NCT - worth it?

[Plateofcrumbs]

I'd always assumed I'd do an NCT course despite the fact I find something about the whole idea sets my teeth on edge. Then I found out the price - £327 for the course in my area!

Is it actually worth it?

I know everyone says it's worth it for the friends you make but I'm finding something faintly horrific about the idea of being forced to make friends with people just because they happen to be up the duff at the same time as you. And paying over £300 for the privilege.

Do I just need to get over myself and suck it up?

I missed out on antenatal classes with DS1 as he turned up before the classes started.

But, I did meet other mums with babies of similar age etc at local baby & toddler groups. In my area, there's NCT bumps & babies / cruiser & crawlers groups, various Sure Start groups, and toddler groups in community and leisure centres.

So you can still meet and make friends with people without going to the antenatal classes, even if you do have to make a bit more of an initial effort to introduce yourself and so on.

And so far as this 'NCT clique' at Bumps & Babies etc you mentioned above - I don't really think this sort of thing is specific to NCT groups. Most baby / toddler groups will have at least some people there who are already friendly with each other and as such form a loosely "established" group.

LavenderFox fair point very well made! In her defence, she was all about giving birth wherever you felt comfy do I think it was just about being able to see it....still a bit mad!

Ours were great, because of meeting 7 other mums, all having first babies within 4 weeks, and all who live within 10 miles. We saw each other at least once a week during mat leave, but were always emailing questions/ worries- it was a life line.

The content of the classes- in the breast feeding one, in the "any questions " bit at the end, I asked about sterilising bottles, and if we were going to cover formula- how to make up the powder. The answer was " no, because we all know breast feeding is best for our babies". ( how patronising!) Only 2 of 7 managed to Breast feed beyond 6 weeks, so learning about formula would have been quite useful!

Also, there was loads of focus on how to distract yourself from labour pains by making cups of tea, listening to music, watching DVDs, rainbow relaxation etc. hardly anything on pethidine/ epidurals/ trips to the operating theatre for tears/ sections/ forceps etc. An an anaesthetist spending quite a bit of time on labour ward, I felt it was unrealistic, although if can understand scaring a load of heavily pregnant women with the statistics of what really happens, maybe would be worrying

I think the word to sum up my NCT class would be 'vague'.
The teacher was somewhat ineffectual as a presenter. While she didn't push the natural approach on us exclusively, there weren't many solid facts about what to expect in different situations. Again - vague. Vague outlines of what interventions there were, vague bullet points on a few pain relief drugs.
Each class mostly consisted of putting laminated cards with words and pictures under other laminated cards to cover a topic. Less than useful.

We never covered post birth recovery, tears, stitches, how to make yourself more comfortable. As a result, DH doesn't get the terror I feel of post-birth recovery - he doesn't actually know this stuff can go wrong and he doesn't do the reading I've done online and in books. This is the bit I'm crossest with. Our BF workshop was alright, but did leave us with the impression that if you're doing it right it won't hurt, which I suspect is going to lead to a lot of disappointment down the line. Most useful thing I got from that was the helpline number.
Also very little newborn care. That consisted of a few tables set up with, variously, a doll and nappy, a couple of slings and a top and tail bath. Uh.. yeah. Not super helpful.

Which brings me to my next point - if you've read at all on pregnancy and childbirth, you probably won't be learning anything new.

I was also quite cross that she mentioned lotus birthing along with cord blood donation and leaving the cord to pulse. Lotus birthing was widely denounced as dangerous by doctors when it was in the news a while ago. It is certainly not a mainstream practice.

There were no hard facts. No figures. Just a load of vague, fluffy maybes that have left me no more informed than I was beforehand.

So yeah, it really, really depends on your facilitator. Had I observed this lady in action, I wouldn't have paid £250 ish for the course. Though to be fair, I haven't had my baby yet and we haven't met up yet, so I don't know about that bit.

I also wanted to address the 'white middle class' comment from earlier. Our area has a very large Asian middle class and that was reflected in the class makeup.

Still middle class though. I'm afraid my prejudices remain intact

Not that I'm having a pop at Middle Class people particularly, and everyone at my group was perfectly nice.

But For a charity attempting to empower women (in general) in childbirth- its a missed opportunity.

There are some suggestion I could make to rectify this. e.g.:

Advertise the sliding scale of fees more prominently (front and centre of website not tucked away)
Make a concerted effort to recruit trainers from more diverse backgrounds
Consider holding the classes in public venues rather than trainers home (which can be intimidating)
Make an effort to start classes in different areas, not currently served
Consider the curriculum- do people in different social groups have different concerns/different things they would like covered? Maybe commission research on these points.

And if you ever went to their annual conference it was a sea of white faces with the one Asian regional worker always being made to pose for photos so they looked more diverse. They actually had someone whose job was "diversity researcher" but unfortunately ideas like a "graffiti wall" were the wrong sort of diverse!

They do offer very cheap membership and classes to those on a low income but it's not well-advertised and also I think the people who might take that up would look at the mostly middle-class clientele and the fundraising activities NCT advertise (sponsored buggy push with expensive Bugaboo pram front and centre in the photos, cake decorating competitions, running events with minimum sponsorship of £2000 etc) and think it wasn't for them.

I agree with the marketing comment, and also think perhaps the recruiting trainers part is key - there must be a certain demographic who feel able to retrain/take on this sort of work, and perhaps who are supported by another income. That is a total generalisation and I am prepared to be shot down in flames, but faced with having no financial support and having to go back to work almost immediately after giving birth, I don't think you'd consider re-training as an NCT class presenter or similar... and surely that would be the appropriate time to do so.

Just on the locations point; I've never heard of then being held in people's homes. Ours was in a church hall!