NCT - your thoughts please

[StargazyDrifter]

Super early days for me still (c. 5 weeks) I wanted to start getting my head around NCT for when the time not (hopefully) comes.

My main questions are: did you think it was worth it and when is the best time to do it? Is there such a thing as a waiting list or do you just sign up and start?

DH and I have countless books and apps, but we don't have family close by or friends with children in our area. I was therefore thinking that the social side of things might be quite useful.

I've only had one interaction with NCT in my non-pregnant life, through work, and I can't say I warmed to them. But that wasn't anything to do with a course.

Course content was mixed. Much of it was useless but the bit on planned sections was useful. I knew going in I was going to have a planned section so insisted the course leader cover it in detail and she did a good job. Otherwise it is all a bit woo and hypnobirthing and no pain relief etc. But I lucked out in making amazing friends. It’s only been a year since we did the course so who knows about the long run but most of us met once a week in the early days and still meet once every few weeks. And ours is a nice non judgy group.

We have just has session 4 put of 6 and so far I'm really impressed. I was scepitcal about how useful it would be but we have both learned loads (especially my husband who says he thinks its been invaluable) The group seems nice too, ours is 9 couples and we've already got a group whatsapp group and the guys do too. Our instructor is amazing and is very informative. She trains other NCT instructors so I think we got a good one! She isn't biased at all and has let us lead the course content for the most part

I found the course content very basic, and very biased towards natural and home birth, which they pushed repeatedly. They refused to cover bottle feeding despite us asking, and the course leader couldn't answer basic questions about how likely things were to happen etc.

Whilst they did cover 'pros and cons' of various pain relief, they didn't include in that how well it actually worked, which is a key point.

I made friends, so am glad I did it from that perspective, but I think there must be cheaper ways to make friends.

Thanks for more useful insights. I hadn't realised you could ask for things to be covered in more detail but will try it if we end up doing it (I'm inclined to give it a go). I've also been looking at the free NHS ones in our area and I see what you mean about them booking up early! I will also be sure to bring my own provisions!

It's worth applying as places fill up and at least that way you have the option.

I didn't really bond with any of the people on my course but it got me up and running as some of them had older children so knew where the playgroups etc were, or we shared info.

The content of the courses is okay, can't really remember much about it all - there's only a set amount of things they can tell you and you're likely to get similar advice from the hospital run courses. Maybe they were heavier on the BF info and support which is great if you end up doing that, less so if you don't.