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?

I would have liked the NCT breastfeeding counsellor who took one of our antenatal classes and gave out her phone number, to have returned my call when I was really desperate after returning from hospital . The two other women in my group who contacted her also found her unfriendly and unhelpful in the extreme.

I would have been left with a very negative view of the NCT except that our main teacher was just so good and I remember her calling just to say hi about a month after birth.

Postnatal coffee mornings are great as are all the other ideas, but surely the main thing is to provide practical help if requested?

I'm sorry MammyT that the bf counsellor never got back to you, there is a national helpline number but your right there is little point of someone going to your classes if she doesnt return your call afterwards.

We don't have one for our branch so I give out the helpline number anyway.

I would seriously suggest that you contact head office about your experience with the bf counscellor though as the only way that these things are resolved is if people report them.

Would a phone call invitation work SittingBull?

We have a Bumps and Babes group that meets every week, would that be more or less intimidating to you?

weirdbird - you're right, I really should have done that at the time. It's now way too late but clearly still on my mind.

Otherwise though, the local NCT group were very good. I really don't want to sound negative as there are so many great volunteers out there.

We no longer have coffee mornings as they where always such small numbers, sometimes none attending we have decided to put all our resources/effort/volunteers into the Bumps and Babes group, which is doing very well now. But this is open to anyone NCT or not

But we also have a huge problem with recruiting volunteers, most of the mums that used to get involved go back to work and find there just arnt enough hours left in the day.

We have also had problems with volunteers themselves who seem to have lost touch with the concept of doing something with no monetary reward and resigned once they realised that by volunteering they didnt get free membership/perks etc...

My NCT did Bumps & Babes, and various coffee mornings/tea afternoons.

I think what would have been helpful was to have more of these (obviously needing more volunteers). I think what would have been nice would be to have a new mum help, where a hot meal could be made and delivered.

When we lived in the US, we were members of our community's 'Newcomers' Club'. When I had DD, I got about 3 hot meals from them, even though I wasn't a needy person. It was so loving, and very much appreciated. It would be great if NCT members could do this for others, especially as they would mostly be targeting new members.

How often was your Bumps and Babes ScaryScienceT, ours is every week and we carried it on through most of the school summer holidays.

I think a lot of these things are really great ideas, but sadly we just don't get the volunteers required to run them.

A new question for some people, what would make you get involved?

I think ours was every two weeks, but in our NCT group, we have 3 distinct geographical boundaries that are never crossed - so in effect, our B&Bs were more like every 6 weeks.

only read the OP so far but would be nice if they catered for older children as well as babies.

Our local one stopped being an official NCT one and because just a group of mums because there was such a mix of ages and we didn't want to leave! Now the age range is at mo 4 months to 8 years!!