The Village Midwife Antenatal Course

Our antenatal course covers what your choices are in pregnancy, labour and as a new parent from the perspective of an honest, friendly midwife. Plus, you’ll make a group of local friends who are also preparing to meet their baby!

Our reviews speak for themselves - this really is an antenatal course with a difference

Making a group of local friends during an antenatal course is a given, but you deserve to come away feeling informed and positive about your birth experience too!

  • It’s written, developed and taught by a midwife, unlike lots of antenatal courses out there. We believe that it’s important that you know how to navigate the maternity system and what actually helps during labour as most people give birth within the NHS! Someone with experience in the maternity system is best placed to help you with this and can help prepare you for whatever happens.

  • It’s 50% focused on giving birth and different birth experiences and 50% focused on postnatal, feeding and baby care as we believe preparation for the postnatal period is equally as important!

  • You know who your antenatal teacher is before you sign up! An important part of the course is the support you get from the midwife running your course so this is important! Check out the about me sections for our locations around the UK to get to know who’s in your area!

  • The antenatal course helps you know what all of your choices are around birth, the postnatal period and feeding your baby. We believe that decisions should be presented in a non-judgemental way and that you deserve all of the information! All births are different but you deserve to feel in control and supported whatever you decide and whatever happens.

  • You get a fab group of friends expecting a baby at the same time as you in your area which is important, especially during maternity leave!

  • Our course is super inclusive! All types of family are welcome and there are no old-fashioned patriarchal messages here! Birth partners are prepared just as much for birth and the postnatal period and given important tools to help!

    If you want to find out more about parents’ experience of the antenatal & postnatal course though, check out our reviews over on our Facebook page, our Trustpilot page and on Google!

“I had been researching antenatal classes for a while and wasn’t sure if we should go to NCT classes or The Village Midwife, I’m SO glad we went with the Village Midwife. Sophie’s antenatal (and Postnatal) classes were fantastic, the main difference between her classes and NCT classes are that she is a midwife and can give incredibly helpful advice and teach you a lot about the whole process and the choices you have. Her wealth of experience clearly shines through and I felt very confident with the whole idea of giving birth (I was absolutely terrified before!)
My husband and I met lots of lovely expectant parents and we are still in touch with them now, it was also really great have the classes split up into bite size sessions as there is a lot covered. I would also throughly recommend the postnatal course too as I really looked forward to each session with my new baby!”
— Sophie

Find a course close to you:

Buckinghamshire

Oxfordshire

Hertfordshire & Bedfordshire

South East

East Midlands

West Midlands

South West

  • Taunton in Somerset - taught by Kate

  • Melksham in Wiltshire - taught by Leah

East of England

North of England

“What a wonderful experience. As a guy being told I’m doing four 4-hour face to face sessions and two 2-hour zoom sessions, I was a bit unsure how I would get on taking in the information…

But, actually I’m going to miss doing them. I’ve learnt so much and wasn’t overloaded at all. Sophie didn’t pick on the guys and made us realise how important our role is pre, during and post birth.

I fell so well prepared and now have a network of people to talk with about our experiences. Thank you so much!”
— Rob
“Being pregnant with my third baby, I wasn’t sure whether it was worth attending another antenatal course. I’d previously completed a very well-known alternative for no’s 1 and 2, but having a big gap since the last baby, I decided a refresher was definitely needed. And thank goodness I did!

This is by far the best course you could choose! I promise! If you want to feel educated, in control and feel like you have a voice and choices for your birth, then do this course! The course handouts and additional information are outstanding and a resource that you can come back to time and again. ”
— Claire

Why is our antenatal course different?

