to think the NCT breastfeeding class was a waste of my time?

[FakePlasticChristmasTrees]

First time AIBU ? it?s a bit ranty ? but then they all seem to be so hope you don?t mind?

I had my NCT breast feeding class last night, since discovering I?m pregnant I?ve been given a lot of information about the benefits of breastfeeding, but very little practical advice. I had thought a breastfeeding class might be the solution.

However, in a 2 hour class, the first 20 minutes were spent ?getting to know everyone? exercises, then 1.5 hours on ?why breastfeeding is a good idea?, so only 10 minutes on any practical useful advice that felt rushed and very little time for questions. (When I asked about expressing, she said she'd get back to it, never did)

Everyone in the room had chosen to pay for the class and go out in the snow to get to it, is it not reasonable to expect everyone to already have decided this is something we wanted to do? We didn?t need the sales pitch.

Early on, we were asked about our ?fears regarding breastfeeding? ? one woman mentioned that the sheer number of woman who say they intend to breastfeed but then find they can?t or find it too difficult and the practicalities are a worry. There was general agreement that most of us were worried they wouldn?t be able to feed. Surely that should have been a clue not to stick to the pitch but to address the ?how to do it? rather than the ?why it?ll be a bad thing if you can?t?? (Far more time was spent on the statement someone made it might be a bit embarrassing to feed in public)

I?m considering complaining to NCT that they need to make it clear this is not a practical advice class but a class focussed on explaining why you should breastfeed (because I?d have saved the time and money and not bothered).

[ginormoboobs]

YANBU , it sounds rubbish. People who go to a class on BF do not need to be told about the benefits (surely they know that already if they have forked out for the class!). They want practical advice. EG growth spurts , feeding positions, dealing with over/under supply, thrush, mastitis, expressing , how to know if they are getting enough (just touch the fontanelle , if it is sunken then they need a feed!)
Ask for your money back.

[FakePlasticChristmasTrees]

See, ginormoboobs you've just given me more advice! (I assumed baby would cry if it's not getting enough, thanks!)

I'm the first of my friends to have a baby and my DM can't help as she formula feed both me and my DB. I think I'm going to have to bother everyone on MN with stupid questions.

(hoping someone will point me to a good book to read in advance, don't want to wait until I'm reaching breaking point before realising I'm getting it wrong)

[mistletoekisses]

Fakeplastic - YANBU - that class sounds utterly ridiculous. Please give your feedback and defo ask for your money back.

Re. the breastfeeding advice, the feeding thread on mnet is great. Plus our antenatal thread will become a postnatal thread and you are sure to have some bfeeders on our thread. I hope to bfeed again.

[bellissima]

YANBU. you paid for a class not proselytizing. Ask for your money back. And seek some advice (there's some good stuff) under the bfing topic board on here. (On AIBU it will just become a long winded and sometimes bitter debate on the pros and cons etc - not what you want - you are interested and want advice).

[Kayzr]

YANBU. Buy Bestfeeding, it is really good.

[MrsMattie]

It sounds crap - I hate all that preachy patronising stuff about bf-ing - but I don't really understand how you can get practical help with bf-ing before you actually try to feed, iyswim.

As long as you are aware that there may be difficulties and know where to go to get help, I'd say you're as sorted as you can be.

[thisparachuteisaknapsack]

I read the politics of breastfeeding when I was pg with dc3. It has no practical advice but it gave be enormous confidence in my ability to bf. I stopped at 8 wks with ds1, 16 weeks with dd, both times I struggled with almost every feed. Still going strong at 10 months with ds2 despite him being initially tube fed and being quite ill.

[tiktok]

FPCT, I am an NCT bfc. The class you had sounds unlike the ones you have a right to expect, and of course you should give feedback that your needs were not met.

Talking about the health impact of breastfeeding is a reasonable component of the class, however - not everyone in the class will know this aspect, but there is no need to spend 1.5 hours on this (is this really what happened? 1.5 hours??).

Discussion of bf in public is also important.

But fear of not being able to bf should have been covered, because it was specifically asked about.

Expressing should be covered too.

