OMG! £309 for NCT course!!!!

[saltnvinigarcrips]

Live in Ealing and enquired about NCT courses. Got a letter today and it said it will be £309. Is that not madness? Needless to say I won't be booking. Is it really worth that much ladies?

Same for me- £275 for the course in SW London- so although we'd love to go we can't justify that money when there are essentials to buy for the baby (though we are accepting very generous giveaways by friends and colleagues- which is lovely) and also we are saving up desperately for a deposit for a house.

We're not badly off so wouldn't qualify for a cheaper rate but money doesn't stretch far in London so I still can't justify that amount.

My friend raved about them and yesterday had a dream birth with no pain relief so now I'm really concerned I won't no enough and be prepared enough! But hey- I'll read loads and go to the NHS classes if I can.

I've decided to join the NCT group and get membership and go to other events at least so I can meet some mums giving birth at the same time as me.

I went to NHS classes - 6 in the evenings plus a separate breast feeding couple of courses (one on a Saturday and one in the evening I think).

Quite a few people who went to the NCT classes also went to the NHS ones so met the same people anyway.

I went to Bumps and Babes after DS was born - cost 50p a session I think. Or maybe £1. I did join the NCT later on as well.

I've only just seen this!

I too live in Ealing and was shocked/horrified when the cost came through. I applied for the four-day course and it's £315 including a year's membership.

I appreciate it gives you a ready made set of friends but my God it's expensive.

Technically I'm not low-income but it's just such a huge amount and money's tight. I was really keen but I just keep thinking what I could buy with that money.

I've paid £180 for a full weekend course, could have done it over evenings but with work that just doesnt suit
friends have all recommended it as the nhs classes (leicestershire, big hospital) are mainly attended by people who have to go (social worker said so etc) & partners not allowed due to numbers!!
We booked in august for baby due in march - seriously! oversubscribed is an understatement roun d these parts!
ther are other options tho - lots of midwives do provate classes which are usually inbetween price wise
I realise is quite alot but like someones said there are lots of discounts available pending income, and in comparison to buggys, car seats etc seems invaluable to us as first timers with no family support... we'll soon see!

It is expensive, but I still see my group every week, some of the kids go to school together and the girls I met 5 years ago in my class absolutely are some of my best friends.

When I think about the cost of paying for advice, counselling, babysitting, clothes for younger siblings, school pick ups etc which I've got from these friends over the years, £300 is a bargain!

And actually, my teacher was fabulous - very wise, knowledgable, and supportive of us all.

I just don't think I can justify it. We don't qualify for the discounts and it's just so much money. The actual meeting places are all miles from my house as well. I don't drive and I just don't know.

I agree with both sides of this discussion. It's a huge amount of money, and I have lots of issues with NCT - the main one being that they purport to advocate 'choice' but only really do so when that fits in with their agenda.

However, I did NCT classes purely with the aim of making friends, and this I did. My five NCT friends have been absolutely invaluable to me, at certain points early on, I felt that without them I might well have got post natal depression! It's true that if you're determined, you can make friends through other baby groups, but this takes a level of organisation and go-getting that not everyone has, particularly right after giving birth.

So I don't actually view £300 as that much money to spend on five lifelong friends - though of course it is if you really don't have it!

i had no idea it was so expensive. i just had normal ante natal nhs classes with my first and nothing with other 2.seems like a lot of money you could buy a pram and car seat for that price!

I did NHS classes with DS and DD1 and they were fab. Only downside was that partners were not allowed (to not cause offence to certain religions). They were held in a brand spanking new Sure Start centre just over the road from where we lived at the time, were run by the same 2 midwives who saw us throughout our pregnancies (both of mine too) and were very informative. They showed actual models of the pelvis and showed how baby moves through, showed videos of labour, discussed every aspect of pain relief, breastfeeding, delivery types, possible intervention and so on. They even ended each session with some relaxation, which had most of us snoring before the end! Also, the group had no more than 8 of us at any one time.

I did consider booking some NCT classes purely to make friends as I don't know any other mums having babies at the same time as me, but when I saw the cost there was no way I was going to fork out that much.

I never bothered and was fine. Rip off.

I did both NCT and NHS classes and have to say that the NCT class mates dropped away very quickly (mostly ludicrously rich) whilst the NHS ones stuck around for years (although I did see them at NCT coffee mornings as well). Bizarrely, all the NHS
attendees were very middle class graduates -maybe it's because I did the after work + partners course.
I found that NCT had a larger catchment area, skewed towards the richer areas, whereas the NHS ones were a bit more geographically focused - but the NCT coffee mornings were very good for meeting really local peers, so it's possibly worth joining for that - and they often do good playground.

Hmmmm, this is all confirming my thoughts. I think I'll do the bumps and babies coffee mornings and just do the NHS ante-natal classes.

The NCT ones are far from my house as well as being expensive and I think I'd feel guilty about spending a pram's worth of money that's already tight on the classes.