Grandparents Antenatal Course
Your child is having a baby. And you’re becoming a grandparent.
Learn what has changed since you raised your own children, understand pregnancy, birth and babies today, feel confident caring for your grandchild and prepare for the new relationship you’re beginning with them.
One day soon, you might be sitting with your grandchild asleep against your chest.
And something about the weight of them will take you straight back.
Your own child was once this small. You held them like this. You knew the funny little noises they made when they slept, the face they pulled just before they cried and exactly how they liked to be rocked. You watched them learn to smile, sit, crawl and walk. You read the same books until you knew every word and answered questions that seemed to begin the moment they woke up and continue until bedtime.
Now that child is having a baby.
There is something quite extraordinary about getting to watch it begin again.
This time, you get to watch your child become the parent. You get another tiny person to know from the very beginning. Another first smile to wait for. Another hand reaching for yours. Eventually there will be books, games, days out, family jokes and the things that become special simply because they are things your grandchild does with you.
And perhaps, one day, your child will look across the room and see you singing the same song to their baby that you once sang to them.
They’ll get a glimpse of what it must have looked like when they were the baby in your arms.
You’ll remember what it felt like.
You get to be the grandparent this time.
There will be things you did as a parent that you wouldn’t do the same way now. Some because the advice has changed. Some because you’ve changed. And some because, twenty or thirty years later, you can see things that were almost impossible to see while you were in the middle of raising a family.
There will be things you wish you’d worried about less. Things you’d make more time for. Things you’d let go. Things you’d handle differently if you could have that particular day again.
But then you can look at your grown-up child in front of you.
You can see the things you got right, too.
The things you taught them. The way you loved them. The parts of family life they’ve chosen to carry into their own. And perhaps things you did so routinely that you didn’t realise, at the time, how much they would become part of who your child grew up to be.
When you were holding your own baby, you had no idea who they would become.
Now you do.
And now there’s another baby.
You don’t get to raise this one. Their parents will do that. But you do get to know another person from the very beginning, with all the experience of having already watched one tiny baby grow into the adult standing in front of you.
You get to be their grandparent.
What has changed since you had your own baby?
It may have been twenty, thirty or forty years since you last looked after a newborn.
A surprising amount will probably come back very quickly.
But the world around that baby has changed.
Your child might phone you after an appointment and say they’ve been offered an induction. Once the baby arrives, you might hear about contact naps, responsive feeding, allergens, rear-facing car seats, tummy time or co-regulation.
Some of those things are genuinely different.
Some are things we understand better now.
And some have acquired new names despite describing things you may have done instinctively thirty years ago.
You shouldn’t have to guess which is which.
This online grandparent antenatal class brings you properly up to date with pregnancy, birth and babies while respecting the experience you already have.
You’ll understand what has changed and why, refresh the practical things you haven’t done for years, and learn to distinguish current safety guidance from the many perfectly reasonable ways different families choose to raise their babies.
So when your child says, “Actually, we’re doing it this way…”, you have enough information to understand what they’re talking about.
And when they hand you the baby and go out for the afternoon, you know what you’re doing.
Baby care for grandparents: feel confident looking after your grandchild
We’ll start before the baby arrives, with pregnancy and birth as your child is experiencing them now.
You’ll understand maternity care, induction, caesarean birth, birth settings and the decisions your child and their partner may be making. We’ll look at what happens during labour and why movement, breathing, position, water, massage and practical support can help.
Then we’ll follow the family home.
You’ll learn about postnatal recovery and mental health, newborn sleep, breastfeeding and bottle feeding, formula preparation, starting solids, nappies, bathing, skin and cord care, holding and comforting, babywearing, movement and development, and keeping your grandchild safe as they grow.
So when you’re caring for your grandchild yourself, you’re not trying to reconstruct thirty-year-old baby advice from memory.
You’ll know why the baby might want to feed again twenty minutes after the last feed. You’ll understand why a six-month-old gagging on a piece of toast isn’t necessarily choking. You’ll know how the baby can sleep safely at your house and why the living room that was perfectly safe for a newborn suddenly needs another look once that baby starts moving.
You don’t need to become a new parent again.
You need the knowledge to enjoy being the grandparent.
Pregnancy and birth: understanding what your child is experiencing
The course starts before the baby arrives because becoming a grandparent starts before the baby arrives.
Pregnancy and birth may look very different from the last time you were this close to them.
We’ll look at how maternity care works now, including birth settings, induction, caesarean birth, screening, risk and informed decision-making.
You’ll understand what labour is actually doing, why movement and position can affect birth, what breathing is doing beyond providing a distraction, and why somebody might use water, massage, counterpressure or different positions during labour.
If you’re going to be at the birth, you’ll understand how to help rather than standing beside somebody you love wondering what on earth you’re supposed to do.
And if you’re waiting at home for the phone call, you’ll understand the conversations happening at the other end of it.
Then we’ll look properly at what happens after birth.
Because a healthy baby doesn’t make the physical recovery from birth disappear.
