NCT courses - worth it?

[emmyloo2]

Hi, I was on the waiting list for the NCT antenatal course in my area. I received a letter last week saying I would join the course if I wanted. It is something like 7 two hour sessions which seems like a lot to me and they are every Thursday evening so quite a big commitment given I work full time.

I was planning on just attending the NHS courses but was wondering if people found the NCT course worthwhile? My main concern is general care for the baby (washing, holding etc - yes I am completely clueless!) and breastfeeding. The actual birth part I am not that worried about. Not because I have a clue but just because I figure there is less I can actually do about it when the time comes. I figure I will just follow instructions. Plus the NHS does a course on the birth and the various options in any event.

The money is not a concern but more just the time commitment. Would I better off spending my Thursday nights for those 7 weeks relaxing?? However, if they are valuable then I would be more than willing to take the time to do it.

Thanks!

This is my worry Zebra. DH will be my birth partner and I really want him on my side if they insist on intervention of some kind when not absolutely necessary.

Though at the same time I am such a socially inept persont the thought of being forced together with other people who only have babies in common with me is a bit scary.

We only went to (some of) the NHS ones, and found them very good. I didn't want to pay the money for the NCT ones... but now I kinda wish we had because the mums that went to the NCT ones have formed strong friendships which really didn't happen with the hospital ones.

I have made friends though anyway! You have to get out and meet people when you have a baby!!! My local Surestart was brilliant for meeting people and just getting out of the house for an hour.

The breastfeeding bit, the midwife assistants in the hospital were fantastic with helping with this. I found it difficult to start off with, and they really helped. 10 months on we are still BF.

Either way... come labour I forgot everything that we'd discussed anyway, and we managed

I did not do the NCT course but have many friends that I met through my NHS course who did both and they seem no better off than me personally. The NHS course was sufficient enough to enable me to have two babies - straigh forward births and breastfed both so just trying to say you don't need to do the NCT but have heard it is nice. I spent less money on an antenatal yoga class which I LOVED and I believe that really helped me in labour. I guess what I am saying is if you want to do it go for it but don't feel you are going to get any better birth experience or feel any more in control of a newborn because you did the NCT course over the NHS ones.

I did not do the NCT course but have many friends that I met through my NHS course who did both and they seem no better off than me personally. The NHS course was sufficient enough to enable me to have two babies - straigh forward births and breastfed both so just trying to say you don't need to do the NCT but have heard it is nice. I spent less money on an antenatal yoga class which I LOVED and I believe that really helped me in labour. I guess what I am saying is if you want to do it go for it but don't feel you are going to get any better birth experience or feel any more in control of a newborn because you did the NCT course over the NHS ones.

We did NCT classes and really enjoyed it. It was well worth the commitment purely for the sake of DH, who was completely lost with the whole pregnancy/birth/baby thing (didn't want to be at the birth because he thought he would get in the way) but completely turned around upon meeting the other dads, and learning about it from someone other than me. He felt so much more involved and valued. I liked the way they covered everything, very thoroughly and giving the information necessary to make informed decisions. I know from a personal perspective that "doing as I'm told" in labour would not give me the best experience on a personal level, I now feel I understand enough about all of my options to make sure things go the best way for me (I would find a medicalised birth very stressful). We found them very social, and it was more like meeting up with some friends for a giggle and learning stuff while we were at it. My group is very friendly though, I'm not sure if that is usual, we still meet up weekly.

In contrast I did attempt to go to NHS classes. I went to one, it was at 4pm so my DH couldn't get there, I got lots of odd looks for being the only one there on my own, there were around 15 couples (NCT had 6). Our area only does ante natal classes every 3 months, so we were a mix of women around 20 weeks, to me at 36 weeks. There was a 2 hour session (one of 2) about labour, it started 15 minutes late, finished 20 mins early and had a 15 min tea break. In between the MW spent about 10 minutes giving us a very rosy summary of labour, the rest was group work with no feedback, so if no one in your group had a clue, you were stuck. There was no discussion of options, a vague mention of active birth, and in the "what happens in labour" talk the MW didn't mention transition, which might lead to some scary surprises! I got the impression they were just trying to reassure mums rather than actually giving any information. The best bit was meeting my health visitor, so I knew who she was. I didn't go to the next one because I couldn't bring myself to go to the effort of walking down there for it.

Now clearly I had a good NCT teacher and group, and a bad NHS one, I imagine that can work the other way around, but at the very least the resources, class size, level of detail and tailored approach of NCT is well worth it. Our NCT BF counsellor was also really good, not pushy or judgemental, just giving information and support. She also explained that she (or the NCT BF helpline) would be happy to give advice or support to a mother wanting to switch to formula, as long as they knew she was sure about the decision, and didn't want/need help to get her BF back on track.

I done the NHS classes and I didn't learn anything that I hadn't already read in books etc.

A couple of my friends done NCT classes and they said they were worth every penny and they made really good friends with the people there. I didn't make friends with anyone on mine but a lot of them seemed quite unfriendly anyway.

I would totally recommend them.

Firstly our classes were very funny, whether that was our fantastic ante natal teacher or a lucky bunch of people, but every Thursday night for 6/8 weeks I had tears rolling down my face! shame the actual labour wasn't so funny!

Secondly, I met a lovely group of Mums-to-be and in the early days after giving birth they were my life-line stopping me going mental with loneliness and the sleep deprivation. They were a reason to get out of the house as they were in the same boat as me and we were all going through this life changing experience at the same time. Through them I met other Mums and found some great toddler groups, I now volunteer for the NCT as I hope other parents get just as good an experience.

