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Pregnancy

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

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Original poster

Will NCT try to pressure me into an unmedicated birth? Your experiences please!

45 replies

Dontgetmewrong87 · 29/08/2021 18:36

Hello,
I’m quite early in my pregnancy, but I know already that, all being well, I want an epidural.

I’m thinking about NCT but from what I’ve read, and from the experiences of my friends, it sounds as though they are ideologically opposed to medicated birth. I’m a bit worried they will try and convince me otherwise or shame me. I’m just looking for a nice class where I can learn what I need to learn and meet other parents.

The other class I’m looking at is Bump & Baby which says on its website that it’s judgment free.

I’d love to hear any experiences that you may have had.

Thanks

OP posts:

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Southwestrunningmum · 29/08/2021 19:21

Mine was great. If I was you however I would be more worried about actually getting pain relief from the hospital. How many people ha e actually asked for pain relief and got it in a timely fashion!!

HavelockVetinari · 29/08/2021 19:24

@Southwestrunningmum

Mine was great. If I was you however I would be more worried about actually getting pain relief from the hospital. How many people ha e actually asked for pain relief and got it in a timely fashion!!

Aye good point.

OP - if they want to induce you with a syntocinon drip, ask for a epidural first. 95% of mothers induced via drip get an epidural, the other nearly 5% ask for it but there's no one available to do it!

Makingnumber2 · 29/08/2021 19:27

My class teacher guided us through all different types of birth scenarios and pain relief options. I didn’t feel pressured or notice any discrimination against medicated births to be honest but that may be because I was quite keen to just go with gas and air? I found the classes really informative and helpful and liked that we went through all pain relief options and birth scenarios as I was aware things may not always go as you plan/would like them to. Hope you find a class that works for you 😊

TooManyAnimals94 · 29/08/2021 19:28

We enjoyed NCT and I would say they offer a lot of sound, factual information which I found really helpful because I didn't really understand the pros and cons of the different pain relief options.
Our course leader was OK but she wasn't great at using Zoom and didn't always communicate clearly.
She also said things like "During my back to back labour I thought I was dying" and "What I did with MY baby was..." which irritated the hell out of me.
But once you get involved in the WhatsApp groups and arrange some meet ups you all find you share better advice with each other for practical stuff.

LittleCatDog · 29/08/2021 19:32

My NCT leader was adamant you could just breathe the baby out and kept telling us we could refuse any interventions against medical advice. Didn't cover being induced or EMCS and out of 7 of us 3 had one, 3 had forceps and only one had no interventions. Six of us had epidurals. We laugh about it now! Seemed a bit unrealistic.

Crimblecrumble1990 · 29/08/2021 19:38

My NCT leader was lovely and I wouldn't say pressured us into trying to have a 'natural' birth. But it was very set up that way and to be honest, did make me feel a bit shit that it all went wrong and I ended up with epidural, forceps etc.

A 'natural' birth would have been ideal if my baby had been on board for it. But he wasn't and I totally put my trust in the medical staff and followed what they said to do. Whereas NCT was very 'make sure you ask why they want to you to do that, weigh up the pros and cons etc'. But when your babies heart rate is dropping and you're in so much pain you can't see straight, you just go with it. I probably wouldn't recommend NCT to me friends.

Anonymouslyposting · 29/08/2021 19:39

I did NCT and felt they were pushing a “natural” birth. That said, me and one other of the five pregnant women made it clear we were considering epidurals and no one tried to shame us or talk us out of it. It was clear the teacher thought an epidural was a less good option but they never made us feel uncomfortable for disagreeing.

I’d cautiously recommend NCT - it told us the basics and most importantly I made some good friends - but make sure you are conscious they are pushing their own view and do your own reading as well.

samsalmon · 29/08/2021 20:00

My experience was a good few years ago but it was definitely very anti-intervention and anti-epidural. When we were making a list of pros and cons of different methods of pain relief, it was quite comical, the list of pros got shorter and shorter as you went through the more medical options, so yes it was very very biased. When I was put on a drip after a long labour with no progress, I actually apologised to my husband that I wanted to ask for an epidural. He thought i’d lost my marbles.

Wish I’d steered clear of NCT, to be honest. The leader was very sanctimonious so I guess a lot depends on who you get. Re the friendships, some last, some don’t, it’s a total lottery who you’ll get out with. It’s definitely nice to have friends in the same boat when you have your first baby though, so maybe look around for all the local options.

DramaAlpaca · 29/08/2021 20:07

My experience of NCT was a long time ago. I sensed that was a disappointment to the teacher because I had an epidural, and my friend felt that she was even more so as she had a c section. That said, I did meet some nice people at the classes.

