"Hypnobirth program"

I found the Hypnobirth program very useful in terms of information given however due to "Covid 19" the program was moved online and in my experience, there were several disadvantages to this model.

We were put in a group online all across WA with an average of 35-40 participants (some coupled up to 80 participants) attending each week, as opposed to it being run in a hospital where I understand there would be a maximum of 10-12 couples attending program in-person. This meant instead of content taking from the schedule 2 hours, class always ran 45 minutes to an hour later at night due to extra people in class, from all over WA in Kalgoorie, Perth, Albany, Busselton, Bunbury, and so on. I believe online classes therefore need to be capped at a certain number. 

I also think classes should also be recorded given the time of night the class went until and therefore in my experience, this made dinner-time/discussion/brain function/bed-time all difficult and I found, did not lead to a positive experience to take the information in.   

I believe this would then allow people the flexibility to watch back the course at a more convenient time and a time when others could have partners attend as some working rosters that are FIFO and could not attend some weeks of the program (my partner was only able to attend 2). 

The information and course content was useful and the Midwife was very knowledgeable, although they often mentioned that the midwives during our appointments should be telling us this, or informing us of these options on multiple occasions throughout the 4 sessions. Conversely, the reality is that I had attended 2 out of 3 hospital appointments and none of the information they had shared had been covered in these appointments.

This to me signaled that either there is 1. lack of time in appointments to discuss this or 2. that midwives are not as educated as this midwife expected/ or was making assumptions about. 

The program is advertised on flyers from Hospital, as recommended *after 28 weeks*, when the midwife delivering program said the program can be done anytime after 20 weeks. In my opinion, program information should be changed to reflect this. I started the program at 30 weeks ending on 34 weeks and I feel there is a definite lack of time now to be able to action/put things into place and discuss them according to my needs with my partner. 

I found the program itself useful overall but in my opinion, there is a lot to be learned in regards to the delivery method and roll-out of the program. Even in times of COVID there are options but I believe putting double or triple the amount of participants into an online class can have its downfalls.