Father's Ed vs Baby Academy: which suits new dads?

Focus on dads

Baby Academy is led by qualified midwives and frames its classes around the expectant couple. Dads sit in alongside their partner and are explicitly welcomed, and the live format means they can ask their own questions of an expert in real time. That is genuinely valuable — getting your own answer from a midwife while the other parent is in the room is a different experience to reading a book.

Father's Ed is built dad-first. The host, the script, the examples and the implicit reader of every lesson is the father or non-birthing partner. If you have ever sat through generic "new-parent" content and felt the dad was an afterthought, that is the gap Father's Ed is built to close.

Price and value for money

Baby Academy publishes a clear price list, and at the time of writing offers a free 2-hour Baby-Care class plus paid courses such as the Ultimate Antenatal Class at £149 per couple. That is competitive against in-person providers, the live recording is included, and you get expert teaching from registered midwives — which has real value, especially if you would otherwise feel under-prepared for the birth itself.

Father's Ed is free across the entire course library. There is no premium tier and no per-session fee. If money is the deciding factor, the comparison is straightforward; if it is value-per-pound rather than zero-cost, both stack up well.

Accessibility and flexibility

Baby Academy's flagship antenatal class is delivered live — either as a full day or two half-days — with a recording made available so you can revisit it afterwards. Live teaching is a meaningful upside if you like the discipline of a scheduled session and want the chance to ask questions in the moment.

Father's Ed is fully on-demand from the first click. There are no dates to book around, no rejoining a recording you missed, no "you should have caught it live for the Q&A". For dads who work shifts, travel, or sign up late in the pregnancy, that is often the deciding factor. The trade-off is the lack of a live human at the other end of the screen — Father's Ed is a resource, not a replacement for your midwife.

Comprehensiveness

Baby Academy's curriculum is focused: antenatal preparation, the birth itself, and early baby care, delivered by midwives. It does the core job thoroughly. If you want a clinically authoritative voice on labour and the first weeks, that is exactly what it gives you.

Father's Ed covers a wider time horizon — pregnancy through the first year — and adds a dad-specific layer: how to use paternity leave well, how to share the mental load, how to return to work without losing the bond, sleep across the first year, weaning, and partnership. The Five-Star Fathers Framework gives the whole curriculum a structure rather than a list of topics.

Who each is best for

Pick Baby Academy if you want a midwife-led, live class with the chance to ask questions in real time, and your main focus is being ready for the birth itself.

Pick Father's Ed if you want a free, on-demand resource written for dads specifically, and you want it to keep being useful past the birth.

Use both if you can. The free Baby Academy Baby-Care class plus Father's Ed gives you live midwife teaching for the clinical bits and a dad-focused on-demand library for everything else — at zero or near-zero cost.

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Try Father's Ed for yourself

Father's Ed is free and self-paced. You can sign up at app.fathercraft.co.uk, work through the bits that matter to you tonight, and come back whenever the next stage hits — pregnancy, newborn, weaning, sleep regressions, the lot.

If you want to read more before you sign up, our Insights library is open, and the Five-Star Fathers Framework is a free PDF you can download.