Is everyone planning on joining NCT?

[sophied1983]

It's quite pricey, but is it worth it?

£400?! our NCT course was

I am booked onto courses starting in May - mine was nowhere near £400 though. It was (from memory) £165 for the course + £40 NCT membership (which is optional) and I'm paying in installments. I am not sure I would have done it if it was £400!

I have heard good things from all my friends who've had babies recently and done NCT, so I felt like it was a worthwhile investment. I don't know anyone locally with a baby, so I am hoping to make some friends on the course.

I did the NHS one at our local hospital - basic information but with a very practical instructor. Overall very useful. Didn't go to the NCT classes as I'd heard from friends that they were patronizing and a waste of money.

We did NCT with DS, think we paid around £180 for 7 sessions. The classes were OK but not fantastic, but the group were great and the other mums were invaluable during the early days and my maternity leave. Now we're all back at work we still meet up regularly and two of them are really good friends of mine.

Me and DH are in no way wealthy and probably don't for the typical NCT stereotype but decided to pay as I don't have any friends with children around and family don't live close by. However, certain members of the group were and I think there was an audible gasp when I said I thought hypnobirthing was a load of rubbish and I wouldn't be eating my placenta... not that it has affected our group dynamics in anyway. The only downside I found was spending one week having coffee in someone's 5 bed country farm house was a lot more comfortable and luxurious than everyone squeezing into our little 2 bed rented house the week after

We did the NCT class and glad that we did. We don't have many friends in the area we live and it was one of the reasons we joined.

The group was great but very very sadly there was a tragedy before Xmas as one of the first parents had a stillborn.
It was a horrible horrible time and the group just didn't evolve as it would have had otherwise. I think it was just a very traumatic time for everyone involved as we did all connect when we did the class.

Anyway, I am still glad we did join as I built a strong friendship with one of the other parent and she has been a great friend so far. We are both expecting a week apart, similar aspirations in life, similar way of thinking and feel like this friendship will evolve beautifully over time etc. I do like her a lot and hope the feeling is mutual!

Just finished our NHS classes, met three couples who are fab and already planning to meet up again.

NCT were oversubscribed and when I asked how many people were on the waiting list I was told there were 4 couples in front of us....when I asked if they were likely to run another course apparently there wasn't the demand (despite limiting the class size to six couples ). To be honest I wasn't impressed with their attitude so quite glad we didn't get on the course!

£400 wow. Just checked and ours was £201 for 19 hours. Still a lot, especially as I know they got the venue for free and there were 6 other mums.