After the “shock and awe” approach taken by our teacher last week, I was a little nervous about the methods that breastfeeding was being taught and spoken about. I half-expected I would walk in and see a woman up the front, breast flopped out and ready to get going – but I soon learned it was only going to be a video in week 3, and sighed with relief.

The next couple of hours saw me hear all about the best way to connect nipples and mouths. It’s strange, I would have expected more guffaws and boob jokes from a room full of nervous men but I am pleased to report that we all listened closely and even sympathised with our partners when the topic of sore/swollen nipples came up. I guess I’m not the only one whose been burned by a stray woollen jumper.

I also learned another valuable lesson at this class – Today Tonight can occasionally contain some valuable stories. I know, I’m shocked to hear me think it too. Turns out they lead the charge on exposing some baby bottles that had too-high levels of some plastic contaminant in hard plastic bottles and so we were advised which brand/s to avoid. Never knew there was so much in it, it’s not just a bottle and a teat!

Whilst the women all had special things for them to learn, about placement, maternity bras and so on, we blokes weren’t left out. We learned something pretty cool – burping! It was revealed that burping is pretty crucial, as well as cool. Apparently sitting your child up and rubbing its back helps, more the sitting than the rubbing though. We had dolls and got to practice how we’d sit them up and cuddle them. I was at once embarrassed and delighted to be playing with a baby doll.

The next couple of weeks sound pretty interesting, they’ll look at bringing baby home and settling into life as a family. Our class leader said next week there will be more DVDs, though this time they’re about being a dad – can’t wait!