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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

NCT Classes - close by or better dates?

19 replies

Bunny2021 · 10/02/2021 09:47

Hi - we're expecting our first child at the end of July and are looking at NCT classes. Unfortunately the local NCT class for our due date we can't make. There is an earlier class (May) but we'd be slightly behind everyone else. There is another class in a different town (so a longer drive away) that fits our dates. I'm wondering if it's better to go to a local class so we're more likely to meet local parents, or slightly further away but dates that work better for us?

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justteaplease · 10/02/2021 09:49

NCT was the best thing I did with my daughter. I'd go for the local classes; every Friday for the first 8 months (til COVID!) one of us hosted and did a group play date/lunch. It would've been very difficult if we didn't live locally!

Hettya · 10/02/2021 09:50

Local.

maryberryslayers · 10/02/2021 09:52

I'd go for the local one but that's just because my main purpose was to meet local mums with babies the same age as mine. If you went for a class further away they'd likely meet up over that way and go to local classes so you'd have to drive over each time or miss out. How far apart would your due dates be?

LittleRa · 10/02/2021 09:52

Local

OverTheRainbow88 · 10/02/2021 09:52

Local

StarFriend · 10/02/2021 09:52

Local.

Tier500 · 10/02/2021 09:52

Go local definitely. If the group is slightly older than your baby that will actually be helpful as they’ll have all the tips for you when yours arrives. A gap of a couple of months won’t matter as they grow, and some of theirs could be late/yours could be early. The most important thing is being able to meet up with them easily. My NCT group saved my sanity during mat leave.

TheMandalorian · 10/02/2021 09:54

Probably it will end up being a waste of money to be honest. It was for me. In fact one of the women I met now blanks me at the school gates. (Which I'm pleased about because she is a mean girl).
However, it is better to be near each other. Several of the families in my group came from a different postcode opposite sides of the city because they wanted to mingle with people in the better postcode but it was a pain to meet up with them.
Although you also want the babies to be similar in age within a month really because it was really good to have people in a similar development stage. There is a big difference between the problems a newborn will have to a 3month old baby and then a 6month old.
Good luck.

littlebauxpeep · 10/02/2021 10:08

Local - but bear in mind others attending may not be local to you...

We chose the nearest venue to us which was a mistake in hindsight. No-one else attending lived anywhere near us (various reasons given - the venue being on the way home from husband/partner's work being a key one).

If we had chosen the next nearest location to us (only about a difference of a 10 min walk for us) we'd have been with the people I saw regularly at all the local baby classes. I became good friends with some of them because your world significantly shrinks once baby arrives so everything becomes very local - but I always felt a little left out as I wasn't part of their actual NCT group (so not on their group whats app chats etc., not invited to specific NCT group activities etc.). I'm still in touch with some of them now (6 years later).

I'm not in touch with anyone from my NCT group - we barely stayed in touch after the post-birth meet-up at about 6 weeks post birth. It was a strange group and odd experience - not helped by finding out that no-one else lived anywhere nearby on day 1!

Hope you have better luck!

Superscientist · 10/02/2021 11:04

We went with an NCT class about 20minute drive from us. We couldn't get into our local class as they were fully booked before our dating scan, so we went with one further away but they did the course over 2 Saturdays and one midweek evening which worked better for us. The classes were over zoom in the end which worked out better for me as I had awful pregnancy sickness at the time and wouldn't have made an in-person class.
I have made close friends with the other mums we have met up when this has been permitted, it's a little further for me but most of our walks are ~15 minutes drive, we have a WhatsApp group and had zoom calls.

Dyra · 10/02/2021 13:32

Local.

I made the mistake of waiting too long to book, so my local one was booked up. I wound up going to an extra one NCT put on (turns out late September to early October is a very popular time of year to have a baby! Who knew?! ) in the nearby city. Two of the six of us lived in said city, but on opposite sides. The other 4 of us were from the surrounding towns and villages. We all live so far apart that meeting up was a logistical nightmare. As well, when I went to baby groups (back in the before times), all the other mums already knew one another. We'd chat, but that was only ever as far as it went.

MindatWork · 10/02/2021 13:35

I’d say local as well op - we went for most convenient date as my husband was travelling a lot when I was pregnant, but it meant that most of the other mums lived very close to each other whereas I had a 25 min schlep in the car to get to every meet up. It’s worked it fine in the end as I got to know a new (v naice) area and we’re all still in touch 2 years later, but it’s one to bear in mind if you’re hoping to make long term mum friends.

LolaSmiles · 10/02/2021 13:42

We went for our local one as we wanted to meet other local parents.

notalwaysalondoner · 10/02/2021 14:11

How did those of you whose class was remote/online find it? I really really want the social side of NCT as I've just moved to a new area, but am nervous about not bonding if you only talk to each other on video. Did you find you still have a good connection and met up with each other (when permitted) after the classes?

Busydoingnowt · 10/02/2021 14:31

It’s impossible to predict so I’d just go for what’s convenient. I did a local class but only one person actually lived near me, as in within walking distance. My neighbour did the exact same class 2 months later and all except 1 of the attendees lived locally.

InTheCovidGarden · 10/02/2021 15:02

Close by! The dates near me were fully booked so we had to travel to another class about 20 minutes away. There was no one in my group from my town which is a very large town so I was surprised. It meant on all the meet ups, I had to travel often 30 minutes each way which was a nightmare with a baby I was struggling to breastfeed. After the drive, he'd want to spend the whole meet-up feeding as he was hungry constantly. The other ladies are lovely, but I really regret not taking the date the month after my due date as my son was born overdue anyways.

Superscientist · 10/02/2021 17:09

I think I preferred our class being over zoom rather in person.
I had a return of pregnancy sickness during my third trimester so I was much more comfortable being in my own house.
We did the main course over 2 Saturdays with a breastfeeding session one evening in the middle which was intense but it was good it get it done with.
We did activities in two groups so we got to do a bit more socialising in them and our organiser left the session open during the breaks and at the end of the course on the Saturdays so we got to know more about everyone then.
During the sessions we were able to mute ourselves to so we could talk about what we were being shown without everyone hearing which we wouldn't have been able to do as easily in person.
The organiser set up a what'sapp group and then we set up separate mums and dad's groups. Since all the babies have been born the dads group has gone silent but 6 months later the mums group is going strong. When we are able to we meet for walks most weeks and we have done zoom calls in lockdown 3. Last year I did a baby sensory class with 2 of the other mums it was nice to know a few faces!

AegonT · 10/02/2021 20:05

Local for meeting up over maternity leave. The age difference in the babies won't be that noticeable after the first few weeks.

MindatWork · 10/02/2021 20:27

Also bear in mind that the babies won’t all end up being the same age - due to prem/overdue babies we have a 2 month gap between the oldest and youngest babies in our group

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