Mum to be parenting courses?

[Notmyweek]

Hey all, so I'm expecting my first baby in April 2017 and would like to be as prepared as I can for when he arrives.

Does anyone know of ANY parenting courses that I could check out??

NCT?

Check your local family centre and see if they have any courses?

Are all courses online or are there ones that I would need to actually attend??

They'd be more use as practical hands on courses, rather than online theory. In NCT classes we practiced various things on realistic doll babies!

NCT is mostly about the birth itself. If you want a parenting class try googling Triple P.
There might be a pretty birth class in your area.

pre birth.
Birth is never pretty

Triple P is really aimed at parents of children aged 18 months plus. not sure how useful it would be for a mother to be. nct does cover some parenting stuff and once baby is born there are usually various classes run by local authority depending on where you live and at appropriate stages of development.

Oh, I'm sure there was a Triple P for mums to be in my area. Perhaps it was a pilot scheme or something

Yep, just googled. Baby Triple P is a thing. And it did operate where I lived when I was pregnant. I knew I wasn't imagining things.

Hi
I asked my midwife about this at my 25 wk appointment, she said antenatal/parent education classes (NHS) are something they offer from 32 ish weeks- so that it's still fresh in your mind when the baby arrives.
At my 28 wk app earlier this week, she mentioned it and said I could start dec or jan, it's 4 x 1.5 hr sessions (one per week).
You can pay for NCT classes, my midwife said the NHS ones focus more on breastfeeding than the NCT classes, and people reported to her, they didn't really gain much more from the paid classes from the freebie ones.

There are various good courses available for mom to be, you can check out online.

I think the usefulness of NCT is not so much the course/ content (as already stated, you get the same benefit/ info from NHS courses). For me, NCT is more about networking. getting to meet couples/ mothers to be in your area that are due when you are. It s therefore all about investing in your baby's potential play dates :) (guess this is especially important for FTM who don't know of any families with young babies)

Not sure but can I recommend a book for you? My MIL is a social worker and bought me a copy of What Every Parent Needs to know by Margot Sunderland. It's really good - rather than 'opinion' it's based on how babies brains develop and chemicals etc. Take a look and see what you think?