NCT antenantal class

[Shollivan]

Anyone know if it's worth spending £238 on the NCT antenantal classes?

Mine were £180 and worth every penny, but gathering what others have said it's a bit hit and miss depending on the teacher. Mine ws very good, covered breast and bottle feeding, pros and cons of inductions, pain relief options etc and seemed very knowledgeable. And others in the class were really nice. But I think the quality of teaching can be very variable.

I agree with Rollersara it all depends on the teacher. Where I live it is downtown nappy valley and all the teachers are good (there would be an out cry if not!) and the NHS provision is poor so definitely worth it.

Make sure you ask the teacher to cover induction, c-section and pain relief options. The content is class led so if you end up with a load of militant woo-ers, who think they are going to breathe the baby out with 3 deep breaths and a glance at gas and air, it may not be on the agenda unless you ask for it or the teacher considers it important. Which of course it is. Who knows what your body might decide it can/can't do in labour? Best to be prepared.

For what it's worth we've got our last session tonight and ours havebeen really good. Our teachers have been very approachable and have tried to adapt the course to suit our group.
DH has found it really reassuring to have some practical ideas of how to help in labour and seems a lot less panicked about the whole thing!
The ladies in our group already have the first maternity leave outing planned to which is definitely another plus for nct groups.
The nhs antenatal groups are limited to say the least.

Of course...the class aside the friends you're make will be priceless.

Ours was absolute crap, I should have asked for my money back. Instructor completely useless, mumbled, unconfident, couldn't answer most questions, terrible at group dynamics. All touchy-feely crap with hardly any practical information. Everything said in there I'd already read in books/on MN. The other couples weren't really our sort of people, though I think there were some lasting friendships developed between them.

The breastfeeding session had nothing about problems you might experience. Just 'let's look at images of breastfeeding and talk about how we feel'. I'd never heard of tongue-tie until a midwife said DS had a slight one! Nothing on mastitis, thrush, etc. Just 'if it hurts, you're doing it wrong'. Not helpful.

Mine also pretty bad. A lot of the hippy bullshit and 'if it hurts you're doing it wrong', as above - also repeatedly got told how oxytocin was protecting me from any bad feelings despite her knowing I was hospitalised with depression. They are definitely geared towards the 'natural' birth where nothing goes wrong during pg, labour or early weeks (with only a brief aside on other options and nothing about scbu etc - we had three cs in our group).... However, we did make friends with the other couples and most of us still manage to meet up a couple of times a month two years on, so those friendships have been invaluable.

They are definitely geared towards the 'natural' birth where nothing goes wrong during pg, labour or early weeks

That was not reflective of my experience at all. As I said, make a point about including all possibilities so it is covered but also complain if you have a bad class. If you say nothing, nothing will change.

The breastfeeding session was poor I will admit. However, there is little point in listing EVERYTHING that could go wrong. Much better is to have details of where to get help if ANYTHING goes wrong including how to get help in non-term time or bank holidays when many NHS breastfeeding clinics shut down. Better support for breastfeeding immediately after birth and ongoing postnatal support would be much more useful than any pre-birth course.

I did an NCT class and attended a free breastfeeding workshop at the local childrens' centre organised by a breastfeeding group. The free one was by far superior. I found the NCT group focused too much on the negatives and was mainly theory based with little practical advice for example nothing on positions for breastfeeding! The single most useful exercise was holding a doll the correct way- felt stud at the time but this was what popped into my head when I tried to fed my daughter for the first time.

Personly I think too much time spent talking about pain relief and complications is unnecessary- you can get all that info on that by reading or talking to your midwife.

stupid not stud!

I've been feeling like an irresponsible neglectful parent for not forking out the mega money for the NCT classes... Got a couple of midwife arranged q&a sessions coming up so am hoping that will be enough coaching to teach me to become a good mum??

Seriously though, 3 hour sessions for a million Monday nights... What about my dinner, and Monday night soaps???

Joking apart, we agreed the dosh would be better spent on baby equipment, and I've been reading lots and researching things online and have lots of friends with babs so am trying not to feel too guilty and worried for not going!

I did NCT and am so glad I did, mostly because my NCT group is lovely and we still all meet up now, 2 years on. I have made one close friend and am still friends/friendly acquaintances with them all. In the early days I would see the ones who lived nearest to me a few times a week. It was a lifesaver! You can make friends other ways of course but usually not before the birth.

It was also good just for the opportunity of discussing it all with DH and other couples. I enjoyed them - I had a VERY idealistic attitude to birth which was ridiculous but that wasn't the fault of the NCT classes. I blame Ina May Gaskin, lovely as she is...

Anyway, I would say YES, it's well worth it, if only for the antenatal/postnatal support. Oh, and we all went to the pub quite early on - would recommend that!

I'd say it totally depends on whether you already have a support network in place. I went to them as I had no local friends with babies, we were fairly new to the area, and our families live miles away. The classes were ok, actually the breastfeeding one was superb ( and all 8 of us b-fed to 6 weeks, 6 of us to 6 months so she must have done something right).

I would say to try to look at their viewpoint overall rather than them being "anti" pain relief. Their principle is to avoid unnecessary intervention - ie being flat in back means labour likely to be slower, means more likelihood of hormone drip, means contractions more likely to be stronger and more painful, means more likelihood of epidural, means more chance of assisted delivery or c-section. If you see it that way it's less annoying I found! However despite my ongoing involvement with nct (I help them now with nearly new sales etc) I do find their constant criticism of epidurals tiresome.

Would not worry too much look out there and see what else is on offer in your area
eg antenatal classes nappy valley lots of nct classes being cancelled atm

It does depend on what you want from the classes. NCT is an excellent way to "buy" some friends but as others have said the quality of classes will vary with the different teachers. Check out what else is available and would meet your needs eg HypnoBirthing classes if you want to trust you instincts but also keep calm if your birth plans change. Look on www.hypnobirthing.co.uk for details

Didn't make mega friends on NCT course (mind you, we did the 'concentrated' 2 day version), but we had a good teacher so it was worth the money Maybe ask on MN local about NCT and NHS teachers in your area.

Depends both on what else is on offer in your area (sweet FA in my part of London, NHS classes only available if booked at conception/exceptionally vulnerable parents), and the local teacher, plus the makeup of the class.

If you have someone in the class who wants to be drugged as much as possible for the whole thing no matter what, and someone else who is totally wanting the most hippyish natural experience again no matter what, and the others have heard there can be problems in intervening too much but are all a bit scared in general, then any teacher is going to have a nightmare trying to please everyone.

Luckily my class had both a great teacher (who also did the NHS class, trying to get 16 hours of material into 4...), and we were all the last category, similar ages, etc, and we got 4 hours on pain relief because we wanted it. We happen to have stayed in touch a bit but that was a minor benefit.

So for me it was the most useful thing I spent money on - yes it was also the most expensive but it gave me info on what I didn't need to buy and where to get bargains.