NCT - what's the deal?

[ralv]

8 weeks today :) Don't know why this feels like a milestone!
I've just been doing a bit of research into NCT antenatal classes - people seem to have mixed reviews - to say the least!

Firstly - does anyone know the difference between the "signature" and "essentials" classes... the website is very vague..?
Also - how much do they cost usually? (again... nothing on the website which is always an ominous sign....)

And would love to hear your views/experiences... both good and bad.

Thank you :)

I think if you put your postcode in, it will tell you the classes available and the cost where you are. There are different prices depending on where you live which is I think why there's no overall price info on the site. Also this should show the difference between the two types of course as it should say the topics covered and the number / length of sessions for each.

I want to book mine but we are moving before baby is born. Want to at least have had an offer accepted before I part with any cash!

Essentials courses are standard format. They are 5 sessions of 2 hours each. They are always in the evenings on week days. There is also a 2 hour reunion. So 12 hours in total. The subjects covered in each session are standard and set by the NCT not the teacher or the clients. Antenatal, postnatal and breastfeeding is woven throughout each session. There won't be much time for discussion so there is a lot of signposting of where to find more info. Cost depends on area and whether you attend as one person or a couple. They are cheaper than signature courses.

Signature courses vary in length from 14 hours to about 20 but usually somewhere between. They also include a reunion. The cost depends on area and length. There is more time for in depth exploration of subjects and discussion and chat. Formats vary hugely so they can be a mixture of evenings, weekends, daytimes. There can also be women only and men only sessions. The teacher decides what format she wants to do. The agenda is usually set by the clients so its much more flexible. There is usually a breastfeeding session or sessions taken by a breastfeeding councillor.

The website won't say this but Essentials was designed to be less expensive and reach parents who might not normally do NCT courses.

I booked mine around 8 weeks after an early scan. I went for a close location so DH and I can both attend and Had a good look at what all of the courses offered and chose the one I thought looked most relevant for us. I think in the end it was a signature antenatal course we went for.

We did Nct, our classes were at a weekend, full days and we had a reunion afterwards. Ours weren't cheap as we are in London, but it was worth it for meeting people who I still see now. DH found it really useful too.

Thanks for the advice ladies... I have registered my interest in both types of class so hopefully they will be able to send me some further information.

Did any of you do the NHS antenatal classes too?

Yes but my classes were huge, 100+ people so I never got the chance to get to know anyone.

Nct was more in depth and it was good having a small group.

I don't know where you live but in London they book up quickly.

I went for the essentials because in my area the difference is ... About £80! [Grin] Mine includes a reunion and membership.
I heard the "set" format was preferred by some as some leaders can be a bit political. In their homes with discussion, through the grapevine I've heard it can leave women feeling down if they want to know about certain "what its" ... This varies wildly I hasten to add!
In my area however they seem very realistic ie will talk about pain relief in a balanced way etc.

Just to clarify....the facilitator could still be 'political' on an essentials course as the agenda is set but not how it is delivered!

The only political comment I might make on a course would be about underfunding of maternity services. I might have made a few comments about risk averseness in medicine. Maybe you meant biased rather than political though.

We're going just to see if I can meet any 'women with babies' I might want to spend time with. It was £130, which I suppose is pretty good for potential sanity saving. Also I think that the boyf has not a fricking clue what birth or a newborn entails, he's a bit in cloud cuckoo land about how he'll 'just talk to it' to stop it crying. I think NCT will be nice and educational for him.

ohthegoats he's in for a rude awakening I suspect!!
Which class are you going to?

Don't forget that the NCT fees depend on income, so a low income means a substantial discount.

www.nct.org.uk/courses/course-details/reduced-price-options

I am a doctor so knew a lot of the medical stuff already but found it really helpful for my non-medical husband and to meet people expecting babies at the same time. I'm not really in touch with them now except through FB 4 years on but it was a really invaluable group over the first year, and particularly the first few weeks/months.

Mabel I have been told (2 different areas - not mine i hasten to add) that both bias and politics can be an issue to the extent people dropped out - both were signature in the leaders home and tended to go "off topic". Sadly i think they were amongst the minority of NCT groups which don't represent the typical service. I would just prefer staying on topic -just in case- which seems to be more tightly controlled on the essentials. However my local group has a great reputation for being pro all birth types and practical.

Goats my DH is the opposite and seems to anticipate all the poo ... Just poo and puke. Puke and poo.

We did NCT because everyone said we should. I wish now I'd looked into it a bit more. The social side didn't work out for us. Just not a group me or DH jelled with, neither personality nor parenting styles wise.

And info wise it didn't really teach me anything I didn't already know. It was probably about right for DH but we would have been better off doing a course more in the style of the labour we were aiming for (hypno birthing) which we considered but decided not to do both.

You hear a lot NCT is essential. It's not, there are other options. Think about the kind of birth you are hoping for and go from there - I think hypno birthing or similar would have been a better group socially too.

