Icebreakers for antenatal classes: break the ice, bond the group and help create lifelong friendships!
Successful group antenatal and parenting classes need icebreakers. They help participants engage with the content, get to know the facilitator and each other, and build a bond as a group.
I’d start with an icebreaker that goes round the whole group early on. Research suggests that once everyone has spoken once, they are more likely to ask questions and join in later.
Icebreakers can be really simple – for example, asking the group a question and inviting each person to say their name and give their answer.
Some icebreaker questions for your antenatal classes (choose just one per round):
- One thing I already know about my/our baby is…
- My biggest question about becoming a parent is…
- As a new parent, I’m looking forward to…
- My greatest fear about being a parent is…
- As a new parent, I’m not looking forward to…
- One quality I would like my child to have is…
- One thing I’ve done or changed because we’re having a baby is…
- As a new parent, I hope I can…
- One thing I’d like to achieve in our baby’s first week at home is…
- Becoming a parent means to me…
- One person I would like my/our baby to meet is…
- When I need support, I can turn to…
- One thing I’ll gain as a new parent is…
- One thing I’ll lose as a new parent is…
- My/our baby will sleep in…
- When I hear the word ‘breastfeeding’, I think…
- If I had an extra hour a day (while everyone else still had 24), I would…
- When I see someone breastfeeding, I feel/think…
- When I see someone bottle feeding, I feel/think…
- When I need advice, I’ll ask…
- When I think about parental leave, I feel…
- When I think about returning to work, I feel…
Let each person give their answer without commenting on it. Questions like these encourage discussion of topics you may not otherwise cover, and are also great for revision and group bonding.
More icebreaker ideas:
- Goodie bag activity – fill a bag with items (one per person or couple), such as birth bag, nappy bag or postnatal recovery items. Each person or couple picks one at random. Then go round and ask each ‘owner’ to talk about their item: What is it? What might it be used for? My Hospital Birth Bag Sorting Game works well for this topic too.
- People bingo – each participant gets a “people bingo” card and has to talk to others to find people who match each statement, such as “Has a red car”, “Doesn’t drink tea” or “Is left-handed”.
- Scavenger hunt – when facilitating online, I often use a scavenger hunt. I put a list of items on the screen, usually linked to a topic such as the birth bag, and ask participants to find as many as they can. It always creates lots of laughter and gets people moving instead of sitting in front of a screen!
- Physical skills demo – ask each person or couple to demonstrate a breathing technique, a position for childbirth or a massage technique, and encourage everyone else to join in.
- Anatomy icebreaker – my Pregnancy Anatomy Icebreaker gets everyone talking from the very first session.
Find more activities for your antenatal and parenting classes in my digital downloads.
Sources and further reading
- Chlup, D. T., & Collins, T. E. (2010). Breaking the Ice: Using Ice-breakers and Re-energizers with Adult Learners. Adult Learning, 21(3–4), 34–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/104515951002100305
- Gillet, S., Winkle, K., Belgiovine, G. and Leite, I. (2022). Ice-Breakers, Turn-Takers and Fun-Makers: Exploring Robots for Groups with Teenagers. 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), Napoli, Italy, pp. 1474–1481. doi: 10.1109/RO-MAN53752.2022.9900644
- Pearce, E., Launay, J. and Dunbar, R. I. M. (2015). The ice-breaker effect: singing mediates fast social bonding. R. Soc. Open Sci. 2: 150221. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150221