NCT class cancelled

[burritofan]

Gah! I've found NCT pretty incompetent from the start (why can't you just book a course? Why do you have to register your interest and be sent 10,000 overwritten emails ? Just take my money!) and now they've cancelled my course with four weeks' notice!

All they've offered us instead of a 2-weekend course is a 9-weekday-evening course (DP can't do weekday evenings, it's why we booked the weekend course!) & half the dates are after my due date. All their other courses are booked up or not suitable.

Desperate googling reveals there's naff all available unless I want to go alone, travel for miles, do some yoga instead of learning anything, or have a private one-on-one hypnobirthing session. We've got a one-day, all-day NHS class booked – someone reassure me that's all I'll need?

(Not worried about the making friends with babies aspect - which is why they cancelled, not enough in the group - I wanted the actual course content!)

Never did an NCT- one day nhs class and one day nhs breastfeeding class- both perfectly adequate! Oh and I got half way through my baby book and one page into my Gina ford book- we all surviving!

The one day NHS course will be enough. Honestly. Nct is helpful for having a group to meet/have coffee with afterwards, but that is it.

@user1471426142

The new owner? 2012 she came in and Daisy has been doing nothing but growing and developing further. Recently we've launched Daisy Parent (well, in the last few years) and this focuses on ALL births and possibilities. We educate on absolutely every outcome and do not make any judgement of any kind. We cover breathing, pain relief what's available with side effects etc, induction, intervention, c-section and more after birth. We offer current information to help parents make an informed decision around their births.

I've been with Daisy since 2009 and honestly it keeps getting better and better!

But we also have some wonderful NHS classes, we are very lucky. It's all about a choice for women.

I personally love the difference I make to hundreds of women I see each year. It's something I wasn't lucky enough to have myself.

You really don't need the NCT course. The only use I got from it was to meet a group of people to meet up with after DD was born and that petered out after a few months as we had little in common.

They also tried to push some dangerous bullshit at me about insisting on going for a vaginal delivery when DD was breech. Nuts.

The free NHS course was much more sensible and gave me all the practical help I needed in a much shorter time.

Didn't bother with my second. Waste of money.

I only went to the NHS class for my first. Baby two and three I just winged it. All was fine. I did however attend La Leche League, initially for breastfeeding but they really were such a brilliant source of info and support. Never had any dealings with NCT.

I wouldn't stress about the course content. After having my baby, I was thoroughly disappointed. They didn't prepare me at all and in fact told me information that the midwives were horrified by! My midwives and neonatal nurses do not rate NCT at all

Don't bother with it please!

We paid £150 for a 6 week course it was a total waste of time and the woman running it wasn't trained like a HV or midwife just a random woman in her 60's with extremely dated ideas and manky handouts

We were then invited to a reunion which we all had to pay for

We thought it would be great but it was horrendous and only in touch with 1 couple from it.

Please just get a refund

GoodMorningSunshine It’s only what I’ve been told rather than experienced as I said when I did daisy I loved it. Since then I’ve heard some things about teachers being told to ask formula feeding mums to leave classes etc. If that is not true then great but you’ve probably got a bit of a pr job to do in some areas.

For what it's worth I did a Daisy Birthday class last year and found it really useful. Our teacher was openly very pro-natural pain relief and very against anything beyond gas and air and was very pro women not being swept along with medical procedures and having the right to consent or decline. .... however even though she was very transparent with her own views and opinions she also said she respected each woman's individual choice and still went through all of the different pain relief options and interventions. I absolutely loved her classes and was gutted to hear she's since left daisy as I'd have happily done it again for child #2.

I avoided NCT and personally am glad I did. But as others have said you'd be fine not attending any classes OP- we learnt all the essentials in our free NHS session!

You go to NCT to meet friends. Maybe just do the NHS course and go to some baby groups instead.

I learned nothing but I’m so glad I did it for the network. You can get that by going to your children’s centre/ baby swimming etc. though

@user1471426142

Glad you enjoyed your classes! That sounds like a competitors voice as we absolutely do not work like that. Who would honestly ask a bottle feeding Mum to leave? Unfortunately in this world, people do say things to bring others down which is so sad 😥

You are all so helpful, thank you for talking a panicked idiot off the 30-week ledge.

