NCT course advice

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I've just booked onto a Signature NCT course. It's my first baby but I'm not particularly anxious about the pregnancy / birth and feel I can get info I need from other sources. My main reason for booking is that I have no friends nearby and know that friends in other areas have made good friendships through NCT. I don't find it easy to make friends at the best of times and I live in a rural area, so I don't want to be stuck here, on my own with a baby thinking I might have made friends at NCT. (Wow I'm needy!!)

However, I'm also a practical kind of person. I like facts and not waffle. I'm most probably having a c-section (will know for definite soon / medical reasons.) I will try to bf but not for long (don't shoot me!) So I'm a bit concerned that the course will be too fluffy. I've also had a snoop at the profile of the course leader and she seems very much the natural birth type, is a doula etc which just isn't something I'm interested in / not applicable to me.

Should I cancel now?! Will the fluffiness drive me insane? Will they tell me about drugs / c-sections / bottle feeding or are they dirty NCT words?

I think a lot depends on the person running the course. We had plenty of info on drugs and c-sections, not so sure about bottle feeding (there was a separate breastfeeding session) but I missed a couple of sessions so they probably covered it there (our teacher was the practical sort who wanted to give us the info we wanted/needed not what she thought we ought to know).

Re. making friends, that was a large part of my reason for going, but in the end the friends I've kept in touch with over time (small one is 3.5 now) were ones I met at different groups once the baby had arrived (I joined everything just to get out of the house). The geography made keeping in touch hard with the NCT group. I was a bit worried that was my only opportunity to make friends (and lots of people do seem to make long lasting friendships) but it really wasn't!

I booked my course before I knew I was having a c-section, but when I started it I knew it was a dead cert. I told the tutor and she was really lovely about including us and covering what we would need to know (despite also being a doula, etc). A good teacher should be inclusive, it helps no one to go into hospital unprepared for what might happen. In the end, 5 out of the six of us ended up having c-sections in any case.

It was a little bit fluffy in parts, and some wasn't relevant to me, or it was stuff I already knew. Having said that I couldn't have survived the last four months without my weekly meetups with the other mums, so it was worth it for they alone. (Having said that, whilst we were doing the course, I couldn't see us being friends at all. It's a strange time in your life anyway and you're being thrown together with random people just because you are all up the duff. Once the babies arrived though it was fine).

If the tutor turns out to be a lentil weaving hardcore free birther who doesn't adapt to the needs of her audience at all, I would probably complain.

I had a c section (planned at 40 weeks) did a natural birth course not nct. Made friends at baby groups - prepared myself with quite a list of baby groups and built then up after birth.

Having said that I am now pregnant again and have moved since having ds and wonder if it would be good to know the mums before birth. Thinking about joining a local nct yoga group as a compromise as will most probably have c section again. You could call the group organiser and discuss with her? Congratulations on your pregnancy btw!

It will probably drive you a bit nuts, but the friends you will make from it will be well worth it.

I had similar motivation to you but managed to have a group of neurotic mums-to-be who didn't want to join in with the lentil-weaving in the least! (In the first session we were given paints and asked to represent our feelings about childbirth graphically! Much embarrassed stick-figurey ensued... I did Impressionism!)
I made friends in the hospital by blatantly photographing the baby in the next bed then demanding the Mum's number so I could text it to her. You can use that one.

My NCT course was pretty cool, at the beginning of each session our teacher gave us a broad topic and let us discuss it and come up with our own questions, and she answered them all and in detail. She showed us the drugs, how they would be administered and what effect they would have. We did also do some breathing exercises and what I guess you might consider "fluff" - but on the whole she just wanted us to feel prepared.

But I know others have had far worse experiences with NCT, so I do think it depends on your teacher.

On the social side, we are still good friends a long way down the line and meet up every few months with the kids to play. One in particular has become a really good friend - so yes, it was worth it for that. ALSO, the major plus side for me was my DH coming along, he said he found it really interesting and felt better prepared for the labour side of things (even though he'd already had two kids with his ExW). He also liked being able to talk to the other dads about it, it was a good source of support in terms of talking through little niggles and worries.

Hope you really enjoy it, and remember that you can just take from it what you want and leave the rest.

I found the course I went on to be very practical, not much about feelings or any kind of alternative stuff.

Plenty of info on drugs, c-sections etc. We had a specific breastfeeding session, which may be useful to you as you plan on breastfeeding for a period of time. I think that there may have been some basic info on bottlefeeding, but as I intended to breastfeed I don't think I was particularly paying attention to those parts.

The course leader asked us if there was anything specific that we wanted to cover, and she covered these topics in addition to what was planned. I didn't find her preachy or biased at all.

Our group still meet up nearly 3 years later, and I am good friends with 1 of the group so I am grateful for that.

I attended two of thw signature classes so far, the class instructor talks about all births includinf c sections and actually did half an hour or the last session on c section only. In the first session she asked why we were there and what we wanted to learn and the course itself is designed around that, rather than already being set in stone.

Also she has done a few getting to know each other activities as we all said we wanted to meet people from the course

In truth I learnt very little at my NCT course (I am a bit of a geek and had done a lot of "advance reading" to calm my nerves) BUT I did meet the most amazing group of women who I still see regularly despite many of us having moved from the area. When asked for my views on the course, I say I basically paid to make friends. I would totally recommend regardless of what your birth preferences are.

If course leader is a pain, you can always complain (and of course bitch about them with the other parents attending the course!).

I found Nct great even though I had a section. They do focus a lot on natural birth as that involves more maternal input than a section (there's no pushing with a section) but it was all interesting and I met great friends.

The breastfeeding session is useful even if you don't plan to bf for long. Our course had some other things, like relaxation techniques, some talk of baby's impact on parents relationship etc. I'd do it again, it was worth it for the social side and I did learn a few things.

Loving your replies - thanks so much, I'm very grateful!

TropicalHorse - I won't mention the possibility of painting to my OH, he'll go nuts! I like the hospital trick

I hope my soon to be friends are glad I paid £250 to meet them

My course was run by a farmer and she certainly didn't have any fluffy moments. It was bare facts and simply answered questions.