Antenatal clubs and classes

Nobody knows quite what it's like to be pregnant as well as someone else who's pregnant. But many pregnant women and their partners don't have any form of contact with others who are pregnant around the same time so don't have anyone to share experiences or compare notes with.

What do the clubs offer?

Babyworld's antenatal clubs provide a much needed advice and support forum for women and their partners during pregnancy, by offering a special opportunity for them to be in touch and make friends with others who are expecting babies in the same month, so that they can go through the experience together, regardless of place or time.

Support and guidance from other pregnant women will help you feel reassured that your mix of symptoms and emotions, ranging from the wonderful to the weird, are shared and all part of the pregnancy experience.

You can join a club at any stage - when you first find out you are pregnant or even when your baby is a few months old.

What do the classes offer?

For just £9.95, you will benefit from a course of 11 antenatal classes and a professional support and advice service!

Babyworld offer high quality on-line antenatal classes, providing women and their partners with essential support and information at a time when access to other forms of classes is increasingly restricted and expensive, and perhaps time is limited. Babyworld's on-line antenatal classes are full of expert content and you can buy the classes here

Everyone will receive the welcome class on joining, but those who join in the early stages of their pregnancy will especially benefit from the information that it provides on early pregnancy. The main set of classes will start when those due near the beginning of the month of the class get to about 24 weeks pregnant, and they will be posted weekly for 10 weeks.

If you wish to join a class early on in pregnancy, as well as benefit from the welcome class information, you can also use the support and advice service offered by Amber and Grania. Their advice and support is available to you throughout your pregnancy and up to 6 weeks postnatal. It's possible to join a class at any stage of your pregnancy, and if you join after the classes have started, it's no problem as it's easy to catch up.

If you pay to join our antenatal classes, as well as the 11 week course and professional advice and support, you will also get:

• a goody bag sent to you with real products for you and your baby
• a voucher to use in the babyworld shop worth £20 of a £200 spend - read more about the benefits

Babyworld want to help you embrace and enjoy the life changing experience of pregnancy and we're looking forward to being a part of your pregnancy and the arrival of your baby.

Meet Amber our qualified Midwife and Grania our Antenatal Adviser.

So what can I do in my antenatal club or class?

The software for the antenatal clubs and classes is the same as that used on our general discussion forums. So once you have logged in you will have the same functionality for the clubs and classes as you do for the forums. Here's a list of what you can do:

• You can belong to six antenatal clubs
  Your log in details will be the same for the main site. All the babyworld members with a log in have access to all the forums and can join any antenatal club.
  
  

• You can pay to join an antenatal class
  You can pay and join as many antenatal classes as you want. The majority of members will probably only join one class per pregnancy, but some may wish to pay and join another class for a subsequent pregnancy. Your log in details will be the same for the main site, but unlike the rest of the site, where all the babyworld members with a log in have access to all the clubs, only you and the other members who have paid to join your class will be able to access it. This means that your class is confidential and secure.

• You can belong to a club, class, or both
  You have the choice of joining a club to chat to other mums-to-be, joining a class for the 11 week course and professional advice, or you can belong to both!
  
  
• You can add your photograph
  Put a face to a name, show off your scan picture or your bump and eventually your new baby
  
  
• See instantly which threads have new posts
  Save time by only reading threads that have new posts. When the light bulb is there, there's a new post
  
  
• View whole threads of messages all at once
  No more opening and closing of different messages about one topic, you can now view the whole lot in one go!
  
  
• Re-order your messages
  Read the latest message first, saves scrolling to the end of the thread to see what's new
  
  
• Add proper emoticons
  You can now add proper smilies to enhance your conversation!

If you need to leave a class please contact us at antenatal@babyworld.co.uk and we will deal with your request.

Where to next

• Already a member but not of a club - take me to join an Antenatal Club
• Already a member but not of a class - take me to join an Antenatal Class
• Not joined anything yet - take me to join an Antenatal club or class or both