I think we're going to do our NHS class in a fortnight, then assess and see how we feel and perhaps do ~something, but perhaps not. Sounds like there is no class that hands over the Big Baby Secret: This Is How You Do It key to unlocking the mysteries of parenthood. Maybe I can save my NCT cash for maternity leave cake!

@burritofan I've messaged the teacher in your area and will be back to update you.

Meanwhile cake, did you say cake 😋🍰

My boyfriend went out for "sucks that the course got cancelled" cure-all salted caramel profiteroles. No mention of them in What To Expect but perhaps I haven't reached that chapter yet. It probably says I should have a second helping for, um, calcium.

I'd recommend finding your local breastfeeding support group before you give birth if you'd like to bf. much less daunting than it possibly being your first trip out without your dh.

Another one who didn't bother with NCT.

NHS website is very good.

@burritofan, what a sensible partner you have there - definitely a keeper if he knows that salted caramel eclairs heal all things!!

I did both NCT and NHS. Our local NHS classes weren't good - however, if you've done lots of reading you'll have covered most of the content of the NCT classes anyway.

The thing I found helpful about the NCT classes that my local NHS classes didn't do was get you to talk through pros and cons of different pain relief options (this NCT page isn't bad as a starting point www.nct.org.uk/labour-birth/your-pain-relief-options/pain-relief-labour#painkilling-drugs-in-labour-opioids-such-as-pethidine-diamorphine-meptid-and-remifentanyl) and interventions (see B.R.A.I.N. acronym e.g. at www.birthzang.co.uk/2014/09/brain-acronym-for-labour-birth-plan/ ) with your partner. DH refused to read books and as there's a significant chance they'll end up being your spokesperson in labour ideally you do want them to understand your wishes. If your NHS classes don't cover this it's always something you can do between the two of you afterwards though.

If you have a la leche league group Nearby you're always welcome before babies born (in fact it's encouraged for those who want to bf as you know where to get support) some of them run beginning bf classes too

There are no NCT classes near me that I can make without taking basically a whole day off of work which I really don't want to do; I value my work too much before giving it up for 12 months!! I'm really worried about the lack of network I will have; my midwife almost discouraged me from the NHS classes as she said I would definitely be the oldest (at 35!!) and not get much out of them. Feel a bit lost though!! It's such a shame they have such strange times for NCT classes.

@looktothewesternsky That's awful! I'm 37 btw, you're not alone in geriatric mumsville. Agree that lots of the courses are inconveniently scheduled – unless I start maternity leave crazily early I can't do every second Tuesday mid-morning or whatever.

Just to pipe up for daisy - I did it with both my kids (2012 and 2016) and lived it. Learned a huge amount (well in the first one - was more like revision on the second one!). Got both babies out and never saw the people again - my choice, nothing personal but not really my thing. Instead I found a load of local baby groups and made friends that way, a core group of which are still great friends even now we are all back at work etc.

DH was thoroughly briefed by me on my birth preferences and reasons, and was great. He didn’t really need the course I don’t think and suspect he might have glazed over if he had been there. We did the 3 NHS classes together but to be honest, Daisy was a million times better (and I did it before the nhs ones so I could set DH straight on a few bits). Also read ‘the pregnancy bible’ which was good.

Lactation consultants are awesome - I was lucky to have an nhs one pop in on me and she sorted us out. Lovely lady, I then BF my first for 2 years and my 2nd for 18 months.

Good luck :)

Geriatric Musmville!! I enjoy that phrase! My biggest problem is I am a snob and find the idea of baby yoga / sensory / etc appalling and can't imagine I would ever be able to go to one of these classes. BUT I know when baby is here I'll be so desperate for some company and to try to entertain baby that I will absolutely go!!

If you’re not bothered about meeting other mums, can I just offer an enthusiastic recommendation of the Positive Birth Company? They have a digital pack that you can download and watch the videos in your own time. It’s focused on hypnobirthing but covers loads of the information that you would get on an NCT course. They also do weekend courses in person, and I think they’ve just started doing them in Brighton. I had a fantastic birth on Christmas Eve and really feel that the Positive Birth Company had a huge impact on my experience. I want to shout about it to every pregnant person I know.

I just went to the NHS ones, the two I attended were okay. Didn’t go to any more as ds made an early appearance. Only thing I remember is when I was about to push the midwife saying ‘now remember what you learnt in class’ and me pulling the gas and air out of my mouth and saying ‘we aren’t covering breathing until Thursday!’

So yes the essential parts I wanted I missed!!