A better class of bump

their jeans but now they’re in for a shock,” she says.

Both Fogle and Van den Bergh know only too well how a blissful pregnancy can come to an abrupt, panic-stricken end. Ludo was born by emergency c-section with a punctured lung, while the eldest of Van den Bergh’s two sons Arthur, six, was born by emergency csection after she stopped feeling him moving. “I couldn’t take in anything the anaesthetist was saying to me; I only knew what was happening because of Christine’s classes,” says Van den Bergh.

Medical intervention is thus as much a focus of Lulubaby and the Bump Class as hypnobirthing and home births. “If a woman wants a general anaesthetic, I’m not going to judge her,” says Fogle.

They also promise not to bully women to breastfeed; something the NCT has been accused of. “Just because I’m a breastfeeding counsellor doesn’t mean I’m evangelical about it. I talk about bottles and formula too,” says Van den Bergh, who set up Lulubaby with her sister-in-law Mary Van der Westhuizen, Lulubaby’s nutritional adviser. Fogle’s view is that if you can breastfeed for three days, three weeks or three months, you’ve done well. “My sister sees a lot of people with postnatal depression which is exacerbated by the guilt of not having enough milk to breastfeed,” she says.

Statistically at least one woman per class of 12 will suffer from postnatal depression but Hunt believes if you are prepared emotionally and practically for life – or lockdown – after the baby is born, you are less likely to feel overwhelmed. “To make life less confusing, decide on where you’re going to take advice from, and stick to it,” she says. Van den Bergh encourages expectant women to stock their freezers full of readymades and arm themselves with as much domestic support as they can back at home. “One of the most important lessons is that you can’t be as in control as you’d like,” she says.

Diet, fitness, sex and returning to work are discussed in the classes, along with how to settle your baby into a routine of sleeping through the night. “Personally, I found a routine saved my life,” Fogle says. “I didn’t feel I was getting anywhere until I bought Gina Ford’s Contented Little Baby Book. It gave me focus.”

I’m with Fogle on this one. After weeks of broken nights, life became much less bleak when I applied a rough version of the routine laid out in former maternity nurse Alison Scott-Wright’s The Sensational Baby Sleep Plan, which encourages threehourly feeds during the day, so the baby wakes less during the night.

The exhaustible list of baby kit is the focus of another class, where Fogle and Van den Bergh tell fellow mothers what not to waste money on.

The biggest regret I have about not attending NCT classes is that I don’t know many other local mothers with babies the same age as mine. Friends found antenatal classes to be, above all, a chance to befriend other parents. This is why Van den Bergh and Fogle, who made strong friendships on Christine Hill’s course, have made their classes a father-free zone. “You’re much more likely to make friends and chat about leaking breasts if someone else’s husband isn’t sitting next to you,” Van den Bergh says.

Instead, both courses invite fathers to an evening class (taken by a male anaesthetist and father of three in the case of Lulubaby), where they’re given a summary of the course – leaving out the gory bits – and encouraged to be the “brains” during labour, and to be gentle with the new mother when she gets home. “We warn them that their wives might turn into emotional monsters for the first few weeks, but they will return,” Fogle says. Prince William, take note.

Given that in Kensington and Chelsea it costs £262 to enrol on the NCT’s six-week antenatal course (elsewhere in the country it costs

Lulubaby (lulubaby.co.uk) is offering Telegraph readers who book onto the seven-week antenatal class (£350) a free paediatric first aid course (usually £55). The Bump Class (thebumpclass.com) is offering readers a £100 discount when booking the eight-week antenatal class (usual price £450). Offers valid until December 2013 and subject to availability