Calling all antenatal educators & doulas!

[ByJove]

Have any of you trained with Childbirth International? I'm thinking about signing up for a course with them and would like any advice / reviews/opinions from those in the know.

Thanks!

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which course are you thinking of doing or both at the same time?

I looked at the Childbirth International one - I thought it looked reasonably sound, but by that time I was halfway through my NCT Antenatal Education Diploma and was loving it.

TBH - the 'gold standard' in the UK is the NCT Diploma. You also don't have to worry about setting up your own teaching practice or marketing your courses once you've finished (though lots of NCT trained teachers do teach privately). The other thing with an NCT course is that you may well be able to get the NCT to finance the bulk of your course fees. They paid 80% of mine. If you're interested in teaching in Children's Centres of for the NHS at a later date you'd be best off to do the NCT diploma as it's the most widely recognised qualification in the UK for antenatal educators, outside of a diploma or digree in midwifery.

Word of warning though - the NCT diploma is a lot of work. A lot. It took me 5 years to complete it. I only know 2 people who've managed to qualify in 2 years or less, and they were massively hard working and well organised (whereas I'm lazy and disorganised unfortunately which is why it took me so long. Mind you - I did have 2 babies en route to qualifying, so that's a reasonable excuse!)

Or even 'degree'.

lulumama was going to do the cbi course maybe you should ask her i dont know if she has started it .

im training with the NCT.

I've also qualified with NCT. Would second pretty much everything fabsmum said except I didn't have two babies along the way (but I did have a child who became seriously ill about 5 days after I was accepted onto the programme!)

I think the comparison table on CBI is seriously flawed!! My tutorials were on Fridays initially and then on Mondays. And I could comfortably get there and back whilst DD was at school.

There are two residential workshops and a min number of study days during training and a requirement for continual professional development and minimum teaching before NCT will allow re-registration of teachers which is done annually.

Im just lazy! when i sarted i was like ' yeah i can do this in 2 years' now im like arrrggg 2 years has passed im in no where near finished.

its a lot of work but im sure it will be worth it!

have not started CBI, but it is on my list!! thought long and hard about NCT, but it was not going to fit in with my needs, i had no-one to help every week with tutorials 45 minutes away taht ran over school pick up time , nor child care for 4 weekends away. also, i have ishoooos with the NCT in many respects.

Camillathechicken - my tutorials were one day, once a month. As far as I know this is the format for most tutorial groups.

And I think it's only 2 residential weekends - if you qualified in two years that would be one weekend away a year.

I do think you need to address the issue of work opportunities in the future. Setting up and marketing your own courses is hard going if you don't have a reputable organisation behind you. You're competing with the NHS as well as with local midwives, manhy of who teach their own courses privately. CBI is a reputable organisation but it's not widely recognised among the general public.

The NCT is making lots of new links with Children's Centres and the NHS so the opportunities to work with a more diverse client group is a possibility if you do the NCT diploma. If you do the CBI and teach privately you're only ever likely to find yourself teaching middle-class couples in their 30's who are the typical recipients of private antenatal education..... It'd be very hard for you to offer subsidised places as an individual private practitioner.

Am I doing a good job of selling it to you? It's a great course - I don't know anyone who's had any issues with the quality of the training and most of the other women on my course were already well qualified graduates from a range of professional backgrounds. I'd done a BA, a PGCE and an MA before doing the NCT diploma and I can quite honestly say that the NCT course was just as challenging and academically rigorous as any of these. I found the quality of assessment was excellent, you get great support and the course is very well taught (well my tutors were superb). There's a huge emphasis on developing your skills as a reflective practitioner and on innovative teaching.

What are your issues with the NCT if you don't mind me asking?

also,there was a long waiting list for the tutorials. even if it is monthly, i am still going to struggle

i have been involved in teh NCT for a couple of years, i have found contacting them a nightmare, they take weeks to get back to you.. they don;t have that great a reputation , certainly have heard a lot of negative stuff.. i do not want to be tied to the NCT or to their ethos as a whole.

i have a degree already, and if i am going to study for 3 years, i will study midwifery.

I work as a doula and have forged links with childrens centres, the hospital and with HCPs myself. as i continue to work, my reputation will grow and my business will grow.

the NHS no longer offer courses, not everyone can afford the NCT , as a sole practitioner, who can teach from home, i can afford to be cheaper

i do not wish to restrict myself to middle class 30 somethings, if a teenage mum wants some private antenatal help, I want to have the flexibility to help her for a token amount.

