NCT : dangerous advice???

[VB3]

Dear All , I am wanting some feedback regarding the advice you are receiving/have received from NCT teachers.
I am particularly concerned about NCT attitudes to co-sleeping (it is 'as safe as putting baby in a cot': NOT TRUE, and the LACK of information on:
Cesarean sections/ bottle feeding/ post natal depression/going back to work etc etc
Has anyone found an alternative antenatal course: or would they be interested in contacting me about starting one (I am a GP), with 3kids(including twins)

Having read VB3's previous thread now I return to my original position that she is touting for business. Or worse, trying to smear NCT to promote her own business and perhaps also get a few juicy sound bites for the marketing campaign. Lazy.

I was pmsl at the OP saying that GPs provide informed advice when it comes to child rearing.

I'm a GP as well and just finished my NCT course - I really enjoyed it and thought the teacher provided accurate and balanced information. She did quite a bit about how having a baby changes your relationship and how to work together as well, which I wasn't expecting but was good.

She emailed us a load of handouts, with one of them being the UNICEF guide to co-sleeping safely. I feel much better informed (even as a medic!) and much more confident about having our baby, feeding and looking after it now.

Terrible about what happened to your patient and must have been very scary. But I would suggest that if the baby had turned blue then it must have been in bed with a parent who had either drunk too much (unlikely I am sure) or was absolutely knackered (much more likely), or was under the covers (not recommended) - i.e. they weren't following any of the advice given about safe co-sleeping. This is obviously not a co-sleeping thread, but in China co-sleeping is the norm and they have one of the lowest rates of cot death in the world etc etc. As someone else said, midwives and the NCT are well aware people co-sleep and surely they are better then teaching you how to do it safely?

I am quite surprised as a professional that you are so ready to accept as well that you are getting the "actual" facts - my DH is a teacher, and says that you have to treat everything the children say about e.g. another member of staff with the caveat that unless you were there, you are getting one side of a story - isn't that the same for you? Or did the husband provide you with literature that says co-sleeping is "as safe" etc? If you are a GP I'm sure you are well aware that your patients must go round saying that Mrs VB said.... and then come out with some distorted version of the actual story.

Yes NCT can be very pro breastfeeding, home birth, natural birth etc - but quite frankly if you go to the classes and aren't already aware that is going to be their attitude you are a bit naive.

Following on from gruballo, in China SIDS only started happening when they tried to Westernise and brought in cots.

Here's an interesting news report on the dangers of bedsharing.

That's a really interesting link confuddled. We formula fed DD and did a combination of bedsharing and using a co-sleeper cot and still bed share a bit. I am not entirely convinced about the causality of the link they appear to have identified with formula feeding (given demographic variations in FF/BF) and deaths from bedsharing. However I think that the point that is made about the positioning of a bedsharing breastfeeding baby is interesting. DD has never slept in the traditional chest height position with me and this is probably true for many bottle feeding bedsharers. However she sleeps on her back or side with her head over my arm. This means I can't roll on her. I think we are very lucky in having a super king size bed (bought for bedsharing) and quite a firm bed. I did try having her in bed with us at my PIL but the standard double bed was hardly big enough for me and DH and it was way too soft. So I imagine that there are a lot of risks out there for formula fed bedsharers in less that ideal circumstances.

OP - from your previous post it does seem like you have an idea for an offshoot business from your GP work and are looking for people to confirm that there is a market for it. Feedback from other responses on here suggests not.

My NCT class was good, full coverage of CS and all pain relief. Much more comprehensive and informative than NHS classes unfortunately.

That is a great link confuddled. I was certain they were going to say the common link was alcohol - I regularly (and still do) co-sleep with my DSs but hadn't ever heard the bf link before. I completely take your point though breathe that there may well be more to it than just the actual bf thing though, but the positioning was still very interesting.

And OP the thing is that I suspect there may well be a market for a "different" sort of class - certainly round here it is NHS or NCT or nothing, and I think there is probably a market for people who aren't your kind of "typical" NCT sort of person. I suspect you've attracted the wrong sort of people to give you that feedback though from the original title of your thread and the jist of your post!

VB3 Sure we had an evening NHS class at North Hants a couple of years ago...