I would do the NHS ones too, your entitled to them and the NCT ones were a bit rose tinted! Plus the NCT do heavy subsidies for those with low incomes.

Good luck

Pregnant with #1 and loving every minute of NCT classes. Really empowering and practical and useful - and a good way of involving DH/DP.

Also I have met lovely mums to be in my area.

Highly recommend!

CAn anyone explain the charging. On my local site is says each night is about £8. Is that for both or each of us and can I pay in instalments? It's teh Cardiff branch.

Definitely! I met up with my group today (our babies have just turned 9mo) and we were all saying how glad we were that we'd done it. Whilst I really found it useful at the time for the information about birth & breastfeeding, the invaluable bit has been having a group of friends whose babies are at exactly the same stage as yours, give or take a week or so. Whilst I've met other mums through Surestart and other activities, it takes a while to build up those friendships whereas there's an assumption amongst the NCT group that you will be friends and meet up regularly, especially in the early days. Obviously, there are some in the group I like more than others so it now tends to be the case that we have one weekly meet up which is for the whole group and then we'll meet up in ones or twos for the rest of the week. Whether through a scheduled meet up or because we're going to the same class, I probably see someone from my NCT group every week day bar one. I really recommend it. I think my DP would too as he's had a few nights out with the other DH/DPs which he's enjoyed.

I paid mine in 4 installments, as postdated cheques which I posted in. I think I requested info online, then they sent me a pack in the post with a form to fill in and return with monies. There was also a form in the pack to apply for money off/subsidising.

The price is for a couple, I think the per-night quote is to give you an idea of where the big total figure comes from, I seem to recall seeing how much mine worked out per hour, which makes it seem a lot more reasonable.

Incidentally, you don't have to join NCT if you don't want to, and membership will be part of the price, so you can ask not to join and knock about £40 off the price.

I thought it was a bad idea when DW booked us on one but I am glad we did as it introduced us to a good network of people and 5 yrs on we are still members of the NCT and have a good network of friends and coffee/todler groups

And it was very helpfull

I would heartily recommend the NCT courses. We did two weekends' worth of intensive courses rather than the 6/7 week course, which suited us much better.

I'd gone into the courses with the opinion that giving birth was a vaguely medical procedure you did in hospital. I'd turn up, they'd plug me into some machines and, after the appropriate time period, the sprog would pop out. Maybe I was a bit naive, but it hadn't even occurred to me that I might have a better labour without medical intervention. Ended up popping said sprog with nothing more than a few paracetamol and a lot of deep breathing.

Nearly two years later, I'm still in regular touch with all but one of my ante-natal group, even though we've moved out of the area. Spookily, two of us are now expecting our second children around the same date too!

Yes, do it if you can afford it, and ask them for a subsidised place if you can't!

I was told to go on the NCT course if I could manage it. Mine was run on two consecutive whole days, when I had about 6 weeks to go and I was still working, so had to take time off. The alternative would have been a daytime slot for 6 weeks and totally useless as again, I was working.

My DH was working abroad at the time (got back with 3 weeks to go!) so I went alone. This was the bit that in retrospect was a bad idea, though for us unavoidable. The men got together and went out for a beer and mine got left out.

I don't make friends easily, being the sort of introvert person who reads everything possible and would rather hide indoors. So most of the information they gave out was already known to me, but playing with the dolls and learning how to put a nappy on was useful, as was how to position a baby for breast feeding. And making invaluable contacts for the following years...

Ironically, out of the seven couples learning about all the natural childbirth techniques, four of us ended up with caesarians (three planned) and six with boys! And despite all wishing to breastfeed, some babies ended up on formula, some on a mixture and some BF only.

They do try and match mums-to-be with other first timers in the same age bracket and same area. There was a volunteer who threw her home open in the weeks after the course, and we all tried to get there for coffee (again hard for me as I was working and by then most of the others weren't). But it was so worth it.

By the time the babies started arriving, we had shifted the meets to our houses, and then had an invaluable resource - someone to ask when yours does something and you want to know if it's normal! And as women, knowing someone else is having the same experiences means you can cope a lot better, too. As far as I know, none of us had PND.

Yes things have been a challenge since for some of us, we've had two more babies, two more are currently due and we've had one wedding. There has been sadness due to MC for some, and despite everything we all went out together (minus babies!) not that long ago for a Hen party for the one getting married. I work F/T, some work P/T and some are SAHMs. All the original babies are doing similar things at similar times and are all very happy, something I find interesting given the usual debate! I was convinced mine would be disadvantaged somehow because I had to work, but he's actually one of the more chatty and social ones.

We run a little email list so we all know where the coffee meets are, and any other socials.

I think the best benefit to the NCT class was to give all of us the ability to cope with whatever was thrown at us, and a local support network. And some friends we'd never otherwise have met. (Sorry this is so long!)

Just thought I'd add my opinion! We felt that the £150 we paid for NCT was a waste. We really didn't feel that we learned an awful lot, especially since a good portion of every class was spent choosing a laminated picture of something (e.g. hobbies, so the pic might show a couple walking) then having to go round the group and listen/explain why you chose that card.

We both felt that the time was very wasted -we were really interested in birth pain relief options such as massage, as were a few of the other couples, but we only really spent 5-10 minutes covering it, whereas we'd spend ages talking about random subjects- not really covering the topics we all felt we needed. I ended up having an EMCS, but didn't really know that much about it as we didn't cover it in the classes.

We did go along to the NHS parenting class that was literally one hour in the afternoon, and was taken by our MW and health visitor, and both DH and I felt that we learned more in that one hour than on the whole 8 sessions we went to at the NCT. I'd say the only benefit is meeting other mums in your area, but I'd think twice before shelling out money to do that.