£271 for 1 week NCT course??!!

[Leilababyno1]

I am due in April and recently enquired about my local nct course. Is £271 the normal price? It seems really extortionate for a 1 week course. My antenatal yoga course is only £84 for the equivilant duration of sessions!!

We've paid £160 for a 4 session course (in Essex) in April.

Save your cash and go to the NHS one at your local hospital. More informative because you will learn about their procedures and attitudes.

If you want to make friends, just go to the coffee mornings.

The NCT prices depend on where you live. The four-session course near me as just over £300 so I decided not to do it. I'm hoping to meet people through a local bumps and babies coffee morning and things like that.

And if you're after lots of information, more than you may get at the NHS classes, I recommend looking in your local library - mine has loads of pregnancy and babycare books, I've read the lot now

Seems a lot for a one-week course!

We paid £219 a few years back for a course spread out over a number of weekday evenings, plus a couple of daytime women-only sessions, over about 4 weeks.

The advantage of that is that you get to know your fellow expectant couples and form a friendship over time, meeting up for coffee/beer (the men) in-between if desired. I'm not sure you'd be able to build the basis of the friendship/support you may want from a week-long course.

And after all, the friendship/support element is for many people the number one reason for doing the NCT classes.

We have remained friends and in regular contact with most of the couples who were in our class.

Yep, that's about the price!

We decided to go NHS, and the exorbitant price was one of the reasons. Also, we're going for an NHS delivery, so having a midwife who actually worked at the hospital was important to us. We got great info.

But, we didn't really 'bond' with anyone. That being said, it was 3 classes - does anyone manage to bond with anyone after 3 classes?! The midwife encouraged us to make an email list which one of the other mums to be will manage, so maybe we'll keep in touch. NCT people are not the only people capable of socialising!

we'vepaid 156 for an intensive nct course - just as well as I get 2 x 1 hour tuesday lunch time sessions on nhs - HOW does that cover everything??!! not to mention working hours...

That's why I didn't it was just way too much.

On the NHS in our area there was a one day session of about five hours on a saturday, which was nice as most of the dads could go, I also think they gave really great information. Although a bit harsh of my 8mth PG bum.

For example they asked what kind of pain killers most people wanted/didn't want, and after most people said they didn't want pethidine, explained why it was recommended and why most people decide to have it.

Which I found really helpful.

I also met the same people again a few months later at the women only postnatal sessions (there were 12 of those as I recall, so lots of time for getting to know other people)

I'm only part way through my NCT course, but so far DH and I agree that us was money very well spent (about the same as your quote here in SW London).

I did the NHS day long one as well. didn't meet anyone there but don't regret not doing the NCT. Not just the cost but having been a round the friends one of my other mum friends made at her group, they are (whilst nice enough) generally a bit too over the top for me on the breastfeeding, organic everything, reusable nappies type thing. She said also that the classes tended to be very focused on the birth rather than what comes after and given that the birth is such a relatively small part of things and you don;t hve a lot of control over it anyway, it would seem a waste to me. The HV team in my area do a "first mums group" in the weeks after the birth which was great for meeting a few people and then they crop up at other things like swimming and tumble tots.

I've done NCT which was so-so, but the best Mums-to-Be type classes I've had by a mile were totally free at the local Children's Centre - might be worth checking out if you've got any in your area? Good luck with it.

I was looking at these classes for DH and I a few months ago: Daisy Birthing

I saw them reviewed in a baby magazine before Christmas and quite liked the look of them.

I never got round to finding our local class because I had a mc but will probably look into them for next time.

I am having the exact same dilemma at the moment. I was all for it until I heard they emailed me the price! Think I'm going to save the cash and try the NHS ones at the hospital. Yes it would be lovely to make some new 'coupley' friends who are due around the same time but four sessions isn't really enough to develop a bond in my opinion. I'm going to stick to coffee mornings in my lovely maternity leave to do that I think.

• until they emailed me

I did the NHS classes and made two good friends there.

It's such a lottery, I went to Nct classes and found them invaluable over the NHS ones, which were useless.

The tutor we had for Nct though has now set u her own independent business offering classes, it might be worth looking to see if there's anything independent near you? Best thing to do really is find out from other parents what the NHS, Nct and any other classes are like in your area and go from there.

Hi Leila...

Having just finished NCT classes, the best thing about them are meeting women roughly the same stage of pregnancy as you. Granted I'm was the youngest one there (only by a year) Age range with 28 to 45...after our BF class we all went out to lunch and are having a catch up with DH's next week. It's been lovely to meet them.

Whist DH liked the evening classes he thought it was a bit slow 'learning' wise..however it was good to meet other first time dads, and he's know it's mainly for us ladies...!

I've really enjoyed it but I've heard good reports about the NHS ones too.

Is your course a 'crash' course over a week or several days making a week..?

My DH could have been the OP when I told him the cost!

We have booked on:
Early pregnancy (£97.80 incl NCT membership for 1 yr)
Antenatal (£240)
Postnatal (£135)

Paid it anyway despite the , maybe because of the

Hope they're transferable as we'll probably move at some point!

It is extortionate!! My local NcT were after £309!!!!!! Obviously we didn't do it but found the NHS ones useful :)

you can pay for NCT classes in installments and if you earn under something like 25k you can get a discount.