Antenatal Courses: NHS, NCT, Hypnobirthing, etc...

[Poppins2016]

We're currently trying to decide which course(s) to book. NCT has been highly recommended by friends and so that's what we're leaning towards but we haven't 100% decided.

If you booked NCT (signature course), did you book any NHS courses?

Is it possible to do Hypnobirthing (or a variant of) without doing an expensive course? I was thinking of reading books/watching videos, etc...

Recommendations welcome, please!

No classes are necessary but we did nct to make friends. I found the course content pretty useless and didn't learn anything new. I'm still friends with them all though and they've been invaluable, especially in the early days. And one really helped me through a miscarriage last month.

We are currently working our way through the 'digital pack' online hypnobirthing course from The Positive Birth Company and I would highly recommend it. It's only £35 (we got it for £25 when she was doing an offer) and it's a series of about 40 YouTube videos, plus some downloadable resources - relaxation MP3s, course notes booklet, birth plan template, and also access to a private Facebook support group.

I agree the content of NCT was rubbish and the sessions were too long. Our course we did was one 2 hour session and two 4 hour sessions! I struggled as it was quite boring.

I have however met a group of Mums to be and we will all be on maternity leave around the same time. Plus looking at doing some baby groups/ classes together. I think this is probably going to be more valuable than anything.

We cancelled our NHS one but I’ve heard it covers everything- so if you’re not needing to meet other parents then you might as well just save some money and do that one :)

I think you get different things from different courses. The feedback from.NCT courses overall is very good nationally andyiu won't find better qualified facilitators. If anyone finds the course boring they should definitely feed that back to the practitioner so she can make changes. You can do hypnobirthing online...or with a download.

I'm not doing NCT but most of the women in my pregnancy yoga group are, and have said there's absolutely no need to do both that and my local NHS ones as content is very, very similar. We're doing a hypnobirthing course, but that's because my local hospital offers them for free as an alternative to their standard antenatal classes.

We just did NCT, I wouldn't say I learned any more than I could have from Google but the friends we made have been invaluable. My son is 2 now and we are all still good friends, we have attended weddings, been on mini breaks together and celebrated big birthdays together. So, for the support you will hopefully gain from the friends made I would highly recommend NCT

I did NCT and NHS classes last year. NCT was rubbish whereas the NHS course was really helpful.

Such a waste of £100s!

Did nct more for the friendship group to be honest, but there was some useful reassurance as well. I think in part it just made us feel more prepared because we were doing something. I bought a hypnobirthing book and read that, seemed to do the trick for me!