NCT Membership Advice??

[Know95]

Hi Ladies,

I've been looking into doing some NCT A-N courses which are more expensive than I thought they'd be... Can any of you advise me if the NCT membership is worth it? and If it gives you some sort of discount off the courses?

What would you recommend I do regarding A-N courses?

Hi

I think it depends what you are hoping to get from the course. We did it for two reasons - one being I genuinely felt ill-informed on the process of labour and the immediate care of a newborn and the other that all my nearby friends already had kids and I wanted friends to "go through" the experience with and spend time with on mat leave.

I found the course helpful, although it doesn't cover much about after the baby is born (you have to pay to do another course on that!) and the focus is mainly on intervention free labour (I ended up with EMCS). I definitely took away some good ideas and felt more confident approaching the birth. You may not feel as unprepared as I did though!

People wise, we had really good group dynamics. We spent a lot of time together on mat leave, and over two years later everyone is still in touch, with some people having formed particularly close friendships and I feel I have made some true friends. Sometimes people on MN can be a bit negative about NCT being "buying friends" but having that instant set of connections is not to be undervalued. I've made lots of new acquaintances at baby and toddler groups since but it takes a LONG time (for me anyway) to build those up to more than just small-talk and casual meetings. I found the moral support and the ability to be completely open with the group about some of the more personal post-birth issues so beneficial. I do have friends who didn't really get that with their NCT group though.

Re actual membership - don't remember if it made the course cheaper but I don't think it really offered me anything. We went to a couple of good Nearly New sales which you get let in earlier if you're a member, but that's it. A magazine I didn't read.

I've just signed up to do a "refresher" course as I'm pregnant with my second and not sure about VBAC or ELCS and decided not to take out membership this time.

Sorry, that was long! Hope it's helpful.

I found m NHS antenatal classes and post natal classes helpful and 10 years on am still friends with the people I met
And it cost nothing

Have to admit, we've only done our NHS course and found it very helpful. But our trust is quite hot on parent education. There are other options such as gentle birth and more on care of new baby as well for us.

We did the NCT course and found it to be well worth it. We have a great support network and the dad's have their own network of daddy friends too for some sounding off and bragging time. I could have possibly coped without but the benefit for my DP, who was clueless before, was invaluable.
So far, the only benefit to membership has been getting in to the sales early. There is no discount on other NCT courses or the groups here.

Costs a bomb, doesn't it?! I nearly fainted.

I have signed up though (don't start till July) as the response from everyone who had done the courses was a uninamous yes. One of its main strengths seems to be meeting other first time mums in your area, lots of people have made life long friends.

NHS are free and can be helpful in providing information l, but capacity for friend making can depend on your area. I'm in a busy part of London, classes are huge and not a great chance to chat with people. A quieter area with smaller classes might be more successsful on this point.

It is a lot of money to be taught antenatal natal by someone with no medical qualifications and who may never have even attended a birth other than their own child's! I prefer to stick with qualified midwives who deliver babies daily, no matter how lovely the enthusiastic amateurs are, it's no substitute fie actual experience and qualifications!

I thought the ante natal classes were a waste of money personally, but that's because I had an emergency c section and premature baby. They did refund me though to be fair as I only attended 2 sessions before DD arrived!

It's up to you but you won't miss out by not going if you see what I mean. A lot of what they tell you you can find out from the internet.

100% what @2014newme says

Good point actually @2014newme

Our NHS antenatal was taken by one of the community midwifes, trained for parent education as well, at the hospital where I will be giving birth, with current advice and tailored to that unit.

We've just completed ours and found it really useful. Again it depends on what you're looking to get out of it... we have made some nice friendships out of it, but not everyone has had their babies yet, and everyone says it becomes more important and you become closer once everyone's babies are here.

For the woman it offers a group of women going through the same thing as you at the same time. But I think we all felt it was particularly useful for the partners to understand not just the process of labour but also to explore what life would be like after the baby arrives and how things might change. We also had a dedicated breast feeding class with a lactation consultant which was useful too.

Our instructor was also a doula and I think thay was REALLY useful as she has regular exposure to labour and birth and also has the inside track on what goes on at our local hospital.

Other friends of ours didn't rate their course as highly and felt they weren't given enough practical Information, so I'd say there might be some variation in the quality of the course delivery maybe?!

Definitely feel more positive and more prepared after the course. Also I recommend reading the "positive birth book" by Milli hill. A lot of the topics around labour covered in our class were also covered in that book!

I agree with jeneral - we did NCT and it depends what you want and expect. I wanted to meet other women about to give birth so for me it was worth the money as I have made some fantastic friends who is still see at least once a week over 2 years later.

