NCT Classes, would you recommend them?

[PostiveThinkingRainbow]

Hello Ladies,

Did you do NCT Classes and would you recommend them?

As a first time mum I would love to learn and feel prepared for the carrying for a baby, breast feeding side of things.

I do not live particularly close to any of the courses so do feel I would benefit from the meeting local mums aspect.
I am also going to have to a Cesarean for medical reasons.

Any advice appreciated xx

I found they were mainly useful for making friends.

In your situation, I would look at their early days course which is focussed on baby care and breastfeeding rather than the antenatal course which is v much focussed on labour and birth, almost all of which won't be relevant to you if you're having a c section

Agree with pp - we did 8 sessions, 5 of which were about labour so if you know you're having a section it's not going to be that helpful. There wasn't a huge amount on baby care.
The breastfeeding info was useful but you may find you can book a class on that elsewhere. It was good for making friends although my group didn't click overly well. If the class is a distance from you, chances are any new friends will also be far away which isn't great with a newborn.
I liked the nct course but in your situation i'd see what else is out there that would meet your needs better.

Really recommend them, they ask you what you all want from the course and tailor it to suit. We had someone who was booked in for a C-Sec and another woman who was considering it so there was great focus on how to prepare for a C-Sec too. I think we actually only had 2 lessons tops on labour and birth. The rest were focused around life with a new born, breastfeeding and family dynamics.

I think most of the stuff taught you can probably learn from a book or two but we actually found the family dynamics aspect really useful - it made us think about who will do what, how we could keep up some of our hobbies up and I think it really prepared DH about how involved he will need to be.

It was also nice to meet people and actually talk about concerns together in what was a really relaxed environment.

I felt they were just okay, as others have said very focused on labour, it's looking like I'll have to be induced (which wasn't really discussed) so it's only going to be partially useful. I'd also hoped to make friends from it but the group was very small (3 couples) and while we have a WhatsApp group we didn't really bond. I did find some things useful but overall I don't think it was worth the price which is quite high.

Recommend them as way of making good friends at same stage as you. We’re friends still with three of the original six couples.
Excellent for breastfeeding support too.