A research-based, up-to-the minute account of the current status of antenatal education, focusing on the key challenges it faces in the future, offering suggestions for how these challenges might best be met. It describes some innovative approaches to accessing vulnerable groups of parents and how collaboration between the statutory and voluntary sectors might result in a better educational service for pregnant women and their families. Narratives from parents are analysed and commented upon, and underpinning the book will be an account of how the principles and practices of adult education should inform antenatal education.Demonstrates the potential for antenatal education to make a positive impact on women's experience of birthPoints the way to accessing new sources of funding for antenatal classesIllustrates new teaching strategies with the aim of accessing groups of parents currently not involved with antenatal educationAims to show how antenatal education can be a central, rather than peripheral part of the holistic care provided to pregnant women and their families