We did NCT classes. I think it was about £130. I did it because I was in a new area and wanted to meet other pregnant people. Out of 7 couples, 6 of us are still in touch 2 years later. We all admitted that we were essentially there just to buy friends, but it worked and it was well worth the money.
It was useful, went in to far more depth than NHS classes and was great that we got a say in the agenda.
It is completely pot luck on your teacher but I did find it a bit hippy dippy even though I am probably a bit of a secret hippy myself. Our teacher was very into natural birth, no pain relief etc, which in theory is great but I think you need to be realistic about birth and you do need to know what will happen if things go wrong. Our teacher got very funny a few times when we tried to discuss things like induction and c-sections and, with a nurse and 2 pharmacists in the group, did try and give misinformation about pain relief options to put us off. But that was my experience and it was still well worth the money and I would recommend to everyone.

I'm in Edinburgh and our signature course has cost us about £169 I think. We start in July and loads of people recommended them to us. I've also been invited to the NHS ones but they're all at 2pm and I work full time....I know I can legally attend them but DH would struggle and to be honest, I'd prefer not to take too much time off work. The NCT ones we booked are 3 evenings, a Saturday and a reunion.

I found the website really confusing with details such as price hidden very well! After scouring for about half an hour, I found the price break down here: PRICES

The signature classes are going to be £220! That seems awfully high...!

Have definitely been looking into hypnobirthing so perhaps that would be a better option? Or maybe both to cover all the bases but then we are by no means made of money!

There's a local antenatal group in Worcester that's running a free session on birth choices so will drag DH along to that to see what options are available,".

Thank you for all your advice

It was the best money we ever spent: met a diverse but great group who totally saved my sanity in the early months, learnt lots about birth and practicalities like bathing and dressing baby etc. I know it varies by teacher but the NCT get feedback and there are different teachers in the same area- why not talk to them when booking about what kind of class would suit you? DH really got a lot out of it too. Our midwife forgot to book us onto the nhs course even though I asked too, but it was one 1 hr session do wouldn't have been very useful. Now the Nct group meet every couple of weeks (babies are up to 4 months) and share advice on a WhatsApp group on our phones.

Also the breastfeeding session was amazing. Delivered by a separate and specialist Nct woman, it was invaluable. She then gave us her details and said we have free lifetime bf support from Nct via phone or email. Amazing.

DD is 4 months old and I thought NCT classes were a waste of time and money after only attending one session and the only reason DH and I went back was to get to know the other new mums to be. And to be honest that was the best thing out of it.

I have to say I was really disappointed in the class. The two and a half hour session was boring and verging on condescending. The activities could only be compared to those crappy training activities you get in crappy work based training sessions. The NCT teacher was clearly pro natural birth with no intervention what's so ever including any form of pain relief and her method of trying to scare the new mums into following her path was crap IMHO. For example she proclaimed swaddling new borns has been linked to cot deaths! When I asked her to give us some facts so we could understand what exactly the risk associated to swaddling is, she couldn't. It was also interesting to see her reaction at the reunion when she discovered of the 8 women in the group, 5 had crash/emergency CS and I had an ELCS. Only 2 had a VB.

The breast feeding guilt trip started from the very first session. Please don't get me wrong I understand the benefits of breast feeding. She clearly had not considered that some mums in the group would struggle with breast feeding which happened to three of the eight woman in the group. Unfortunately one of the mums has been hugely affected by not been able to breast feed because of the unrealistic and biased information she got from NCT. She really beats herself up about it.

I am a logical person and it frustrated me that the NCT teacher didn't seem able to back her statements up with actual facts. She just blubbed scary shit and there was no opportunity for real discussion. Either she was not used to people asking questions or she was just trying to frighten us into following the path that she did when she had her children. So much for giving new mums to be the relevant unbiased information so they can prepare for the birth / post birth (including what could go wrong) and god forbid anything does go wrong we can at least be informed so we can make decisions quickly.

All in all it was an expensive way of meeting other new mums to be...

Oh yea and she kept referring to the vagina as a Yoni! Grrrrrrr

All can I had that the women that had a crash/emergency CS have all said they felt totally unprepared for it. I also knew I would have an ELCS so I had prepared external of the NCT classes.

Can I add not had.

I know that Nct attendance in our area at least has fallen dramatically and from what I've heard it's down to exactly this kind of feedback- that the courses vary from teacher to
teacher, sometimes are too hippyish and ignore CS, pain relief etc. The class I went to covered all kinds of pain relief, birth and feeding, and most importantly was totally evidence based. The leader emailed us out relevant documents in advance so we could read up if we'd wanted and gave us links to current academic research to allow informed discussion. I don't know why the Nct don't do something to standardise their courses a but given that the same criticism come up time and again in discussions like this.

Toads yes, I asked around as I didn't want to be spending £££ for misinformation: I know many view it as a friend making club but I'd also like proper antenatal information.
I need a hospital birth (yes I know legally I can decline but it would be foolish: in the past my condition caused stillbirths and maternal death and there is a family history- thankfully, easily treated now). Friends in other areas told me not to consider NCT based on their experience, but thankfully my area is like yours: realistic and factual.