NCT antenatal course - worth it?

[OrcaBlondie]

Looking for opinions on the NCT antenatal course. Have heard mixed, but most recommend.

My local one is £230 which I feel is quite expensive, but happy to pay it if it’s gonna be worth it.

My midwife hasn’t discussed or offered any NHS classes.

Any thoughts?

Mine contained nothing that wasn’t also covered in the free NHS ones at the hospital in which I gave birth, or in books. The NCT USP is ‘make baby friends’ but my group just didn’t gel, and drifted apart soon after the babies were born. I wouldn’t bother if I had my time again — it was my midwife who urged it so strongly as she thought I’d be isolated.

The free nhs one is is much better. Ask about it.

Meh. I joined for the baby ‘friends for life’ and hippy vibe. But my group had no hippy vibe and I didn’t much like the people. They actually made it harder to make mum friends cos it’s a small town and everytime I went to anplaygrouo there they’d be saying “sit with us!” making it hard to talk to other people.

The actual info is mostly also on the internet.

What nct classes can be good for is making the dad understand what’s going on. A good nct class will help the dad practice positions how to physically support you / massage you. Unfortunately my DO didn’t bother to come to the classes but I expect if he had he’d have been less useless during the birth.

We have only done the nhs ones. Found them really very useful and classes linked to our specific hospital so I feel I understand how my ward works. Classes really informative. The midwife didn’t mention them to me until after 20 weeks. Maybe ask at your next appointment? We chose to save the £200/£300 we could have spent on the nct for actual baby classes once our baby is here (ie sensory, baby massage) given the nhs offers a free alternative to the nct.

Not for content but doing anything rather than nothing to prepare made me less anxious. I did the NHS one as well.

I was so well prepared for my natural birth and ebf baby then he came 8 weeks early and couldn't feed 😬🙄

Got some baby mum friends from both but our due dates were quite spread out in the nct one so it didn't work well.

NCT classes were 100% worth it for me. Walked in and thought, I don't like any of these people! I was wrong and I made lasting friendships with a couple of women.
I'm not saying we 'learnt' much more than at the hospital sessions but we had more chance to talk things through and this was particularly helpful for partners I think. Generally older parents to be -I was the youngest at 29. Also, may be just me, but the nhs attendees seemed to have family locally whereas, in the NCT group, none of us originated from the area.
All of us were hoping to breastfeed and, after the birth, sharing our ups and downs with feeding was really helpful.

I did join one for the first, but not the second as we'd 'done the training' but it was definitely worth it for the first baby and we made some lovely friends. Best connections were made at mother and baby groups though.

It depends. The tutor on mine was awful. She basically told us that if you take pain relief you're harming your baby and you've failed if you don't breastfeed. I felt so much shame and guilt after giving birth because of that bloody woman!
Having said that...it was good to meet others in a similar boat and it helped DH understand a bit more. I think it's down to whoever your tutor is

100% worth it for me. Not so much for the knowledge imparted but for the connection with the other mums. Those weekly coffee meet ups post partum kept me sane. We kept up the friendship with some for 10+ years.

I would 100% recommended. The content was heavily focused on giving birth rather than post baby. We got booked for a c-section around 35 weeks so lots wasn't relevant 🤷🏻‍♀️
But we have a lovely group and everyone is still in touch a year later. Mums & babies meet most weeks and the support has been priceless

I think it's matter of luck really! It was great for me as I've come away with a lovely group of friends who have been so supportive - I can't imagine having done motherhood without them. But, had I got unlucky (I know the groups ahead and behind ours didn't gel so well for example), it wouldn't have been worth it for me as all the information is easily available elsewhere. Our NCT teacher was quite good, and non judgemental about pain relief/birth options, which I think was also important, NCT does have a bit of a rep for being very anti those things and that can be quite harmful I think.

You pay the best part of £250 to be thrust into a WhatsApp group with a bunch of competitive middle class parents who'll make you feel shite for the next x number of years.

The free sessions at the hospital were way better in terms of content. Told you everything you factually needed to know without the waffle. Our NCT sessions were also good because we got really lucky with our group. The sessions were a bit touchy feely for me, I dont need to explore my feelings i need to know how to shove a baby out of my chuff! You got the did getvthe facts but interspersed with a lot of waffle and breakout sessions to discuss things.

The 'babies' are now all at school and most of us still hang out fairly regularly. They were lifesaving in the early baby days when we were all up crying and despairing in the dead of night someone else was always up crying and despairing with you.

It completely depends on the group.

Check a local app like Peanut to see what the one near you is like. I found our ones really useful and our course leader was excellent but they can vary.