Yorbaby - Your feedback

We would love to know what you think about Yorbaby - our online antenatal classes. You can access a short survey by clicking >> here.

Last year, York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was the first Trust in England to introduce online antenatal classes.

The virtual tutorials, which were filmed in the maternity suite at York Hospital, are available on You Tube. The nine videos cover issues from the early stages of labour to breastfeeding.

The Trust made the decision to adopt an internet alternative because less than 30 percent of pregnant women were attending antenatal classes.

Christine Foster, Matron for Maternity, explained: “The suggestion to move to online classes came from our midwives. We are all extremely passionate about this project and thought that this method would enable us to reach out to more of our women.

“We wanted to move with the times. Using the internet to access information is a product of the times and most women who access maternity care are very familiar with this medium; women want to access information at a time that suits them. Women often work right up to their due date and they are often unable to attend a class during the day, or unwilling to go out to an evening class.

“The videos feature our own midwives giving the same information that they would have delivered in a face-to-face class.

“Women still have one-to-one appointments with their midwives where they can discuss things face-to-face however information is now available for them to access 24/7. 

“By releasing midwives from face-to-face classes we have found that we are able to devote more time to complex pregnancy cases and to people who need it most.

“Antenatal classes are still held for more vulnerable groups, such as teenage mums, for whom the group atmosphere is more beneficial, and multiple birth classes. We also deliver group and one to one sessions for women from vulnerable groups and have been able to increase this service by having the online virtual sessions as they have released community midwife time to be able to deliver more one to one sessions for women who find it harder to access our service.”

“We are delighted with the response to our online classes and are encouraging women to let us know their feedback so that we can continue to make improvements to our antenatal education." 

To access a short survey about the Yorbaby classes click >> here.

21 August 2014