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).

Ah, moomaa....I see you mean postnatally. Yes, well, sometimes I do see mothers' breasts postnatally and sometimes I can see a link between the difficulties they are having and their nipples/breasts, but these would not have been predictive, IYSWIM. 'Cos some babies manage just fine with whatever breasts and nipples they end up with And some babies have difficulties with breasts and nipples that seem perfectly boringly average!

"when you ask for volunteers to visit, you really don't know what their experiences and outlook are gonna be"

Very true. What happened at our ante-natal class was that we had our post-birth debrief session and we talked a lot then about how we felt and what had gone well and not. The teacher rang up later and asked if I would be prepared to come in to another class. I went with another woman from my class who had had a significantly harder start to things (long long labour, v painful start to breastfeeding) than I had. So the class I visited got a view from me (very lucky with short labour & easy breastfeeding) and one from someone who had had a harder time (but was still persevering with the BF and in fact fed to over 6 months).

I don't know if this was deliberate but suspect it was as our class had had a similar pair (only one of them had had a C-section). Anyway, my point was that the teacher had already seen and talked to us about how we were coping.

just an update - we had another NCT class today with the main NCT teacher. She asked if i'd been at the breastfeeding class and what I thought of it, I said that while some parts were good, it was a bit too focussed on the 'why' and not the 'how' for us.

Then several other couples turned up who had been at the breastfeeding class and everyone said the same thing so the teacher said she'd feed that back and suggest the BFC is a bit more practical focussed in the future. (she said they aren't told how to run the feeding classes so everyone has their own style, I guess this is just her style)

Oh, and the NCT teacher did give us advice today on who to talk to if we have problems so I feel a lot more relaxed about the whole thing.

I never actually bothered with NCT classes. I knew I was going to bf in any case, although it would have been very useful to know that milk takes a day or so longer to come in after a CS with my first child. However, once milk came in, I had no worries, dd fed well (can anyone explain the nose to nipple bit? I never got the idea behind that; dd opened mouth, nipple & breast went in, job done).

With my ds, child No 2, I used a slightly different hold to start with, which was shown to me by my midwife. He wasn't doing badly, but this hold helped him more. I managed 9 and half months bf with dd (only stopped when she began to bite with her new teeth and drew blood) and seven and half months with ds, but he had an ear infection and it seemed to hurt him to bf. The different action of a bottle feed didn't seem to hurt and he never went back to breast feeding.

To be honest, I am not sure what I did right. I didn't have any problems with soreness, pain, etc and the kids fed fine.

Personally, I was bottle fed by Mum, and I know there is no way on Earth anyone was ever going to get her to bf her kids. She's not big at all on physical intimacy, and let's face it, to bf your kids is one of the most intimate things around.