What would you "like" your local NCT to provide post birth for you?

[weirdbird]

I have just taken over Postnatal Co-Ordinator for our branch and have started Mums Night Outs and I already run a Bumps and Babes Group and we have a toddler group.

But the question I keep asking myself and can't remember because first baby was 6 years ago, was what would I have liked to have had back then?

The thing we have which is great is a name/phone/address list which is circulated every six months or so - everyone who has a baby locally gets asked if they want to go on the list, and they stay on until their youngest child is at school.

maybe all nct areas already have this, and it's quite a job, would recommend delegating to someone else!

Thanks for that Choosyfloosy, am not sure it would work here only because I am on the outskirts of London and our turnover of mums & babies is huge. For example since the beginning of this year we have had over 100 mums come and go through our Bumps and Babes.
A large proportion go back to work well before the 6mths mark.

The list would be soooo huge I'm not sure it would be manageable.

Also out of interest how does that work, do you just phone someone up if you havnt even met them?

Some sort of opportunity for those who didn't manage to get on the ante-natal courses to join in with social events.

blimey -100! yeah i guess this is a small area and extremely nosy close-knit. Anyone who pitches up with a baby at any of the local events is at risk of being buttonholed by somebody and asked if they want to go on the list, or yes, the nct co-ordinator sometimes just drops a note through the door/ring up. Presumably it can feel quite intrusive, although obv it's not compulsory...

Thanks Sue, there was nothing in the way of support when I had my first and had bad PND, except for a very dedicated HV who has sadly retired recently.

I think the lack of support for mums beyond immediate family (if you are fortunate enough to have them close by )is a major factor in PND and I want to do more in our branch but am out of ideas and thought where better to ask than Mumsnet!

TotalChaos - Our Bumps and Babes, Mums Night Outs and toddler group our open to anyone NCT member or not.

At the moment we don't have any social events beyond those mentioned and committee meetings (do they count?)

What other sort of social events did you have in mind?

It sounds quite nice choosyfloosy, around here its very easy to not get noticed at all.

We do however now have a Facebook group so people can try and keep in touch with the mums they have met through B&B which is probably the closest thing we could do.

Yeah I understand that one SKerrysmum, it was my BIGGEST fear about talking to anyone about how I felt.

There are people you can talk to, but there not trained counsellors.

Not sure we could implement that one but its a great one, will try and do something with it though!

a baby equipment/toy/book library.

groups to attend such as baby massage, baby signing, music classes, art and craft classes etc etc

definately baby massage classes etc would be useful to organise as they can be really hard to find.

Unfortunatley with any sort of library you need a building/storage and we have huge problems with that these days as it is, most village halls, church halls, traditional places for your playgroups etc, no longer allow people to store items on site. In fact it is becoming harder and harder to run these no profit type groups as H&S and liability worries infiltrate all areas. (This does mainly seem to be in more built up, urban areas)

We spent 5 years looking for a hall that would allow us to store toys for a toddler/baby group on the premises.

I don't know of any branches that own/rent a building which sadly you would need.

A lot of libraries used to have toy lending schemes, dont know if that has stopped now.

As for the classes, I suppose it depends on the area you live as to the availabilty of those, there are lots of classes around here, I do hope to have a baby massage taster class at our Bumps and Babes group though.

our nct group meets at a community centre and i'm pretty sure the stuff is left there. have you thought of that?

where my friend lives there is a mobile toy library on an old bus which goes to all the local groups. could that work?

Am about to go back to work (7 months - soo quick) and I am sure that DD and me will miss out on some stuff because it all happens on a weekday morning - the local HV organises a messy play session from 6 months, the Bumps Babes and toddlers sessions are on Thursday mornings. We enjoyed massage and will still keep it touch with the B n B mums but something at the weekend for those of us back at work would be good and this might mean that others (dad's, grandparents, other carers) who work during the week could go too.

Hi nappyaddict, we did finally find a church hall that are letting us store the equipment for our Bumps and Babes and are allowing us to use there equipment for our toddler group, but I know how hard it was to find.

The mobile toy library is a great idea but I don't think would come under the remit of the NCT as providing support for new mums. But I will be passing on all ideas mentioned.

Thanks squix, this is something that has been suggested before, but never got off the ground because of lack of volunteers to run it.

BTW - Obviously I am thinking about this from my own branchs point of view, but if you are members of the NCT and think there is a need in your local branch it is always worth contacting the chair/post-natal leader and suggesting these things as it can sometimes be hard to know what people would appreciate and direct feedback is always helpful.

Something like a buddy scheme for people who didn't got to NCT ante natal classes, or who are new to the branch?

I had massive support from from our local NCT after attending the ante natal classes with my first baby, but then I had a larger gap than most between babies, and really struggled at the toddler group as I didn't know any one, and was suffering mild PND.(I know that sounds lame) Luckily, when DS2 was 1, I was aked to be a 'support mum', which has been great. Do you have 'support mums'?

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Hi MrsLynetteScavo, we don't, can you explain how it works?

I am doing the 2nd after a large gap and ended up starting the toddler group (you can't feel left out when your running it )as our branch didn't have one.

Lol puppydavies, I could have done with the first 2 as well, luckily avoided the 3rd

Our branch alocates 2 support mums to each antenatal group. They will go and introduce themselves to the parents-to-be,while the class is still running, and explain their roll. Basically they will host coffees for that ante natal group, possibly weekly or fortinghtly, the idea being that it's easier to go to someone elses house, than have to tidy up and make drinks for people when you have a new baby. It's a great way to keep the group of new mums in touch with each other. After a while, the new mums will host the coffees themselves, and the suport mums usually leave them to organise themselves when the youngest baby is about 3 months old. The support mums can also encourage the new mums to go along to any other NCT events which might be happpening.

To answer your original question, I would like a 'buddy', someone with a baby of a similar age, to be my friend.

I would have liked my local NCT rep to ring me up and invite me to come to a coffee morning. Being new to the area and a new mum I lacked the confidence to ring or just pitch up to something. I found it could all be quite lonely at times and even now have noticed that NCT peers seem to stick together and it is very hard to 'infiltrate' an existing group. Think dd missed out on the opportunity to get out and about too.

SueW, that sounds like a faboulous idea!

I agree, a phone call to new members would be great, especially if they were invited to a specific event, adn knew that someone would talk to them when they got there, which is an (irational) fear of mine.