Maternity classes, NHS vs NCT?

[Hodge85]

Hi,

I'm pretty new to the pregnancy journey and my husband and I are looking at antenatal classes to prepare us for what lies ahead.

I've had a quote from NCT and the classes are well over £200 so I've contacted the NHS to see what else is on offer. I've spoken to people who used NCT and couldn't praise them enough so I was just wondering what others thoughts and opinions were.

Thanks x

I have thought about doing the NCT one but it turned out that the only course for my due date was a weekend one at, like, an organic cheese farm in the middle of nowhere. In a place where there's one bus on Saturdays, and none at all on Sundays. And no pavements along the little country roads to make it walkable. And while I could get there by other means if I put my mind to it (taxi, or cadging a lift from a friend), the whole thing seemed like such an epic bit of middle class gatekeeping that it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Also, everyone basically told me that they didn't think much of the course, and the point of going was more to buy friends. I know I'm temperamentally not well-suited to making friends with a bunch of people I've just met - I take more time to get used to people - and I suspected they'd all live in the middle of nowhere in places I couldn't get to, too. So I'm giving it a miss. Might do the Daisy one, though, just because it's closer.

I went to both NHS and NCT. I think it just depends on what type of friends you want out of it. Either will be helpful during the young baby phase.

I'd say the biggest difference with them was how inclusive it is for fathers. NCT was very much about involving both parents. Whereas at the nhs classes, the Dads that did come were pretty much ignored.

I meet up with both groups regularly now (babies are 5-6 months) but with the NHS ladies it's pretty much cafe/pub everytime, and it'll be mums and babies only.

With the NCT one we go to each other's houses, and we'll also do some social meet ups with dads too. As a family have been invited to a Christening next month, and also a Sikh celebration with our NCT friends.

NCT contributed to my PND. It didn’t prepare me for my difficult birth, my full term baby being in NICU for 4 weeks or my breast milk never coming in due to the stress of it all (‘all women with no exceptions can breastfeed’). I felt I was set up to be a failure unless I had a water birth and breast fed and co slept until DC was 3.