It will help your brain process the information as if it is already a fact! Also, for positive affirmations to have an impact, recognise that they are not passive statements to be read daily and forgotten. They require clear intention and achievable actions.

For example, Jane is diagnosed with gestational diabetes and has a meeting with her obstetrician next week. She worries that decisions will be made about her care and that she'll lose control of her pregnancy and birth preferences. It's causing her to feel stressed and anxious.

Rather than letting her thoughts control her emotions for the next week, the following affirmation could help her approach the meeting more proactively.

✨ "I am confident asking my maternity team questions and making informed choices for me and my baby."

Jane sets aside time to regularly repeat the affirmation to herself daily, especially when worries surface about this issue. She uses the affirmation as part of her daily breathing and meditation practice.

She also discusses her concerns with her birth partner. Together they research gestational diabetes, consider how it may impact her birth preferences and writes down a list of questions to ask the doctor.

She goes into the meeting with her questions and the 🧠 BRAIN tool to help understand the benefits, risks, and alternatives to any recommendations she's given. She uses this information to make informed choices for her pregnancy and birth that she feels comfortable with.

We can't always control what crops up in pregnancy or during labour - but we can control how we react to it. It takes practice, patience and being kind to ourselves - positive affirmations can help this process! 💜

Natural coping strategies for labour 3: Visualisat

Natural coping strategies for labour 3: Visualisation

Research shows that #visualisation techniques can
✨ Reduce fear
✨ Release tension
✨ Increase relaxation

They’re widely used by professional athletes, who visualise their perfect run, jump or kick as research shows visualisation improves performance 🧠 the mind is a powerful tool: seeing is believing.

In #pregnancy and #childbirth, they are regularly used in #meditation, #yoga and #hypnobirthing.

For example, you may visualise your cervix opening as you experience contractions or a flower slowly opening from a bud to full bloom if you prefer a more abstract image. Some people like to visualise a wave building and crashing, as contractions come and go. These visualisations help reframe the powerful sensations of contractions as a positive and decisive step in bringing your baby into the world.

You may also like visualising a place that makes you feel happy, relaxed and safe. This visual experience creates a deep state of relaxation, as your mind believes what it is seeing and feeling.

For example, your favourite holiday destination, local walk or cosy nook by a warm fire. Alternatively, you could build a picture of your #newlife as a family with your baby in your arms.

The critical thing with visualisations is to build up lots of detail using all your senses:
👀 What can you see?
🖐🏿 What can you feel?
👃🏼 What can you smell?
👄 What can you taste?
🖐🏽What can you hear?

There are many scripts online to help you do this – or you can write your own and record it with some gentle music in the background.

Next, listen to your visualisation script regularly. Set aside some time to relax, use gentle breathing techniques, close your eyes, and absorb yourself in the detail of your visualisation. You can also listen when you go to bed and fall asleep with it on in the background.

The more your practice, the easier it will be to get yourself into this deep state of relaxation during labour when you need it. And don’t forget to integrate it with your other natural coping strategies!

🤔 Let us know in the comments 👉 Did you use visualisation in pregnancy or childbirth? Which images worked for you?

Natural coping strategies for labour 2: Mindfulnes

Natural coping strategies for labour 2: Mindfulness
#Mindfulness is a powerful tool that offers loads of benefits in pregnancy, birth and beyond - if practised regularly.

Research shows that mindfulness can
✨ Reduce stress and anxiety
✨ Improve confidence
✨ Reduce aches and pains (including chronic pain)
✨ Lower blood pressure and heart rate
✨ Improve sleep and alleviate #insomnia
✨ Improve mental and physical stamina
✨ Help bonding and relationships (parents and babies)
✨ Reduce emotional reactivity (improve self-control)
✨ Improve mental health and alleviate depression

If you've never tried mindfulness, we couldn't recommend it more - whether you're having a baby or not! It's a skill that will benefit you for life but can be an incredibly helpful tool in labour too.

Find out more about the positive impact it can have on labour in our latest blog article 👆Link in bio👆

Natural coping strategies for labour 1: Breath Le

Natural coping strategies for labour 1: Breath

Learning to focus on your breathing, keep a steady rhythm, and adapt your breathing for different stages of labour offers many benefits. It can:
✨ Reduce your heart rate and blood pressure
✨ Help you feel more relaxed and in control
✨ Improve the flow of oxygen to all your muscles, including your uterus
✨ Help you cope better with the pain of contractions
✨ Help you conserve energy

See our blog for tips on how to:
💜 why your breathing may change during labour
💜 breathing techniques for each stage of labour
💜 how your birth partner can help you throughout

👆Link in bio👆

This week we're going to explore the following nat

This week we're going to explore the following natural coping strategies for labour:
💜 Breath
💜 Mindfulness and focus
💜 Visualisations
💜 Positive affirmations
💜 Music (and dancing)
💜 Water
💜 Massage
💜 Aromatherapy
💜 Upright and mobile birth positions

They can all make a big difference to your birth experience, and may help you
✨ Focus
✨ Feel more calm and in control
✨ Recognise and release tension
✨ Feel less pain
✨ Rest between contractions
✨ Conserve your energy
✨ Feel more positive

We recommend trying them all to see what resonates best with you (you may surprise yourself). Also, don't forget to practice all your coping strategies with your birth partner as it will help them support you better on the big day! 🥰

🩺 It's easy to think these coping strategies go out the window if you need any medical assistance during labour, but most can be easily adapted for all types of birth - and all birth locations. It's worth having a think about how to do this ahead of time.

🤔 Which coping strategies worked best for you? Any tips for expectant parents? Let us know in the comments

👉 Like - Share - Tag a #pregnant friend

👀 Keep an eye out for our upcoming posts...

Vernix or vernix caseosa is a white greasy substan

Vernix or vernix caseosa is a white greasy substance that covers your baby's skin in the womb, protecting it from the amniotic fluid during pregnancy.

It starts to develop at around 19 weeks, thickening until around 34 weeks and then by 40 weeks it is mostly gone. This is why #prematurebabies tend to have more vernix than term babies and why babies who arrive after their due date often have very little or no vernix visible on their skin.

As it dissolves from your babies skin during #pregnancy it is absorbed back into the amniotic fluid, which your baby drinks. This may feed your baby's microbiome (gut bacteria) helping boost their immune system.

During #labour and #childbirth, it lubricates the birth canal as baby is born.

After birth it helps your #baby
💜 regulate their temperature
💜 protects their skin and helps it to maintain moisture and avoid bacterial infections.

🛁 With this in mind, the World Health Organisation recommend waiting to bath a baby for 24 hours (or at least 6 if cultural reasons mean you can't wait the full 24 hours). Unless, there are clinical reasons, such as meconium staining that mean it is safer to wash baby straight away.

💜 So if you notice any vernix on your baby, rub it into their skin rather than washing it off! It may not look very pretty, but it's pretty amazing stuff!

🤔 Let us know in the comments - how much vernix did your baby have when they were born? Were you expecting it?

👉 Like - Share - Tag a friend who may needs to know this!

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