Are NCT classes worth going to?

[BlueRaincoat89]

I just wanted some advice from people who have already done NCT classes. Most people I speak to say it's mainly worth it for the circle of mum friends that you'll get. We live in an area where there are plenty of baby clubs so don't think finding a circle of people would be too much of an issue if we didn't attend.

We are however completely new to this so could do with all the advice we can get! Are the NCT classes better for that than the NHS ones?

I’d definitely recommend it. My maternity leave is just coming to an end and would not have been anywhere near as enjoyable without my NCT ‘mum friends’. We have a busy WhatsApp group and meet regularly.
The dads have a group too and some of them have met up with the babies at weekends (gone swimming, and out for a fry up). Do a class as close as possible to where you live. It’s a huge bonus that 4 of the other 7 couples are within 5 minutes walking distance of our house!

The downside - it’s expensive and has an agenda. Out of 8 couples, none of us had the natural, relaxed water birth that had been advertised! Although some aspects of the class weren’t that useful, it was good to spend time thinking about the birth, choices etc and I think DH learned quite a bit.

I loved mine - the people that is. Years later four of eight of us still get together and one is a really close friend. The course itself was faintly ludicrous, totally obsessed with scaremongering about any kind of intervention and peddling nonsense about breast feeding (which I did for six months, no thanks to their "it's so easy, the baby climbs up your body to latch on" video"). My consultant asked if we were planning to go and then said "do it, I tell all my patients to go because a ready made group of mums is so vital when you have a newborn but ignore the course information completely" so we took him at his word!

@Ninjamilo Just thinking it could be a really cool way for you to meet new people in your area if you're moving a month before you pop? I know friends who moved from South to North said they wished they'd done NCT again with baby #2 just for the friends aspect.... :)

Thanks for the advice everyone, I think we're definitely going to do them now. It's probably difficult to appreciate the friends you'll make until you're on maternity leave on your own! These expensive friends best be worth it

@CL1982 I think we'll be cutting it a bit fine 🙁 Once everything is finalised I'll have a look and see what classes are running! You're right, I don't know why one where we're moving to!

Yes true advice from @DasPepe - MUSH is very good if you're active on it!