Book the class before it fills
You can read all week and still walk into a birth room unsure what you are for. A class is where that gets smaller.
Raising Children says antenatal classes, whatever the brochure calls them, give detail on labour and birth: stages, pain relief, and what partners and support people do. That last bit is written for you. A lot of courses also do the first months.
Settling. Feeding. Bonding.
Looking after yourself when you are exhausted. That last one is not a side note. It is half the point of you being in the room.
Even if you have already read a lot, a class lets you ask a person who works in the building where your baby will be born. International websites do not run Australian hospitals. A local class does.
You also meet other people who are due when you are. Some of those people stick. A mate who is awake at the same hour is worth more than another app.
The page is clear that classes are a good idea if you are the pregnant one, the partner, or the person who has been asked to support the birth. They give you a clearer picture of pregnancy, labour and birth. They are a clean way to start the conversation with her about what you both want, before the contraction is doing the talking. And they are a room of people in the same month as you, which is less lonely than being the only man you know who is about to do this.
Choosing a class
Pick the class on purpose. Small group or one to one. In the room or online.
A class for men, for women, or in a language other than English, if that is what you need. Weeknights or weekends. Extra content if you care about active birth, water birth, hypnobirthing or Calmbirth.
Hospital and birth centre courses, community courses, or a private business. Talk about which of those fits both of you, not only the one with the best photography.
Book early
They book out. The page says so. Book early, or be willing to move.
Most run as a series across weeks, so a single Saturday teaser is not the same thing. Phone the hospital. Ask the GP or midwife at the next visit.
Ask a parent you trust who did it in your city, not in a podcast.
Show up having decided you will ask one question you think is stupid. The stupid question is usually the one three other men wanted. If you treat the class as her homework, you will meet labour as a spectator. Spectators are not much use at 3am.
Source: Raising Children Network