Best antenatal classes

[essexmuma]

Wondering if anyone can recommend good antenatal classes? There's so many out there! Considering NCT ( online only ) but have heard mixed reviews around the content & it's a big commitment time & money wise ( 3 weekends & £250 ). Bump & Baby Club is unfortunately sold out in my area and the NHS aren't running any at the moment I'm told. Ideally I want something that covers all aspects of labour, birth ( different types ), pain relief ( again options ), how to care for baby after, feeding ( both options ) and first aid. I don't mind paying just want it to be worthwhile thanks v much

The baby academy do a good free baby care class that’s 2 hours then if you like it you can sign up to the full thing about labour etc, they give you a discount code

I did NCT on zoom last year and it was mainly to make a group of mum friends in my local area. Our babies are 10 months old and we are great friends, go to baby groups and soft play together. It was a lifesaver in the early days when we were up all hours feeding babies.

@Chanel05

I did NCT on zoom last year and it was mainly to make a group of mum friends in my local area. Our babies are 10 months old and we are great friends, go to baby groups and soft play together. It was a lifesaver in the early days when we were up all hours feeding babies.

Thank you. Was the course content helpful? I'm toying between wanting to make mum friends ( I don't have any ) & learning as much as I can.

I did NCT over zoom and found it really useful

I think content varies a lot depending on area. I did NCT and wished I hadn't. The course content was basically what they wanted you to hear rather than realistic preparation. All of us on the course agreed. I think the only purpose of NCT is to make mum friends which is by no means a bad reason. Unfortunately our group lived too far apart from each other for friendships to form. So in my case it was a total waste of time and money but it's the chance you take. If we'd built a local friendship group, I'd have felt differently.

Most NCT courses will be back to face to face delivery from September

@essexmuma it was to an extent. When it came to the birth element, I focused more on vaginal side of it and I wasn't really paying attention to the c-section part. That was my mistake as I actually had an emergency caesarean in the end and I felt like I could have been more prepared.

How many weeks are you? I am also a mum from Essex!

When I did NCT it was great and really balanced, but I think it depends a lot on the teacher.

My old NCT teacher now runs her own company teaching her own courses so I'd look out for independent companies / midwives / doulas offering this kind of thing.

[quote Chanel05]@essexmuma it was to an extent. When it came to the birth element, I focused more on vaginal side of it and I wasn't really paying attention to the c-section part. That was my mistake as I actually had an emergency caesarean in the end and I felt like I could have been more prepared.

How many weeks are you? I am also a mum from Essex!
[/quote]
Ah you are? Exciting. I'm 28 weeks. For me, I'm not sure yet what type of birth I will be able to have so I'm hoping the course covers everything. I'd just heard mixed feedback on NCT

First aid courses BTW are generally separate, you can do them with a local ambulance service/red cross. Ask your midwife if she knows where you can access one :)

@essexmuma thanks for starting this thread as I've been wondering about classes recently too.

My dilemma is that I have 2 options for NCT classes; one which is in the town in which I live (so opportunity to meet people close by) but the downside is that my husband is unable to attend 1 out of the 4 sessions. The other option is a class which is about 20 miles from us but where we can both make all sessions.

Ideally I'd like to do the local one but I'm a little apprehensive to attend one of the sessions alone - will I look out of place or do ladies often go on their own (single mums etc)?

Sorry for hijacking the thread @essexmuma

[quote Colinthecaterpillar35]**@essexmuma thanks for starting this thread as I've been wondering about classes recently too.

My dilemma is that I have 2 options for NCT classes; one which is in the town in which I live (so opportunity to meet people close by) but the downside is that my husband is unable to attend 1 out of the 4 sessions. The other option is a class which is about 20 miles from us but where we can both make all sessions.

Ideally I'd like to do the local one but I'm a little apprehensive to attend one of the sessions alone - will I look out of place or do ladies often go on their own (single mums etc)?

Sorry for hijacking the thread @essexmuma [/quote]
No problem at all! That's what they are here for :)

@Colinthecaterpillar35 go for the local one as the classes are a small part of it - meeting local mums you will find is more important and you won't want to be travelling 20 miles every time you meet up. There will probably be other couples who don't both attend all sessions.