NCT - essentials or signature

[Pepperpot81]

Hi all,

We've just had our successful 12 week scan (phew!) and are now looking at antenatal courses.

We have a lot of friends who have made good friends on NCT courses so we're going to go for them, but I wonder if any of you have any advice on whether to go for the Essentials or Signature?

From what I can see Signature is 4.5 hours longer and includes a dedicated two hours on breast feeding and a women only session. The Essentials is 12 hours in total. Being new and very possibly naive I would think 12 hours is enough... What do you think?!

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks x

I did the signature course and found the long breast feeding session really good. The woman that ran that session for us, didn't shove breastfeeding down our throats and talked about formula feeding as well.

I missed the womens only session as was attending a baby first aid course.

However if you are breastfeeding the midwives can offer advice and I had a breastfeeding support worker come and see me yesterday to do a weigh in and check and help with any problems I was having. Plus there are a lot of breastfeeding support cafes about these days that you can go along to for advice prior to birth.

Thanks apple. Sounds like you would recommend the longer course.

Anyone else? Any views?

If you can afford the extra and know you want to breastfeed, definitely Signature.

I'd go with the short one. By the time I did a session on breastfeedIng I was getting a bit fed up of the course. Also, the midwives at hospital and the local breastfeeding group were a bit more helpful.

I'm doing the signature course at the moment and it's good. We're developing a friendship with the other couples on our course, which is one of the reasons I wanted to do this. It's nice seeing the same people every week for 6 weeks.