When I was pregnant with my first baby my husband and I took antenatal classes, where we met 8 other couples who lived locally to us. Our babies all arrived within a few weeks of each other’s and, as our worlds completely changed, we connected.

In the early days and months with my new baby, when it was often a struggle to leave the house, our weekly meetups became really important, as well as a lot of fun.

Watching our babies develop together was not only fascinating, it meant that every new challenging baby-phase could be understood by at least one other person. My friends who’d given birth a few months previously often couldn’t relate in the same way, as they were at a completely different stage of their baby journey.

While the antenatal course had brought our group together, we were pretty much all in agreement about the shortcomings of the course itself. We felt we weren’t well prepared for all the different possibilities of labour and birth or how to look after a newborn, and some of us thought we hadn’t learnt much that we didn’t already know. And it wasn’t just us; we all knew people who’d had similar experiences with other antenatal courses.

So last year I decided to go on a mission to create a course with content as valuable as the friendships made. I tracked down the most popular antenatal experts in North London and we put together classes that gave people the information they really needed in a non-judgemental, unbiased and engaging way, without forgetting one of the main reasons they choose to attend – to meet other people.

We started running our course in Haringey and are now very excited to be expanding to Hampstead / West Hampstead, as we’ve been chosen by JW3 to provide their signature antenatal course. We have big plans in store for 2014 – expanding to more North London locations and creating postnatal groups.

We are always looking for feedback from people, and ways in which we can continue to offer one of the best antenatal courses around – so please get in touch and let us know what you think!