Antenatal Classes (NCT)

[glasspaw]

Hi everyone. I’m currently at 17 weeks with baby number 1 and am wondering whether to bother with antenatal classes. For those of you who have had children previously, did you find them useful? And for those who haven’t, are you considering going for them?

I spoke to my midwife about the options and my main concern is that we are new to the area and don’t know any other parents, so she said that it would probably be worth doing them as an opportunity to meet new people.

I’m guessing there are other (read:cheaper and less time consuming) ways of socialising with new local parents-to-be though. So if I did them then I’d want to be sure that we actually learn something useful.

Would welcome your thoughts 😊

We did NCT.

It wasn't useful in terms of providing information to be honest. It was useful in building a local support group, especially as none of my friends had babies at that point.

We're nearly 4 years down the line now and have moved away from the area. I am still friends with two NCT families and also made two new mum friends in our new area through baby groups. So both are possible ways to meet people.

We did NCT and it was great, particularly for meeting other parents! If it's your first and you are looking to meet others who are having their first around the same time, I can highly recommend it.

We did NCT and the info they provide you with can all be found online. It was interesting but very time consuming and I got a bit fed up with it at the time! However, it was nice to be in touch with other local parents to be pre-birth and we chat a lot on what's app/meet up regularly. I think we're a good support for each other now the babies are here! That said, yes you're quite right there are other ways to meet new mums/dads through local baby groups, drop in sessions etc. Might be worth looking to see how much of that kind of stuff goes on in your area before making a decision?

I'm totally the opposite, great for information and building confidence for birth, absolutely zero action on the WhatsApp group since it finished. I'm hoping to meet people through baby groups etc instead

It was useful to meet people.

I didn’t really gel with our NCT lady. She was a bit wishy washy (she’d probably say spiritual) on certain aspects such as pain relief (telling us we should stick to paracetamol only after a c-section if we wanted to breastfeed, which just isn’t true)

Also did irrelevant (I thought so) activities. One example was, she scattered a load of pics of random babies on the floor, and asked us to pick two and tell the group why And don’t even get me started on ‘a letter from your unborn baby’.

The sessions were too long in one block, 2x six hour weekend sessions on uncomfortable in a room with no tea or biscuits 😂 and one 3 hour breastfeeding session during the week.

For the info I didn’t think it was worth the money. But I met a few nice women and we’ve met for brunch and have whatssaped a fair bit. We’re all due in the next week or so.

*uncomfortable chairs.

I think combining it with baby first aid would be useful but there’s no crossover.

I’ve got them booked for November - more for the social side than anything else, as all my hospitals classes are staying online this winter and we don’t know anyone else pregnant/with babies.

Some of it sounds cringe, but it’s worth it to try and make some friends, I think!

We’ve got six 60 minute sessions, I think.

@WheelieBinPrincess oh god this is exactly what I was afraid they might be like. That sounds like a bit of a nightmare to be honest. I won’t be able to take it seriously!

I wish you could just go for one as a taster session then decide if it’s for you. It feels like a huge up front commitment. Our local one is 7x 90 mins over 7 weeks.

Thanks for your comments everyone! It sounds like they really vary depending on which one you go to. I might ask in a local fb group to find out what ours is like before deciding, but I do definitely want to meet some new parents and it seems like a lot of you really valued the social aspect :)

We're doing NCT as I really want to meet other parents

Hi All, just looking for some similar stories or advice. My waters broke out of the blue this week at 34 and 3 days. At the moment I'm in hospital on antibiotics and I've had the steroids. This is my first baby. The hope is to get me to as near to the 37 week mark as possible, however the doctors have said this week will tell it's tale. They feel I may go myself within the week. The head is very low and baby is about 6lbs. Thanks in advance

@Blue1990 this is a bit of a strange thread to choose to post your current problem on really. You probably need to start your own.

I think it’s definitely good for meeting other new parents. That support network is so helpful.