[tiktok]

ginormoboobs - you say "They want practical advice. EG growth spurts , feeding positions, dealing with over/under supply, thrush, mastitis, expressing , how to know if they are getting enough (just touch the fontanelle , if it is sunken then they need a feed!)"

I can't tell you how much I disagree with this....practical info on all this is absolutely useless in the antenatal class. It will go in one ear and out the other and be boring. No one can possibly remember weeks further on the many, many ways of dealing with mastitis, for instance, and a sunken fontanelle is not a sign to watch for if wondering about the baby's need for a feed...this is actually quite dangerous advice you are giving there

Of course parents need to know bf may not be without its difficulties, and some of these can be briefly described - and they do need to know how to recognise when things are going well and when they are not.

[isoldeone]

YANBU

I m one of those annoying people who have had no probs and it was no big deal from the start( utter respect to those who have and battled on or chosen to switch to ff for their own sanity or whatever btw) so classes on how to do it seem like a waste of time in rosy hindsight

I just watched a dvd the scan people handed me one day "from bump to breastfeeding" that was v useful and read up on MN. I too did not know about the fontanelle Ginormo - cheers so I'm still learning 3and half months in. But mostly I have been (lucky?) and just relied on instinct and mother nature to guide me.

I didn't bother with extra classes as eager beavers at the classes I knew would tend to annoy me and only got one NHS one a few weeks before the birth which lasted 2hrs and bascically put the willies up me. Plus too much of a tight wad to pay for nct ones

However you may appreciate a support network and ready made "friends" after the birth , something I've had to go out and do and it feels a little like school again and maybe next time I might sign up and meet some eager beavers even if the class is a bit poo.

[tiktok]

isoldeone - please forget about ginormo's sunken fonatelle thing!!

[oc21]

I'm training to be a NCT BF counsellor - inspired partly because my NCT BF class was so totally rubbish! Please, please get in touch with your local NCT chair and NCT head office and let them know your thoughts to that they can use your feedback to make the classes more useful.

Re: sunken fontanelle - I thought that a sunken fontanelle indicated possible dehydration rather than just needing a feed.

[isoldeone]

ok

[tiktok]

I think the fairest thing is to get in touch with the bfc and explain the class did not meet your needs. Then give her a chance to put things right, if she can (free one to one?), and respond.

I think complaining to the chair and the head office is over the top, unless you uncover a serious problem or you are unsatisfied with the response you get from the bfc, or you discover the classes are well-known as being poor.

[flockwallpaper]

good advice tiktok.

[RockinSockBunnies]

It doesn't sound like a particularly informative class. I suppose in terms of the practicalities, you can take the time before having the baby to read as much as you possibly can about all aspects of breastfeeding, so that you feel confident in your decision and can refute unhelpful advice that will no doubt be proffered in the early days by those with little experience in breastfeeding (including, unfortunately, midwives and health visitors).

I think that confidence is a key thing, and the more knowledge you have, the more likely you are, IMO, to successfully breastfeed.

La Leche books are good, as is 'So That's What They're For'. I also love The Politics of Breastfeeding.

Something else I'd recommend is to find a local breastfeeding support group or, failing that, a lactation consultant, and go to such a group or arrange a meeting with the consultant before giving birth. That way, they know who you are if there are problems. If you have any friends who are breastfeeding and happy for you to call them at unsociable hours if you have problems, then so much the better!

Good luck

[FakePlasticChristmasTrees]

thanks for the advice! i will have look at the various books suggested, I think the more information the better, esp with family who all were unable to breastfeed and the only feedback I've had from my decision to breastfeed has been "it's very difficult, you might want to buy bottles and formula just in case". I can't help but think it's going to be difficult, but then the most worthwhile things are difficult...

It was 1 and a half hours of more the reasons why to do it and why we shouldn't be embarrassed. Perhaps I'm just a bit thick skinned and think that's not going to be the problem. (I do have very little shame )

I might contact the NCT BFC and give her some feedback rather than make a complaint, she was very nice, just a bit focussed on preaching to the converted.

[TuttiFrutti]

I can really relate to this, because my NCT class on breastfeeding was exactly the same. This was 4 years ago now but it sounds as if they haven't changed!

