NCT refresher??

[Queazy]

Hi all

I did NCT the first time round and found the group great in the first few weeks but we probably didn't all gel that well - it was helpful tho. Has anyone done the NCT refresher? Is it worth it just to meet more people having a 2nd or 3rd? I'm not sure it'll prepare me for the reality of childbirth or caring for another baby, as it didn't really last time, but I'd probably give it a go if other benefits such as meeting people.

Any thoughts or experience?

Thanks all

I didn't.

But I don't think it's massively useful for meeting people. When you do it with no. 1 everyone is having their first baby. If you do a refresher, people are at very different stages of their families and will have different age children.

TBH, you don't tend to have 'baby' friends if you have a pre-school sibling. The baby tags along with the pre-schooler and you might hopefully find others with babies whose day fits together with yours.

If the sibling is older (or is still in nursery a lot), I think the best way to meet people is probably under ones baby groups, etc.

We did one, having not done nct first time round.

It's early days but the initial signs are good, everyone is on dc2 and the dc1 are all v close in age.

It was only £75ish and a 5 hour course - we figured we didn't really have much to lose! It depends how many friends you have with toddlers as well, the park / soft play etc is always easier if dc1 has a little buddy.

I did and am still good friends with the other women on the course

Thanks all - I'm pretty torn but dd will be in nursery 2-3 days a week so will be nice to meet people locally who are off work. All my 'mum friends' work. Thanks again!

I looked into the refresher for the same reason as DD is now 5 and we don't know many people that will have similar aged babies. But I found the course times very unsuitable and out of 4 sessions 3 were mum's only with only 1 being for partners too!
The 3 mum's sessions were mid morning week times which would mean time off work not just for the morning session but that would spread into the afternoon due to travel time.
The NCT course we did first time was evenings and all sessions were for both parents, so found this set up for the refresher to be quite off putting.

I did look a bit further than just our local area and it was all the same.

Think I will stick with going to local baby groups after the birth as it's really only to meet people that I wanted to do it again.

Look at whether your hospital offers sthg similar. I'm going to a 2 evening course at mine - not as time intensive as NCT and we didn't find NCT that helpful first time round

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but I'm a bit at the "only £75" comment - that's around half a week's mat pay, so basically what we'll have to live off for three days once I'm off work.

NCT really is only for the wealthy, isn't it!

Will be interesting to see if an NHS equivalent is offered.

Running you are right it's a lot easier to find that money if you have plenty. The NCT (at least where I live) do offer some reduced/waived fees for parents to be on low incomes, though, so might be worth investigating if you really want to do it but otherwise it would be a stretch too far?

Thanks Tango, I'll look into that. I'm hoping there may be decent tips on balancing caring for a baby and for a toddler. I think it's going to be tough!

I'm really not bothered about making "mummy friends" as I won't be having that long a maternity leave.
And as the first few weeks are madness anyway, I'd just be going back to work as the rest of the group are getting into doing walks/ coffees/ classes/ whatever.

The "only £75" was more in reference to the cost of the full first time course - that's over £200 round here, so in comparison £75 seems quite low!