are NCT classes worth the money?

[bebejam]

I live in an area of London where the charge for a two day course is 200 pounds (the longer course is past my dates, and is 400 pounds!)

We're not poor, just average folks, but we are on a very tight budget where 200 pounds is a lot of money. It just happens that the closest class to us is in SW1 which is why the high price I guess. We are trying to make wise decisions as the baby stuff bill seems to add up easily.

My husband is wondering if these will teach us anything that the hospital parent craft classes don't cover. A lot of people say that the reason you go is for the friends you make... but in two days I'm not sure you'd make that many bonds. And I certainly don't want to part with that kind of money just to hear someone spend two days talking about how scented candles work so much better than pain relief.

Any thoughts?

I am an NCT antenatal teacher and so obviously think NCT classes are worth going on . I would say that I recently taught my first course 2 day course (the kind you are thinking of attending) and as the leader found it exhausting so dread to think how the class found it (they said they were Ok but I dunno...). You have less contact time and although the group got on well it didn't feel as though they got to know each other as well as they normally do. I don't think I will teach this format again in a hurry - although some teachers really enjoy it so this is just my opinion.

Also, as with everything all the leaders are different and teach differently. And as with any profession there are good, bad and indifferent. What one person finds invaluable and informative another person would already know or not want to know so we are constantly trying to balance the classes and meet everyones needs to the best of our abilities (most of the ones I know anyway).

On a normal course I would do one session on pregnancy/agenda setting then the rest of the course is half and half pregnancy/birth & parenting. I cover all kinds of pain relief, we do practise positions and breathing and massage etc, we also cover Caesareans, all kinds of intervention WRT what will happen, how you may feel afterwards/recovery etc. We cover sleep issues, PND, changing relationships, the first year with your baby, caring for your baby etc etc. However, all courses are led by the class members and adjusted to suit their agenda.

Most teachers would be perfectly happy to chat to people so you could ask the booking secretary to pass your details to the teacher for her to contact you - then you could suss out the kind of person she is and whether you think her classes would suit you - like others say you can call around and go to neighbouring branches if you like.

WRT NHS parentcraft classes - if they are free and you can get on them then you might as well - I would say its worth it even if you decide to go on NCT classes. You may get a different viewpoint, get to see hospital, meet a different group of parents etc. I think my class members have often gone on both and get different things out of each - so you may find the best class to suit you!

Hope that long ramble helps!

Sorry, half & half Labour/birth and parenting not pregnancy and birth!

Personally, I found the NHS classes excellent, and DH went too. I think that £200 is a LOT of money for most parents-to-be and I'd rather spend it on a day at a health farm in a few months.

Why not start a thread asking for all the good things people learned on NCT classes? In fact I'll do it for you...

... or attend a few coffee mornings BEFORE the birth. Mums are always willing to chat to pregnant ladies, in my experience! You also have the advantage of not having your attention diverted every 30 seconds by your needy baby!

I think the NCT and the work it does are great.

I did a 5 week course (every Saturday) which cost £150 for DH and I when I was pregnant about 1.5 years ago. The things that are actually taught (labour, pain relief, breathing exercises, ect.) can be obtained from a good quality book or the internet and as far as breathing goes, you are better off going to Yoga classes. I attended Yoga and swimming for pregnant women and found both extremely helpful and relaxing. An experienced Yoga teacher can teach you alot more about breathing than most NCT instructors.

Also there are many good pregnancy/baby books and websites. You can get books from a library or buy through Amazon or some other bookseller at a fraction of what it would cost to attend the NCT classes. Actually about 90% of my knowledge re. pregnancy, labour, baby, breastfeeding comes from the net.

The net was and has been esp. valuable with respect to breastfeeding. There was a 2.5 hour session with the NCT, however, this can only give you the basics and is no substitute for feeding a real baby. For example my DS would not latch on to my breast for the first 4 days of his life which created a real crisis for me and baby as I was so keen to breastfeed. What the NCT classes had taught were some basic methods. What they did not teach was the eventuality of things going wrong. If you wish to breastfeed and have problems at first, you are better of seeing a breastfeeding consultant or talking to one over the phone (most are volunteers working for charities like the NCT and do not get paid) immediately after baby is born.

Also I went to the classes with the high expectation that I would make some real friends. Despite all my efforts to be friendly with the other couples, this did not pay off either. You have to be realistic about the reasons other couples are there. Not everyone turns up to make friends.

Any way, I just felt I should give you a fair analysis of my experience of spending £150.00 with the NCT. Of course, please remember the NCT is a charity and needs this kind of money to survive. So if you are feeling charitable, then it's money well spent

I found that the friendships you form from the NCT classes were excellent, but I had to have a caesarean (in fact I've now had two, and have found out that my pelvis was too small to give birth), and I'm afraid that our teacher's attitude to caesareans in the class led to me feeling like a total failure, and I feel that this contributed to my pnd. I wasn't alone in this - another girl in my group also had to have a C-section, and she felt the same as I did. The NHS classes were better, but the bonds formed in the NCT were closer.

I think it's a real shame that the classes in your area are so expensive. Our branch has kept them below £100 for a long time (8 x 2 hour sessions, plus an extra session on breastfeeding) and £200 seems exorbitant.

