NCT classes - COVID?

[Pixiedust138]

I recently transferred to a new hospital for my maternity care. At my previous hospital I was given information about NCT classes and advised to book on before 20 weeks (this was quite a few months ago). I've now moved to a different area and transferred to a new hospital but there's been no mention of NCT from my midwife, no leaflets, nothing. I'm just wondering if some hospitals don't do them or if maybe they've been cancelled due to COVID...

I was never given any info about classed through NHS and I actually don’t know anyone who has. I had to find mine privately. Most were online as it was right at the first lockdown.

Go on the NCT website and search for your area, they are not necessarily affiliated with or endorsed by hospitals. Some hospitals will be giving details of NCT as the hospital might not be doing classes.
Other hospitals might have virtual antenatal classes.
Some midwives I've seen have been a bit eye rolly about NCT, I've had first class recently.
There are also other antenatal class providers, if you Google you'll see what is on in your area.

We had a poor experience with booking NCT. They took our money a good 2 months ahead of when classes were meant to start and then got in touch 3 weeks before class start date to say they hadn't been able to find a course leader in the area or a venue and would be moving the classes online. Offered only a very small discount for the move to online and I think less than a week to decide if we wanted this or a refund.
We took the refund and booked with another antenatal class provider, but the NHS also do run classes in my area.

The NCT is a private organisation - they aren’t typically recommended by hospitals. Most hospitals do their own antenatal classes, but ours are all online at the moment because of Covid, they haven’t returned since lockdown.

If you do go for NCT, I’d look up local reviews and also see what the plans are if it goes online. One of our sessions became a six hour Zoom session, and the breastfeeding one was missed completely. The rest was in person in a freezing room, but the group voted against masks. There wasn’t much social distancing because of the nature of activities, but it was nice to meet people in the same stage and get to know them, and everyone seemed sensible enough.

So my my midwife appointments are in a childrens centre, and there they run a series of birth classes for free. However, the timing was odd - several hours during the day, and in my area it was likely to be mums a lot younger than me.

I searched for NCT in my area, and found one about 20 mins away. I specifically booked an in person one, and these are still going ahead in person (classes are this month). However, we did all need to do a LFT and wear masks - everyone happily did this.

So far I've found the NCT classes pretty good - we have a really experienced leader, who has been very neutral about all the different options - ie not preachy about anything!

NCT is paid for, you can just google them & look for local classes that fit your due date, they are currently being held in person.
I asked my midwife about NHS ones in the local area & she didn't even mention them being online or in person but said the next course would be starting in the New Year & I'm due in February so didn't feel comfortable waiting until then.
She didn't volunteer the information though so just ask your midwife & see what they say.

NCT are booked separately from your midwife. I would look around your area and see what else is available. I had a very poor experience with NCT with DS, wouldn't recommend in the slightest and wish I'd booked basically any other course tbh.

Thank you everyone for the info! I didn't realise they weren't part of the NHS as my previous hospital it seemed that they were but I might have misunderstood. All the advice was really helpful ☺️