After a ten minute walk we found ourselves outside a clinic in a road that I had always assumed was totally residential. Pushing open the door, we found ourselves in a room with chairs around the perimeter, many of them filled with couples looking slightly uneasy at being in a room full of strangers.
At the end of the room was D____ and K___ our midwives. The first thing they got us to do was stand up and talk to the couple opposite and then introduce them to everyone else. Our couple recognised us as they get the same train as us! There was one girl who had brought her mother as her husband was a policeman on shiftwork and an Irish girl whose partner wasn't there either, though I'm not sure if I heard why that was. Otherwise it was all couples; ten pregnant ladies in all. There was one chap I recognised from The Grand, one of our local pubs, but the rest were strangers to us. Most seemed to be roughly about our age, but there were two couples who were in their late thirties, and one of them already had a daughter of seven.
Although we knew that the other ladies were likely to be due at roughly the same time as us, it was surprising to learn that there were babies due on the 5th, 6th, 7th (us) and 8th of January, and there were a few just a few days either side of that too, I think. Those midwives must be a hell of a busy! You worry you're going to get a midwife who's too exhausted to work! I mentioned it to D____ and she said with babies being born early and babies being born late, it's never as busy as those due dates might suggest.
The next stage was for everyone to write down what they hoped to get from the sessions. One chap in our group wanted to ask, 'How to deal with the stresses of pregnancy on your relationship', which earned him a decidely frosty response from his other half.
These responses - which doubtless rarely change that much from group to group - will form the basis of what we learn over the next few weeks. There was quite a lot in that first session, so I'm going to break it up over a few posts. Suffice it to say that the people there seemed nice, and although they started the evening as strangers, perhaps they'll end up as friends.
There may be poo involved in future posts. Be warned.
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