SillyBry · 29/08/2021 20:12

My NCT leader was a bit of an airy fairy person... but it bonded us together as a group.
She talked about contractions as "waves" or "episodes" and did really encourage aromatherapy and massage. But equally medical choices were discussed openly and welcomed. There was no judgment... and actually, noone can force you into anything!

Caneparrot · 29/08/2021 20:13

I had a July baby - did NCT and found it way more open minded than I had anticipated. I’m a doctor and was very prepared for all types of intervention. NCT actually made me much more relaxed about labour (as I have only attended high risk/emergency deliveries for a few years).
I thought all options/outcomes were very fairly discussed and explained including elective section.

BobbleWobble1 · 29/08/2021 20:15

My experience with NCT was poor. I wouldn't say they "pressurised" natural birth but the content was geared that way. Same with breastfeeding. At no point were bottles, sterilising etc even covered. At the time it seemed less of a problem as everyone went in hoping for minimum intervention and to breastfeed.

The reality was out of 7 FTMs - 2 had EMCS, 2 had forceps, 2 had epidurals, 1 of which was an induction. Left 1 of the 7 who had a straightforward delivery. So not very realistic preparation. If you're looking for the educational aspect, you'd be better off with Google in my experience.

The only benefit I can see is the potential to meet other new parents but that's very much a lottery. We were unlucky in that everyone lived so far away from each other that regular meet ups etc just didn't happen. Also most of the mums in the group took much shorter maternity leave than I did. If I'd met local mums who took 9-12 months off I think it would have been worth it for that alone. Unfortunately for me it was a total waste of money.

T0rt0ise · 29/08/2021 20:25

Really positive experience of NCT. No agenda was 'pushed', all medical and airy fairy options were discussed equally. We also did a c-section role play, which made me massively more relaxed during a shitty EMCS, and discussed other problems that could occur during birth. General thought on the birth plan was know what's available, have an idea, but be prepared for it not to be possible. Also made a great group of mum's who have been a lifeline with lockdown babies.

KingofQueens · 29/08/2021 20:26

NCT didn't pressure me to have an unmedicated birth, but it did open my eyes to the possibility - after my mum's horror stories she'd fed me throughout my life. It made me feel like birth was much more doable than I had previously thought.

As it happened my baby was delivered by emergency ventouse under a spinal block in theatre, but my second and third births were both without intervention and medication, which i don't think I would have thought possible without having done NCT the first time round.

8dpwoah · 29/08/2021 20:33

Ours was great, very balanced. There was possibly more time spent on the 'natural' stuff but I do think in part that was to avoid scaring people. Plus the breathing and relaxation side of things is still useful in the early stages of anything stressful/medical going on anyway. During the medicalised birth section there was heavy emphasis on information gathering and advocating for yourself so that sort of prepared us without dwelling on it. We did cover pain relief pros and cons really well too.

Out of 8 babies only one actually ended up being a spontaneous vaginal uncomplicated delivery so even if there had been any pressure from NCT it didn't make any difference, the babies evidently weren't listening 😂

Most of us still talk a couple of times a week although meeting up is obviously harder now we're all back at work in some form or another. That's the main benefit of doing it and I think deep down the majority of attendees know that. We were lucky we ended up in a group where everyone was pretty self-deprecating and sceptical!

HazyDaisy123456 · 29/08/2021 20:49

My eldest is 17 now. I just went to our local NHS antenatal classes. I was terrified about giving birth and open to everything in terms of pain relief. They were non judgemental and didn’t push or encourage or discourage anything.
I friend I met at antenatal classes was definite about having a natural water birth, breast feeding and using proper nappies. I just kept an open mind.

I also read a very good book about having a baby over 35 which I found very useful in terms of explaining the different types of pain relief.

Fortunately I was able to labour in the water but had to come out and had natural child birth twice.

unicornpower · 29/08/2021 21:30

We’ve just finished NCT and our leader didn’t push a natural birth, she was very balanced in her views tbh! The breastfeeding tutor on the other hand definitely had her agenda and didn’t respond well to people wanting to express/combi feed. She was honestly terrifying and we all came away more anxious. I don’t think it helped it was virtual tbh, i personally wouldn’t pay for it again

BrushMySmush · 29/08/2021 22:14

Gosh no, we talked about all kinds of pain relief at our classes. Once my labour had been going a while I was very much GIVE ME ALL THE DRUGS!!

Rosa8907 · 29/08/2021 22:46

No pressure at all, they covered the pros and cons of all options to help you feel informed. Out of 7 women I was the only one to have an Unmedicated birth and that was only because I didn’t have time to get any drugs!

StoatMilk · 29/08/2021 22:56

No one will know how you have given birth unless you tell them

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