NCT antenatal courses? Would you recommend?

[lovesT]

I am 18 weeks pregnant tomorrow and midwife has given me some info on antenatal courses, which I think would be great to do with my husband, but would love to hear of others' experiences :)

She told me about the Birth Plus one which looks good and she said it is great for networking and meeting others in the same stages. This one is £120 for a couple for 3 sessions plus a reunion as far as I know.

She also mentioned the NCT ones which I have looked into an enquired about, we have been reserved a place mid January which will end at the end on Jan (due date is Feb 14th!), but I would love to know if others found this helpful and is it worth doing? It's around £250 for both of us for 5 sessions plus reunion. The cost is something to think about but if it's worth doing I'm willing to make that work.

Grateful for any experiences/ advise/ help! :)

Thanks

We loved NCT - we did it to meet people and my mum friends are now entirely from that group. The dads also meet up regularly and we have various WhatsApp groups which are a godsend! Apparently the content varies by teacher - ours was very good and balanced, we absolutely loved it and it was the best thing we did. London so cost about £360 I think, but worth every penny.

I didn't do NCT as it's my understanding that they are quite focussed on the "natural" side of things and a friend who had attended in my area found them quite negative about things like epidurals and elective sections.

I was very pro epidural and so went to a class run by a retired midwife which was excellent and very balanced.

I do think it very much depends on the leader with these things, I've heard others say that they found their NCT leader very neutral. Can you maybe call the different providers and try to sound out their approach and see how it aligns with what you're thinking?

We did NCT although I found them overly negative about anything medical, I still see the mum's I've met regularly and we also meet as a group which is nice. I would recommend it purely for the social side. I didnt find the course as usually particularly when were recommended a planned c section for DDs safety and yet spent most of the time talking about natural labour with a very anti doctor stance.

We had a great nct leader. Wasn’t biased towards one thing or the other.
Dh really benefitted, learnt loads and said it prepared him how to support me after the birth when my emotions were very up and down.

We did NCT - it can really depend on the course leader I think. The breastfeeding session was brilliant - not pushy on breast is best, just all the facts and very much about the reality as a whole with a newborn regardless of breast or bottle. The woman running that session had a wealth of experience and spoke very honestly.

That said, the rest of the course wasn't great. The woman running it seemed really nervous and really hated when we got off track sharing our thoughts on topics. As others said, a lot of focus on natural birth with zero complications. There was one session on interventions such as induction/assisted delivery/c section. I ended up with an induction and what NCT had suggested would happen was far from the reality. My induction failed and ended in EMCS - whilst NCT covered how many people would be in the room for the EMCS (reassuring when everyone rushed in!), the course leader suggested that the likelihood of being put under GA was miniscule. Considering 3 out 6 of the group had c sections and 2 of those were under GA, I wouldn't say it was miniscule! My point is that there wasn't any link between the NCT course and the stats on birth at the local hospital to provide a realistic set of expectations.

However, the social side has been fantastic. I meet up with the mums once a week and we all chat regularly on WhatsApp. It's the best support network I could have asked for. Obviously you can't guarantee a good group and you can meet other mums at baby groups etc but I honestly don't know what I would do without these amazing women supporting each other through thick and thin!

Thank you so much for your replies! We have decided to book on to a Birth Centre course. I got the impression that my midwife was highlighting that one more than the NCT, but it's also closer and cheaper (even though there are less classes). It's great to have all this info though and experiences.

Thanks 😊

I did NCT but my nearest class wasn't that near to my house so the people I met (let's face it, that's why you go) weren't really local to me.

I did an NHS course alongside it at my local health centre and met my best 'mum' friends through that. We live near each other so popping in for a cup of tea etc is easy. I'd pick a class nearest to you.

NCT was one of the best things we did, but just for the people. It gave me an instant support network and over 2 years later I still see them weekly and now most people are onto baby number 2 it's still a brilliant support.