What's everyone's opinions on NCT classes?

[tittletattoo]

I've just booked up for a 19 hour course and wanted to hear some of your experiences thanks!!

I had the complete opposite experience to most. The classes were very useful, and meant I was well prepared when the Water birth I'd planned turned into an emcs.

I did make friends with the rest of the group, but they dwindled after a year or so. The girl/couple I was most friendly with moved away, and the rest of the group were not thar bothered about me; I knew this feeling was not just my paranoia when one of them got married and we weren't invited.

I made lifelong friends at the village hall parent/baby group though. 9 years later, still going strong - just been on holiday together.

I found it informative and the first year of being a mum was made so much better by the friends I made.
I only speak to one of them now 6 years down the line....

I enjoyed the course, I agree with other people very much depends on your course leader but we did cover emsc (v useful as I ended up with one) and it wasn't too preachy.

The ready made friendship group was very useful ( It didn't last much beyond the first year tbf apart from our babies we didnt have a huge amount in commo so it just sort of petered out as people went back to work etc) but was great especially in the first 6 months for easy meet ups, sharing worries etc... .

Really enjoyed ours , DS is 7 months and still see the girls every week or so xx

I feel I missed out by not doing NCT first time round - we moved when DS was 7 weeks old so I knew if I did NCT the friendships would be for a very short time. In our new area, everyone basically attended every class with their NCT group so were already sorted for friends, quite cliquey and not interested in making any more friends. Which I kind of understand, but I'll try not to be that way - starting and NCT refresher next week (1/3rd of the cost of a 1st time round course!). I obviously asked if MNers thought it was a good idea before signing up Enjoy OP!

I didn't do NCT (can't afford it) but will say that having a group of mums with kids the same age is invaluable. In my cases it's actually my Mumsnet conception group, who became a post natal group and are still going strong on FB. I would not have coped without them.

Class was of a very poor quality (the free nhs one was waaaay better), but meeting people has been great.

The NCT group in your area may be 'good' or 'bad', I went to a relatively good one (didn't do classes). You could argue that if you are paying for classes it will automatically 'preselect' the majority of the members.
Any group is only what you help make it. If you are in a large population and can travel there may be several NCT groups, so another may suit you better.