“We felt informed and able to make decisions to suit us, this resulted in a really amazing birth experience and I am 100% certain that was down to everything we learnt during this course.”
— Emily
“I was particularly very anxious throughout pregnancy and approaching labour but The Village Midwife antenatal course helped me gain confidence and a better understanding of what to expect before and after birth. It also helped me connect with other mothers-to-be in the area, our group WhatsApp chat has been such a lifeline and great company during maternity leave! ”
— Sarah
“The Village Midwife has given us confidence with our early parenting choices and has given us new informed knowledge to take into hospital. Kate was able to answer all of our questions and provided us with detailed explanations. We came away from the classes feeling like we had the medical information and research to help us to inform our choices. Kate showed us practical techniques and was able to discuss our local hospital practices in detail to help us feel confident and informed. Thank you!”
— Nicole

The Village Midwife antenatal course covers:

  • All types of birth experience, including what happens during vaginal, caesarean and assisted births, how to prepare for giving birth to your baby, and how to write preferences for every birth

  • How to make your labour as comfortable as possible and how to keep active, including using a rebozo scarf and massage techniques for pregnancy and labour - equipping your birth partner as well as you!

  • The many choices you will most likely come across during pregnancy, labour and the postnatal period

  • The birth partner’s vital role throughout the labour process and the postnatal period

  • Postnatal recovery after vaginal and caesarean births and how to prepare for the postnatal period, including writing a postnatal plan

  • Different methods of feeding your baby, including how to establish breastfeeding and common issues that can occur. We also discuss formula feeding, how to bottle feed and expressing

  • Plus- you get ongoing support via WhatsApp from a midwife as well as a thorough handout with all of the information in to refer back to which is invaluable!

“We recently attended the course in Worcester with Lisa, she was very informative and helpful, she gave us lots of useful information exploring all different aspects of childbirth and postnatal care, while reminding us that everything was our choice. She really made us feel at ease and we ended the course filled with confidence going into the next chapter of our lives.”
— Charlotte

Included in the course is:

  • The Village Midwife cotton tote bag

  • A comprehensive, glossy handbook of everything you need to know, written by a midwife and up to date with latest evidence

  • Ongoing support by email or WhatsApp during your pregnancy and then in those important first few weeks

  • Templates for writing your birth preferences and postnatal plan

  • The support of your fabulous new antenatal group

  • Plus - you will join a big, local community of other supportive and non judgemental Village Midwife parents!

“My birth plan completely went out the window, which we were told could happen and as I’d heard happens to so many women, but with the information I had learnt, I still knew what I could ask for to make the most of my experience and how best to cope in that situation.
Choices, as Sophie advocates strongly in her classes, really are so important and without this knowledge my experience would have been very different.”
— Natalie
“The course content was thorough and bias free, and we were encouraged to learn about, thoroughly understand and advocate for ourselves for the birth that we want, whilst also making other plans so that we are not taken by surprise if our birth does not ‘go to plan’.

Laura was very friendly and encouraged questions and interaction, this made the course feel really welcoming, non-judgemental and we all had a good laugh too.

The nice thing about this course was that it wasn’t just focused on baby stuff (feeding, nappies etc), there was also a large focus on the well-being and needs of mum and dad, pre and postnatally.

Laura made it clear that following on from the course she is available to answer questions via whatsapp for as long as we need her for, which is very reassuring. Having access to a midwife in this way is a huge benefit, especially when pre natal appointments have quite a long time between them.

I feel much more prepared for everything after doing this course and there is a huge amount of resources and reading materials that Laura has sign posted us to, which I’ll be working my way through link by link as the countdown commences.”
— Nicola

Prices

Check your local page under ‘locations’ for the price of your local antenatal course. Most people just pay a deposit when booking their local course which secures their place. The remaining course fee is due closer to your antenatal course starting.

If you would like to do the antenatal course but finances are an issue- please don’t hesitate to message us as we have The Village Midwife Accessibility fund which you can access, no questions asked.

You can also pay by instalments of your choosing - just email admin@thevillagemidwife.co.uk for more info!

We also have a 35% single parent discount (our founder Sophie was a single parent and you would be more than welcome on a course on your own as well as in a couple) and a £25 discount for NHS staff - just use the code AMAZINGNHS at checkout!

“Never could I have imagined how one stranger - a mum, a highly-qualified midwife and altogether spectacular human - would play such a big part in helping us (especially Meg) and bringing us into a community of like-minded first-time mums and dad-lads which is so important for sharing advice and riding the highs and lows together at all times of day and night”
— Matt
“We were a little nervous going with The Village Midwife antenatal courses rather than regular NCT but we are SO glad we did!”