Yes sorry. Only new to this and thought I was creating a new thread. Trying to delete. Sorry all

I did NCT and to be honest wouldn't bother if I had my time again. I found forums like Mumsnet much more useful for info and advice on feeding and baby care. It's a lottery in terms of building a support network, I know some people who had quite large groups who became firm friends but there were only 3 couples in my group, none of us had much in common and although we did have a perfectly pleasant meet up at the 3 month point we never spoke after that.

I think it's perfect for having a ready make mum and baby group for those first 6 months. I am still Facebook friends with a couple of mine, but don't meet up.
I would have a look at where it's based as we were quite spread out across the city.
Something local might be better.

We did NCT classes and I highly recommend them for making friends. I'm still good friends with 6 members of my NCT group. We've been through all the children's life stages together, from baby landmarks to playgroups to starting school to university and starting work. It's great to have a network going through the same things at the same time. We still meet at least once a week as a group and I regularly meet individuals as well.

I did it
Biggest waste of money ever - hard plastic chairs in a cold church hall and instant tea with powdered Milk for about £160 for 6 sessions

Total waste of money - don't do it you don't need to it was all staying the obvious they aren't trained Midwife's just volunteers who don't take a wage only expenses so god knows where the £160 goes

I paid for NCT because I wanted to meet local new parents but also because our local trust isn’t offering a single parenting class. Fine for me, I can afford it. I’m so angry for those who can’t who’ve been left to struggle through with a couple of videos on Facebook.

@myheartskippedabeat you got off lightly- ours was £320

We did NCT and it was great. We had two mums who'd been told from the start they were likely to ELCS because they were in high risk categories, so the instructor realised there was no point being anti CS and adapted accordingly. Nearly three years on our whatsapp group is active every day and we saw each other a lot during mat lave.

It’s worth it for making connections with other expectant parents, particularly if you’re new to an area, as we were. Four years on, our WhatsApp group is still active and I’m close friends with 4 out of the other six women. I still see at least one of them each week and it’s been lovely seeing our children grow and develop together. The classes were nominally helpful, but mostly safty

*wafty nonsense! (Pressed post too soon).

@myheartskippedabeat when I did mine last year, I researched their qualifications and they all do a degree in antenatal education or something like that, so I imagine they are paid, plus venues cost a bit and NCT is a charity so no doubt any left over goes to run it. I enjoyed mine and have so far got a great group of mum-friends and we message all the time 😊

I am an NCT BFC and antenatal teacher. Yeah I am quite nice but I am both trained and paid:) Course have to be close to break even to run and don’t make exciting profits. If practitioners give their take on things or inaccurate info full that in on your feedback forms. It shouldn’t happen and those forms return to head office not the practitioners. I like that we are a varied crew but the offer should be similar and I have genuinely never met anyone with any issues covering sections. They are part of the course and loads of us have had one or more.

I think - going by the anonymous feedback I get back - done online so anyone can say what they want - that most people think they are good value and are happy they signed up. A small percent think I did something too little or too much but that balances by their opposite number usually who thinks differently.

It’s a rare group who don’t WhatsApp all through the course and meet after. This is my main objective. I do get couples who drop out sometimes. They usually just say they didn’t gel with the group - I always wish they hung in for longer because what I see, all the time, is that you may start off sat next to a fat woman with bad shoes when you are a glamorous insta sort or you may be a thoughtful quite type next to a loud laughter sort but what you share is so big that by the time I catch up with them later it can be the most unlikely people who have become friends.

I have done this for years and get sent meets up pics where there are now multiple siblings. I got sent some camping photos this year of a mass camp, mum nights out and dads in the park.

What I would suggest is that if you do get stuck in. The groups who did the best often had a dynamic social secretary sort who took over from me and kept the connections going so when the babies came all the connections kept growing.

I have seen lots of tough times - mums becoming ill, unexpected separations, unexpected changes if circumstances where the group have just got behind the parents and made such a difference.

Sorry too many typos but you’ll know what I mean.