Live webchat with NCT chief executive Belinda Phipps, Thurs 17 Sept, 1-2pm

[GeraldineMumsnet]

We're very pleased to welcome Belinda Phipps for a live webchat this Thursday.

Belinda has posted on threads discussing the NCT, eg this one in April. So we're glad she's coming on for a bit longer tomorrow and can respond to your comments and queries about the NCT.

We're going to send over any questions you've posted by the end of this afternoon for some advance answers, to leave as much time as possible for questions during the live chat.

Hope you can join us.

Yes, I agree, evidence-based is good - you'd be a fool to argue against that.

But I don't think your sweeping, somewhat classist judgements are all that helpful either. I've been blasted for being "white and middle class" in the past - I was actually told (and this is verbatim), "Don't forget the ethnics" once ( [words fail me]). I'm aware of my "failings" and try to mitigate it by talking to as many people as I can - but if nobody else steps up and tries to make things better, should I not bother because I'm white and middle class?

Does NCT promote hypnobirthing?

'Tis a new one on me if it does....

NCT is very much into evidence, IME.

I haven't seen the NCT promoting hypnobirthing.

MP, you're not stereotyping based on your own preconceived prejudices again are you?

Away and bake something, now!

deepdarkwood - i think you're right - i do love the NCT but i think that their specialist workers - teachers and BFCs definitely need more support. It is a bit worrying. I have a teaching background (secondary) and we would be watched a lot more often and assessed at least 5 times. It is something the NCT needs to look at and improve. All parents deserve to have the same experience.

My local NCT is a big fan of hypnobirthing - but this is because there is a noisy hypnobirth fan involved.

But I am mainly using hypnobirthing as an example of the moral-heirachy of birth that the NCT favours

Mumsnet should have a column in the NCT magazine btw

It is very difficult (as you will see from the artifical feeding thread in AIBU(!) atm) to talk about evidence-based "best practice" without sounding like you're diminishing what will end up being some people's realities in some way.

MP - your local NCT may well include a member who's a fan and be noisy about it. I don't understand what NCT is supposed to do about that.

RGrice - can't speak for teachers, but SueW posted last night about their supervision. I am a bfc and we do get adequate support and supervision....certainly comparable (bearing in mind we are volunteers and not working at this full time) to the supervision and assessment a working teacher gets, I would say. Training is externally validated to university diploma standard. Obv, can't make everything perfect I know but it isn't for school teachers either

I doubt you'll get that gig, MP

Do the NCT not organise ritual slaughter of lunatic volunteers, Tiktok?

An oversight, perhaps?

MP - I have never heard any NCT member or worker even talk about hypnobirthing...and I have sat in a gazillion classes. I am sure it must come up from time to time, largely if a class member raises it.

Why you choose it as an example of moral hierarchy of birth, I don't know.

I am no doubt guilty of taking you too literally 'Cos I am still wondering what's wrong with 40-yr-old home baking farmers....

Aw I'd be great writing a column for them

"Ripped in two? What to do next..."

tiktok you ARE taking me too literally

Hypnobirthing is sold as the path to the nirvana of a drug-free vaginal birth aka 'natural' birth

40 year-old mums with farmhouses are fine - it's just the way they lived in a nice little mews house in Greenwich five years ago that's annoying...

Really enjoyed following the discussion.

A wise old man (my grandad) once gave me some great advice (well I thought so anyway!)

"If your unhappy about something you have 2 choices, you can either change it or accept it. To just continue to be unhappy about it is a waste of your own time and everyone elses."

I am not your 'typical' NCT member but I am working hard (as are loads of other volunteers!) to make the NCT a charity I am proud to be a part of so that when my kids become parents they WILL have the support they need.

I have come across some strange people inside and outside NCT - and probably the odd lunatic volunteer among 'em! Some people are dreadfully bossy, inside and outside NCT, and I recognise the bossy toddler group leader scenario described earlier, but the one I went to like that had nothing to do with NCT at all.

MP: "Hypnobirthing is sold as the path to the nirvana of a drug-free vaginal birth aka 'natural'".....by WHO? Some noisy person you happen to know who is also a member of NCT?

Agree, Tiktok, you'll get nightmare people everywhere - and it's part of the problem when you set up volunteer opportunities. Managing volunteers makes cat herding seem an appealing and relaxing hobby.

NCTPNL, agree totally that you either complain bitterly or you work to change things.

As a long standing Volunteer and a member of NCT staff (one of the home based course administrators) and a new Mumsnetter, I have enjoyed reading this discussion.
Belinda'sapproachability is one of the best things about being involved with the NCT, she is often found on the volunteers e-groups late at night listening to the volunteers moan comment.
I wanted to answer one of the questions raised at the top of this thread. It implied that unbiased antenatal classes were provied free by the NHS and the NCT should look to do other things... I live in a sizable town with about 1300 births per year (and 17 doctors surgeries) and there is no NHS antenatal provision at all.
We are expected to travel to hospital run parenting classes in one of the local cities. Places on these courses are difficult to get . All the hospitals have cancelled at least one months worth of clases at short notice in the the last six months. The NCT classes provides a very important service to local parents to be.
I think the NHS, Sure Start and NCT services vary so much across the country that we all have to be careful of generalisation, what is desperatly needed in one place is completely uneeded elsewhere.
I do like the idea of a Mumsnet column in Newgen,much better than in the daily mail.

tiktok - fair point - as well i know from working in secondary schools It's one of those eternal problems i guess.

I think there could be a lot of merit in a MN column in NewGen - here you can see the frequently asked questions, and it would be a good place to remind everyone of those subjects and the evidence base for the answers. For instance, making up formula correctly..

Interesting chat.

Thanks Belinda.

CMOTdibbler Really, you can just email the committee or your local contact person and say you're interested in setting something up. You WON'T be treading on toes and tbh, if anyone makes you feel like you are, then take heart and get stuck in and change things for the better. I grant you that it's possible to come up against the dragon committee ladies in any charity group, but I think they're fewer than you think.

What's DISHEARTENING for the core volunteers is when you don't hear that people would have helped out until they're planning to leave.

Email your local contact/ tea group person if you're thinking small scale, or the chair or secretary (or events person if they have one) if you're thinking bigger.

(I have spent two years on my local NCT committee btw.)