We spent most of the class looking at pictures cut out of magazines of women from around the world breastfeeding, and were then asked to break out into groups to discuss "the feelings which the pictures aroused in us"!!! Like you, all I wanted was practical advice, which was condensed into about 10 minutes at the end of a 3 hour class.

There are some really good books available, as other posters have said.

Some rubbish advice I was given by the NCT is "It doesn't hurt, and if it does, it means you are doing it wrong" (actually I don't know any women who have not found it painful in the first few days, but if you stick with it the pain goes) and "You must never express or use bottles because this could interfere with establishing breastfeeding" (I used a bottle of expressed breast milk every day from week 4 and this meant I never had to go through the "how do I get my baby to accept a bottle" trauma later on).

[witchwithallthetrimmings]

I would have loved a class that first explained the simple mechanics
a) supply is demand led
b) follow your baby's lead, they know when they are hungry not the clock
c) it is not feeding that is tiring but making the milk (so frequent feeding is not more "tiring" that a baby that follows a routine)

and then talked about how to organise your life around this. New mothers are often led to believe that sitting on the sofa (or lying in bed) feeding for hours on end is both lazy and tiring instead of being the best thing that you can possibly be doing

[flockwallpaper]

Good luck FPCT. I found that the NCT breastfeeding helpline was a godsend when I hit problems, and the advice and empathy of the counsellors kept me going.

[GuimauveRoastingOnAnOpenFire]

My NCT breastfeeding class was similar. We commented afterwards to the antenatal teacher that we did not find the session useful, and why, and since then I know that she and the bfc have been working on improving the session.

One really important point they made is that the bfc is trained to deal with one-to-one counselling, and that teaching/ leading group discussions is not her forte. And I can say from experience that she really was fabulous counselling me with my specific bf problems, in person, at the time.

I have since arranged with the antenatal teacher to pop into one of the groups for each course she teaches, to offer my personal experience of bfing, and I feed my son while I'm there so that women who have never seen breastfeeding up close get the chance to do so if they wish. I don't know if this will be very helpful to them, but it's worth a try!

[tiktok]

Tutti, unless you think breastfeeding is purely a physical act, then pictures of women bf in different situations is a perfectly valid teaching aid. People have enormously strong feelings about feeding and reactions to it, and a picture selection is a good way to get these aspects into a discussion...clearly, of course, 'most' of the class should not be spent on this.

Unlimited practical advice on bf antenatally is not helpful.

No one should say 'it doesn't hurt and if it does it means you are doing it wrong' - if these words were used, then they should not have been. Painful breastfeeding means not 'you are doing it wrong' but 'get help to make it comfortable'. Expressing or using bottles can interfere with breastfeeding - there are many research studies which show this. People need to know this.

Great you found a daily bottle helped - but other people do this and find their babies have difficulty taking bottles at a later date, and others don't bother with bottles and find no problem with bottles later!

[TuttiFrutti]

Tiktok, no I don't think breastfeeding is purely a physical act, but I do think that all of us were in the class in the first place because we wanted to breastfeed, so the teacher should not have spent so much time preaching to the converted about the benefits of breastfeeding. The balance was wrong.

You say "unlimted practical advice on breastfeeding is not helpful" but nobody was asking for it to be unlimited, we just wanted some advice lasting longer than 10 minutes!

[tiktok]

Tutti, I do wonder if you had more than 10 mins on practical stuff - for instance, understanding how breastfeeding works is practical (because this understanding enables you to accept that scheduling or limiting feeds is not helpful). I don't think any bf class should be preaching, but I can assure you that an NCT class is never (in my experience) full of 'converted' people....there is a spectrum, including people who don't know anything about the health impact of feeding and would actually like to know more.

But if the class did not meet your needs, then of course you need to let them know.

[porcamiseria]

YANBU

mine was the same, completely fucking useless. loads of preaching about why to breastfeed (when lets face it the typical NTC audience will most probably want to breasfeed anyway) and NOT ONE bit of practical advice, nothing. so of course we all massivley strugggled!!!! and not one mention of how bloody difficult it is to start with

I did email the NCT website asking where to send some feedback and they never got back to me