In terms of content, the information you get is probably no better than the NHS antenatal course and please don't expect anything from the NCT that you are not willing to pay through the nose for - members are even charged for breastfeeding support where I live. Not to say that the course wasn't helpful, it was, just be prepared that it isn't the holy grail of baby preparation!

The main reason we did the course was because a friend had been to local NHS classes, and hadn't fully understood what labour would be like (especially the transition phase) which meant she had an unnecessarily unpleasant experience. She isn't a native English speaker; I don't know how much that contributed. Ironically, I needed an elcs, and of the 6 couples on our course, 4 of us had c-sections (the rest were emergencies). I still see some of the group, but have other mum friends through church, so it was pretty expensive for what we got out of it.

I did NCT and NHS classes.
The NCT classes were much longer and more spread out - a Saturday, then about 4 evening sessions. I made friends, but these friendships didn't really last beyond a couple of years. I couldn't keep up with the expensive weekends away and trips abroad they kept having!

The NCT classes did include a c section role play, which was handy as it meant I didn't panic when there were 12 people in the room for my emcs a few weeks later.

My hospital is 10 miles away, so I didn't meet anyone local at those classes, but their A-N classes wee a lot more about breathing and hypnobirthing than the NCT !!!! Theee was a tour of the maternity ward which was helpful too.

As for friends, my close, Mummy friends, I made at local baby/parent groups. 9 years on, I still have a good group of friends I made stacking bricks and moulding play doh.

We did nhs classes which included a breastfeeding session and I remember a c section role play (is nearly 14 years ago now).

I went to NCT groups after DS was born as well as an NHS group and was friendly with people from there for the next few years, when we moved away.

I did join the NCT at some point and was on the local committee.

I don't feel we missed out by not having NCT classes - and many people who did them also did nhs classes and we met them anyway

Husband and I have also been deciding re NCT and have come to the conclusion that it's too expensive for our liking- cheapest signature course by us is £209 and is only two long sessions... so we figure less likely to form friendships in the way that you might over many shorter sessions (that, and 8 hours of NCT both times sounds a bit overwhelming and exhausting to me!) We're definitely going to use the NHS free courses but I've also heard that many people make friends at baby groups once bubba arrives, so that's the route I'll be going down! I did look at NCT membership but also felt that was just an additional fee that I didn't want to pay and I doubt it makes it cheaper overall?

It is a lot of money to be taught antenatal natal by someone with no medical qualifications and who may never have even attended a birth other than their own child's!

You do realise they are trained and have to study for a couple of years (I'm not sure how long) in order to get qualified to teach...?

I got the membership and found it to be pointless. I'd just do the course.

NCT membership is essentially support to the charity. If you dig down a bit, you'll see that NCT do far more than antenatal classes. They run helplines for parents needing support with infant feeding, infant death, PND and other "shared experiences". They have campaigned, and been instrumental in changing practice i.e. Regarding fathers at birth. Lots of research into premature birth care/survival. In my area they work closely with refugees and asylum seekers. They have coffee groups/stay and play sessions where there is no other (rural) provision. So membership supports this charity, in much the same way as you may choose to have a monthly payment to Oxfam.

I wouldn't bother in all honesty. I found it all a bit pretentious

I did the NCT classes and whilst the classes themselves are frankly quite rubbish I did meet a great group of local mums and we met up very regularly throughout our mat leave. Meeting other mums was my main reason for doing the course so was happy to pay the exorbitant price for this alone.

Like a previous poster I live in London and did attend a couple of NHS classes too but they were huge plus had a fairly wide range of due dates and geographical reach. My NCT group all had our babies over a 3 week period and all live within walking distance of each other. My other friends live all over the place and I knew only two other people who were going to be on mat leave at the same time as I was. If you already have a mat leave group lined up or if you live in an area where the NHS classes are likely to yield friendships maybe give NCT a miss but if not I would say it's worth it. Wouldn't personally bother with membership though.

The meeting other mums part has been awesome for me. DD is 18 months and I still one of them once a week and all of them once a month. We all met up a couple of times a week throughout maternity for walks, coffee and cake.

Couldn't put a price on the friends I made . We have a special bond having learnt how to be parents together. DS is turning 5 soon and 2 are my closest friends and I still see 3 more every month or so.

We're part way through the Signature classes at the moment and have also done one NHS class. Our main reason for doing NCT was the social side, but we've found the classes so far excellent - far better than the NHS one and quite different to how previous posters have described them - the teacher has loads of experience on labour wards and isn't pushing any agendas. I think it very much depends who's running it.

Can't comment on NCT membership generally.