You’ll understand bleeding, afterpains, tears, caesarean recovery, breasts, pelvic floor, exhaustion and the enormous physical adjustment happening during those first weeks. We’ll also cover postnatal mental health, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, birth trauma and the warning signs that need more than family support.
That knowledge changes the way you help.
Sometimes holding the baby is exactly what somebody needs.
Sometimes it’s dinner.
Sometimes it’s taking an older child out.
Sometimes it’s washing the dishes without asking where anything lives.
And sometimes it’s recognising that what you’re seeing needs professional help.
When your child becomes a parent
There is another part of becoming a grandparent that isn’t covered by learning how babies sleep or how the car seat works.
Watching your child become a parent can bring your own parenting years surprisingly close again.
They might have a year away from work when you went back after twelve weeks. Their partner might get up during the night when you remember doing almost everything yourself. They might ask for help you never had — or need you far less than you expected.
Their decisions can remind you of things you’re proud of, things you’d change and things you had very little choice about at the time.
And their partner brings an entire family history with them too.
Your grandchild is being born into a new branch of the family, built from two different histories alongside the choices their parents make for themselves.
That’s why this Grandparents Antenatal Course goes further than updated baby advice.
We’ll look at the assumptions families pass between generations, what happens when their parenting choices bring up something about your own, how help can become pressure, and how boundaries and regular childcare work when grandparents have needs and limits of their own.
You don’t need to agree with every decision.
And you don’t need to discard your own experience.
You get to bring that experience into a family that is growing and changing around you.
What’s included in the Grandparents Antenatal Course?
Module 1: Becoming a grandparent in this family
Understand what has genuinely changed, what hasn’t, and the difference between safety guidance and parenting preference. You’ll also start thinking about the grandparent you actually want to be.
Module 2: Pregnancy and birth
Understand maternity care today, birth choices, labour, practical birth support and what happens when birth doesn’t follow the original plan.
Module 3: The first weeks
Learn about physical recovery, postnatal mental health, birth trauma and what genuinely useful help can look like when a new family comes home.
Module 4: Understanding the baby in front of you
Make sense of crying and communication, sleep, feeding and starting solids — including the current advice and the reasons behind it.
Module 5: Confident everyday baby care
Refresh nappies, bathing, skin and cord care, holding, comforting and carrying a baby, then understand movement, development and safety as your grandchild grows.
Module 6: When generations meet
Look at your own parenting history, family patterns and traditions, expectations, boundaries and what happens when two generations — and two family histories — meet.
Module 7: Building the relationship that lasts
Think beyond the newborn stage to bonding, grandparenting from a distance, showing up at the moments that matter and building your own relationship with your grandchild.
26 lessons. Seven modules. One course to come back to as your grandchild grows.
Your experience still counts
You weren’t supposed to predict research that hadn’t happened yet.
Some safety advice has changed because we’ve learnt more. Some recommendations have changed. And there will almost certainly be things today’s parents are doing that will look different again when they become grandparents.
But you’ve also spent years actually raising a child.
You know that babies are different from one another. That family life doesn’t happen under controlled conditions. That children change just as you’ve worked out the stage they’re currently in.
And, unlike the first time you held your own newborn, you know how quickly it goes.
This course doesn’t replace that experience with a new rulebook.
It adds to it.
About your Grandparents Antenatal Course teacher
I’m Jilly, founder of CubCare, and I’ve worked with expectant and new families since 2014.
Over the years, I’ve had grandparents join my antenatal and postnatal classes, baby development sessions and babywearing consultations. I’ve seen how much they want to understand, support their children and be properly involved with their grandchildren.
But grandparents are going through something too.
Your child is becoming a parent. You’re returning to the baby years with decades of experience behind you. Your place in the family is changing, and you’re beginning a relationship with a completely new person.
I created this course because families need support — and grandparents are part of the family too.
You deserve some preparation for becoming one.
What will your grandchild inherit from knowing you?
Perhaps it will be a recipe, a language, a song or a family story.
Perhaps your house will be the one with books everywhere. You’ll teach them how to grow tomatoes, make pancakes, kick a football or recognise the birds in the garden.
And perhaps what stays with them will be harder to name.
What it feels like to make a mistake in front of you.
Whether you listen when they say no.
Whether adults can disagree and still love each other.
Whether they know they can call you.
Your relationship with your grandchild won’t be created by getting every interaction right. It will grow through ordinary time together: being held by you, hearing your voice, playing, talking, learning what makes each other laugh and eventually developing the things that belong specifically to the two of you.
Just as you didn’t know, when you first held your own baby, who they would eventually become, you don’t know who this baby will become either.
But this time, you know how much can grow from all those ordinary days in between.
You get to be their grandparent.
Start the Grandparents Antenatal Course
26 self-paced online lessons across seven modules.
Get up to date with pregnancy, birth and baby care. Understand what has changed and why. Refresh the practical knowledge you’ll need when you’re caring for your grandchild yourself. Understand the family relationships changing around you.
Then go and enjoy being their grandparent.