To think the NCT should be free or much cheaper?

[TheHouseOnBellSt]

So to many people £48 for an 18 month membership is nothing...it's spare change. But that charge effectively exlcludes anyone on a really low income.

So only those who can afford it will benefit from what is essentially meant to be a charity to support parents or parents to be.

Their "vision" is copied below

Our vision is a world in which parents are valued and supported to build a strong society, believing that a child’s early years significantly impact upon the future they help to shape.

Our charitable purpose

We offer information and support in pregnancy, birth and early parenthood.
We campaign to improve maternity care and ensure better services and facilities for new parents.
We aim to give every parent the chance to make informed choices.
We want to make sure that everyone has access to our services and activities.

But only if you have a spare 48 quid?

this Guardian Article claims that NHS antenatal classes are patchy...and that the middle classes are signing up to the NCT ones which are private of course...so basically the working classes and the unwaged are either getting nothing or not much.

WHY is the NCT a middle class thing? It's meant to be a charity!

mummy that's for the classes - OP is talking about membership.

Yes Stella, I didn't do NHS classes

Not particularly Grotbag. We have a nice toddler group down the road tho.

I've never seen the point in ante-natal classes anyway tbh- not unless you're going private and are paying for a MW that's going to give a shiny shite about your birth experience.

Is it necessary to do any classes at all? Nobody ever asked me if I had done them, or advised me to do so. I still managed perfectly well with my two DC. I always assumed that they were a middle class way to make chums with people with babies the same age as yours.

Thanks Worlds :)

Ah, I see, thanks Poster.

Membership to the NCT is basically a donation to charity. You get nothing back from it (apart from supporting a worthwhile charity )

You can attend antenatal classes and not be a member.

You can attend all NCT events and not be a member.

The NCT will give very reduced rates to those on low incomes for antenatal classes and other classes.

You can get reduced membership rates if you volunteer.

The only roles you need membership to be part of are,the Chair of your local branch or deal with local branch accounts. But these are reduced as you volunteer.

So basically OP what's your beef with the NCT?

I had three babies successfully and never went near the NCT. The youngest is 13 now and they seem to have survived well enough without.

I did nct to make friends. The classes were interesting and we learned some stuff. We had recently moved to the area and we weren't sure what the baby groups were like. I am very lucky to have friends from nct and local groups now. The people in our group are very normal, mainly nhs workers and teachers.

Apologies Raveis, I misunderstood your point.

Money does not grow on trees, the NCT is a charity.
Where would the money to reduce its fees come from?

I dont really get the problem. Surely it's a benefit to all that some people are paying to do NCT classes rather than hogging free NHS spaces which are in limited supply?

They both talk about the same stuff. And as previous posters have said they're both only as good as the person presenting the course. There's no secret birthing hacks revealed at NCT classes.

Don't join then.

Much like those expensive machines that make up formula, it simply isn't a necessity when having a child.

Free NCT, free funerals, bloody mumsnet becoming a bit entitled!!

Last apparently though NHS classes are becoming scarce.

The NCT is a charity. If you don't want to support them - for whatever reason - then don't.

They also provide a service that isn't necessarily available elsewhere. Like any other private service - education, health care, dentistry - then you need to pay for it if you want it. It's not compulsory.

Surely the issue in the OP should be around funding more nhs antenatal classes?

FWIW, I didn't gel with my NCT antenatal group, but made some friends for life at the local church mums and tots group. And the NCT were fantastic support when I had an emcs and bottle fed my baby at 7 days to keep him out of SCBU. (Had planned water birth and bf) (NCT leader in the bed next to me!)

I appreciate that BellSt but doesn't that add weight to my argument?

Agree with BikeRunSki. This is an issue with NHS funding, not the NCT.

I am very confused by the OP. there is membership which costs a, k'now, membership fee, and then the antenatal classes. You can do the classes without being a member, and be a member (which confers various benefits) without taking the classes.

Is your concern actually with the patchy NHS provision of ante natal education?

I went to no classes, ds survived! I was also 19 when I had him and on a very low income, If I hadn't have had the advice and support from my mum and aunt then of course I'd have paid £48 is hardly a lot in the scheme of things. If I couldn't have afforded that, I'd be worried about how I'd support my child more than whether I could go to a nct bbq/class.

The cost is a valid excuse to swerve the horrid witches and be a normal person who happened to have a child which is, unlike the NCT would have you believe, not rocket science or a religion.

I never thought the NCT claimed to reveal deep secrets or mysteries, but it offers a service which some people choose to take up. In my area there are no NHS ante natal classes at all and we paid for private ones (not NCT but teacher was NCT trained) because it's something we wanted to do to prepare for the birth.

Many others do it to find a network of people in similar circumstances and make lifelong friends.

I don't understand all th criticism and sneering.

To the people sneering about how it's perfectly possible to go nowhere near the NCT and have a baby - well of course it is. You are still likely to have benefited from the changes they campaigned for from the 1950s onwards, but that's by the by. Some people absolutely rely on the support of their peers and NCT provides a way in to that in lots of areas.

From her description I strongly suspect I live in Bikerunski's area and I would just like to say that those particular volunteers and practitioners are fabulous, as are the women and families they work with.

I've managed to have 3 dcs over the past decade and a half and have had nothing to do with the NCT. I read about it online on forums like this but I don't know anyone in my life who has had anything to do with them. I kinda assumed probably wrongly that NCT were popular South of the border and not that active around my area.

It was more than £300 in my area, wish it had been £20! I was working so didn't qualify for the reduced rate for those on benefits, which is fair enough. But I knew I needed the money for when on SMP so couldn't justify the cost, which was my choice. But I do think that those that earn an average to low wage are priced out of the classes somewhat.

As for the activities / coffee mornings being open to all I think that depends on the area and organiser. I've asked many times about these to my local branch but have not managed to enter the inner circle yet!

I attended nct and NHS antenatal classes. We were new to the area, had no experience of babies, had no local friends with children. All the classes taught about pregnancy, labour, what might happen in labour. The nct ones also did stuff on how to change a nappy and a bit on breast feeding.

They were worth it just to see the sheer terror and panic on everyone else's faces. To know we weren't the only ones completely clueless and all at sea. The classes also provided a support network for those first few months.

I have remained, 10 years later, very good friends with a family we met through nct.

Regarding costs, I don't remember the membership being helpful to me personally, it was more a way of giving to a charity. The classes themselves were not cheap. I have no idea if they are subsidised. The people I met on the NHS course invariably commented that they couldn't afford nct and that nct 'wasn't for them'. No idea why.