I spent several weeks looking into the NCT and spending time with someone who is doing the course, looking through her coursework etc... it is not for me

it is not for everyone

offering pregnant women choice of where they get their information from is also important, IMO

lulumama I can see where you are coming from having forged lots of relationships and built business already

You are wrong NCT pricing though.

Under the new pricing structure the following pay a minimum of £20.

• Under 18s
• Students (under 22 years of age)
• Or, parents receiving: o Income support o Job seekers allowance o Council Tax benefit o Housing benefit o Incapacity benefit o Tax credits
• Or, parents with a yearly household income of less than £15,000

and discounts of up to 50% with income £15k to £25k.

I just wanted to clarify that, in case anyone is reading and thought that NCT classes would be out of their reach

I admire your wish and ability to be flexible on pricing. The private alternatives to NCT in my area are hour-for-hour more expensive than NCT with no published discounts. On the face of it their course prices are about the same but our standard course is 18 hours inc bf class & reunion for £135 and others are 8-12 hours and a reunion for around £140-£180.

that is great sue, i have been involved in the NCT for 2 years and did not know that..!

i think that the NCT has good stuff to offer

I think that CBI has good stuff to offer

pros and cons of both and the more choice the better for parents, i think.

i had to email head office 4 times re getting info on training... and various other times i have contacted them, i have either had no response or a delayed response.. my branch are organising a baby day and cannot get any bags or membership forms from head office as they ones with new logos are not done yet.... it does nto fill me with joy !!

i made my decision very carefully about not doing the NCT course

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politics?

dunno... i would like to know there is a third way

i would like to think that after spending the last 3 years independently learning about birth,that i could teach classes,but i have no idea how to teach... or structure a class or set of classes....that is what i need really..

"and various other times i have contacted them, i have either had no response or a delayed response.. my branch are organising a baby day and cannot get any bags or membership forms from head office as they ones with new logos are not done yet.... it does nto fill me with joy !! "

It's tough at the moment - the NCT has been going through a period of fairly major change on a whole range of fronts, and I suspect things have been a bit chaotic at head office recently.

Have to say - in terms of the diploma I've had no problems re: administration, getting essays marked, arranging study days etc.

But if you are starting from a position where you object to the ethos of the NCT you're quite right not to want to do their training. Personally it was the ethos of the NCT - their emphasis on the value of informed choice, of the importance of evidence based information, and on reflective practice that attracted me to the organisation and made me want to train with them. Plus the fact that they.... ahem... paid 80% of my course fees .

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fabsmum, i have ishooos with getting hold of head office and responses from tehm since i joined 2 years ago, so this is not just to do with them rebranding.

i am really glad that the NCT has been so positive for you

more power to you !

but it is not for me, although i will continue to support it at a local branch level.

pruners, drop me a line!

i have tried to join their special experiences register and some research thing they were doing, all to no avail. that puts me off a lot

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pruners, that is exactly what i wanted to say, thank you !!

Pruners - isn't the most important thing the quality of the course itself rather than the more nebulous issue of the 'image' of the organisation? (which face it is often down to scapegoating in the press by those out to ridicule what they see as the public face of the 'natural childbirth' movement).

I have met literally hundreds of women from a huge range of backgrounds who've done the course - none of them stupid and many of them not traditional NCT 'types' (I myself had no involvement with the NCT before I did the course - I thought I couldn't afford to do an NCT course when I had my first and did and NHS antenatal class instead. I come from a background of teaching in further education) and I haven't met anyone who doesn't think the course is very good.

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Well - you can only go with what you know.

I know that as a teacher the NCT training has been invaluable, and the feedback I get from clients on my courses is excellent. Of course they'll always be people who can't cut it as teachers - there are many of midwives teaching in the NHS right now, and lots of people who've trained with other organisations who are pretty cruddy too.

My main concern was choosing a good quality course that was rigorously assessed and in doing the NCT diploma I got that. For me it's opening up a lot of opportunities - teaching in my local childrens centre and within the NHS that I don't think I would have had if I'd done my training with anyone else.

Just had a look at the CBI certificate. Have to say - it's a completely different kettle of fish to the NCT diploma.

I can see the attraction - it only involves doing three assignments - one of which is a birth debrief and one is an open book multiple choice, and 1 course observation.

There's no assessed teaching practice (the NCT diploma involves three teaching practices of which two are observed and assessed), and there's no ongoing certification requirement (with the NCT you get observed every year and you have to attend regular study days once you've qualified, including obstetric updates).

I wonder if FEDANT (Federation of Antenatal Teachers) allows people who've done this course to join its register of antenatal teachers?