We did a longer course, but I have also sat in on a 2 day one, and I would echo what various people have said about it being too short a time to absorb all the info. Bear in mind that you may be quite heavily pregnant by then, feeling tired, and with all those pregnancy hormones making it difficult to remember lots of stuff!!

As an NCT local representative (responsible for coordinating coffee mornings and other social events), I would really encourage you to give the bumps and babes sessions in your area a go after the birth, if you eventually decide that the classes themselves are too expensive. You don't have to be a member to attend, and you will find people with babies of a similar age. Yes, a lot of people bond well with their NCT antenatal class, but as this thread has shown, a lot do not. You may well find you meet some really great friends there. If you ring the host in advance, and say that you really want to meet other mums, and that you haven't got a good antenatal group to fall back on, they may well be able to introduce you to people specifically.

The other source of support would be postnatal classes that are run by most health authorities. These tend to deal with things like first aid, play and development etc. but as they are often a rolling programme, you tend to meet other parents with children about the same age as you.

We also did NHS classes, and whilst they were good (and a great complement to the NCT ones - being more practical) they were packed (24 couples!!). The age range was huge and meant we couldn't get to know people. Everyone was at a different stage of pregnancy too, so people were coming and going throughout the course.

I would definitely do the NHS ones (they're free), and then go along to some of the bumps and babes sessions before the birth, so you get to meet other mums who've just had their babies. They will hopefully be less dismissive of your questions than some longer-established mums can be.

I did both, NHS classes provided more practical, up todate info whereas NCT provided the social contacts (did not really meet up with anyone at NHS classes). Unfortunately moved abroad when ds was 5 months old so was unable to keep up NCT contacts but sure I would have done had we stayed in UK.

did you know that the cost of the NCT courses varies dependant on the area that you live ? In some areas a "teachers group" set the costs, in others it's the local branch. Quite interesting considering the NCT is a National charity..........Look forward to the response on this one !

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Wow, £200?? I'm sure it was only £80 or something when I went (4.5 yrs ago).

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Oh right! Hmm, not sure I'd pay that much!!

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JB. Classes were at her house.

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It really depends on how well informed you want to be. There is info that books just can't give you. There was nothing in my hospital antenatal class that I couldn't have got from a book, but then they are bound to be basic; frankly, they are going to be tailored so that even an idiot, or someone for whom English is a second language, can absorb the info. But the NCT classes are a lottery. You have control over which teacher you go to and can do some research on them or speak to them first, but you can't control who else is in your group. I liked everyone on mine, but others did not make friends. I have been to my local NCT tea group as my NCT class was in a different area, but the other mothers at the tea group had much older babies than mine and knew eachother really well. They were nice, but I felt left out.

One thing that hasn't been said much on here is that the NCT classes look at once you've had the baby. We found it really useful in terms of looking at how our lifestyle would change. Our NCT leader got the women to work out what you could do during the day with a newborn baby, so that we had realistic expections of how little time we would get to ourselves. We also discussed post-natal depression - partners were present - which was something I was concerned about.

Personally, I really don't see how you can be as well-informed from asking people questions, simply because the worthwile aspect of the NCT classes was that it provided me with answers to questions I wouldn't have thought or known to ask! I was very well-read about pregnancy when I went to the class, but it was very practical and it was the discussion with other people in the same boat that made it useful also. You can discuss your fears/expectations; people who have already been through it won't be in the same position to do this because it won't be immediate for them.

Having said that, I really don't think you will get that much benefit from a two-day course, so I would urge you to find a longer one if you want to do NCT classes.

Giraffski....and also depends on what the teachers want to earn too (hear what you're saying about the costs but the variables are NOT that huge unless of course London classes are held in a palatial private hall somewhere, I think not !) The fact is that the teachers who run their classes as a "group" earn significantly more than those where bookings are done at a local level..hence the reason that there is so much heated debate about the future of the classes currently...I do agree with you too that response at local level is very important.....and that it depends on what people will pay at a local level However as a charity should their be such huge disrepancise in the costs of classes...? If you're talking about "choice for all" the cost of classes restricts those to those who can afford it (what percentage of class attendees are actually "funded" with financial support or aid) I feel that this conversation may continue for a while !

It isn't as simple as 'groups' and 'branches' - there are huge variables in teachers pay and course costs even between branches - there are very few teachers groups running in the NCT.

Its not about greedy teachers either - just ones who would quite like to be paid the going rate for adult education rather than half that.

In my area our hall costs are actually half that of a neighbouring area and we are nowhere near London or a big expensive area so you may be surprised by the differences between areas.

Its a shame that teachers fees have to be linked to class fees at all - most charities would think that providing education to a wide audience is worthy of fundraising rather than meaning teachers have to reduce their pay in order to provide the places. We have families to feed to!!

p.s. And bearing in mind that it is normally teachers who have to absorb the costs of reduced or free places its hardly surprising that not many are offered is it? A large number of us work for appalling pay as it is!

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Of course there's always the (non-NCT) option of the £875 antenatal weekend course which includes accommodation for Fri and Sat evening, dinner on Friday and breakfast and lunch on the course dates but not dinner on Saturday night.