NCT BF Counsellor

[massivepants]

I am thinking of giving up my job as a chartered surveyor, and training to be either an ante natal teacher or a breast feeding counsellor. Does any one know if you get paid to do these job and if so how much?!

My understanding is that antenatal teachers get paid but on a sort of freelance basis and there's quite a lot of training and work involved to get there. The NCT's bfcs are volunteers and also have to spend quite a lot of time training.

The two people I've come across working as paid bfcs both work for the NHS, one based at a health centre and going out helping to run groups at children's centres, doing home visits etc, and the other at the hospital where I had my dcs. I would imagine/hope that they had some other related paid/volunteer experience first.

Do you work full time at the moment, and what's your position with childcare etc?

being trained by a bf charity means working as a volunteer for 2-3 yrs after completion.

i think the only way to be 'paid' as a bfc is to combine it with a career that already brings you into regular contact with new babies and mothers.

Bfc's get paid a small amount for taking the breastfeeding antenatal class. This is usally 1 evening out of a 8 week or so course. Some branches have multiple courses going on at once, some run a course 2-3 times a year.

In my area several people who were already midwives or health visitirs trained and some then became a health visitor or midwofe after training.

Antentatal teachers do het paid but again, it all depends on how many courses your local branch runs and how many teachers they already have.

In my area we have way more teachers than courses.

thanks everyone. It sounds like a non starter! I am very fed up with my job and have been for years, but it does pay OK ish and it's part time and flexible, which is worth a lot. It's not, however what I really want to do. I want to either teach primary, run a farm that's open to the public or do ante natal classes/ bf counselling!!
However financially it just doesn't make sense to give up a job I have done for 15 plus years to retrain!
thanks any way.

If your job is part time and flexible, could you not stay in it and train to do something different at the same time? At least the training is normally done part time in these two areas. There were leaflets on peer support training being given out to all the mums at the under 5's drop in I went to this afternoon.

This might be more usefully posted somewhere else - employment and training maybe.

If your interest is working with mums and babies, there's also the market in mum and baby classes - eg baby signing and baby massage - there are other sorts of classes, some with franchises. It's probably wise to hang on to your day job if you can, at least part time, especially as the property related job market so tight at the moment.

I teach 4 hours a week for the NCT and do spend around 2 hours a month at postnatal reunions. This brings me in about £530 a month. I don't pay any childcare as I teach in the evenings.

Sometimes I do two day intensive courses. I'd be paid £400 for the full course.

I personally don't think the money is bad, and I'm looking to branch out into teaching in other areas - children's centres, schools (contributing to the PSHE curriculum) and on CACHE courses. Mind you, I have also got a PGCE and have a fair amount of experience teaching in FE on these courses already, so it's probably more of a 'goer' for me.

Have to say - I loved, loved, loved my antenatal teacher training. Having done a degree, an MA and a PGCE prior to training with the NCT I can put my hand up and say that the NCT DIPHE was the most enjoyable and interesting course I've been on. It's very life enhancing in all sorts of unexpected ways. I'd definitely recommend!

Fabsmum, would you say that if initially after qualifying I wanted to use this as an extra income stream and work in the evenings that this would be possible?

My stumbling block at the moment is getting someone from my local NCT office to contact me! As you know, I cannot apply for the course without this happening first - very annoying!

Mauritius - not sure what you mean by 'local NCT office'. Local branches don't normally have offices. Have you been on the website and read about training? Hope you get fixed up!

tiktok, I meant the local branch. I have to speak to them about grants and funding before I can make an application.

It is frustrating that nobody is calling me back or returning emails.

tiktok, I meant the local branch. I have to speak to them about grants and funding before I can make an application.

It is frustrating that nobody is calling me back or returning emails.

Local branch people are all volunteers. They may well be on vacation or have left their posts, and be waiting for a replacement. It's unfortunate when they don't return calls, but understandable, surely.

(And these days, I think the funding for teachers is handled more centrally?)

Mauritius, it would be reasonable to call again, any numbers that you have, just in case the number you called is out of date.