NCT Classes - Thoughts/Advice Please

[AlwaysTryingToHelp]

Hi, I am looking for some advice.

My Husband and I had talked at the beginning of the pregnancy about booking an NCT Antenatal course, after doing a little research the one in our area is £269. Which we felt was a lot of money and we weren't sure we could justify the cost.

Yesterday we met up with some friends who have an 11 month old baby, they asked if we had booked onto a NCT course and we said no and explain our reasons for this. They both said we should really make an effort to go on the course. They said that they both attended the classes and they were brilliant. They said they didn't learn an awful amount (although there were some useful tips etc.) It was more about the friendships they have made. They have spoken daily from the day the first mother of the group gave birth and regularly see each other, at least once a week. The Mom said she is not sure how she would of coped without this support network in place.

We are now thinking we should book onto the course, as we still have time, I'm only 26 weeks, but before I did I just wanted to ask what other peoples experience of NCT classes are like ? And if you did all form a support network ?

I always thought I could make friends with other Mom's with babies of similar ages to mine if I just went to baby classes once the baby was born but now I am wondering if those first few weeks having a group of people already there may be helpful. Has anyone not done the NCT courses and found genuinely close friendships after baby was born ?

Apart from this couple (who's baby will be 14/15 months when I give birth) all of our other friends don't have children.

Thank you 😀

I 100% agree with your friend - I didn’t learn a huge amount I hadn’t already read in my extensive Googling but the support network was invaluable! Having seven other women all going through the same thing at the same time was so so good, even for the 4am texts or the ‘is this normal?’ messages. Then when we were ready to get out, it was helpful having people who lived locally so we could be like ‘I’m going to manage to make it out in 30mins’ time if anyone’s about’ - it can be hard to make plans in advance at first when newborns can be quite unpredictable!

My DD is 2 now and we’re all still in touch weekly and a lot of us are pregnant again with babies due within a few months of each other, so we’ll have the same support network again.

I know not everyone has the same experience but IMO, it was absolutely worth it.

I did NCT with my first, but not my second.

As with your friend, the majority of the course was nothing new. The postpartum session on baby care, feeding, and mental health was very informative though. It has to be face to face though, for the practical experience.

It's well worth it if the group is local. My NCT group was a bonus one put on due to high demand. However it meant that we came from all over the place, so meeting up has been sporadic. The group chat was invaluable though. Now our babies are 3, it has fizzled out.

All the baby groups I attended (mostly run by or with NCT) with my first had NCT group cliques. So even though my baby was similarly aged to others, I was slightly excluded. Though more due to my lack of social confidence than them being mean. The pandemic put paid to all that at 6 months. This time, I go to baby groups I can go to with my toddler as well, which are independently run. Made a few friends at one, which has been nice.

In conclusion, I would say yes, it is worthwhile. But only if the group is local.

I agree with the above - the NCT classes were invaluable for making friends locally. I also threw myself into baby groups when covid restrictions were lifted (August 2020 baby), but I must admit that I didn't form any lasting friendships at those groups despite my best efforts (as someone above has said, lots of them are attended by groups of people who have done NCT together so you have to be quite confident to join those cliques). I also found that a lot of people turned up to the group, and didn't really hang around to chat after, making it hard to make friends. The classes are usually relatively structured and so having a general chitchat in the middle of them isn't that easy. I defo recommend NCT purely to give you a group of mums with babies about the same age who you can go to groups with, get coffees with etc. You may well make other friends too, but it's the NCT friends who I'm still in touch with now (my son is 2.5).

Thank you so much for your replies!

The group is local to us, less than 10 minutes away from our house.

I am going to book it this evening, thank you for your help 😊

I made a social group through baby massage not NCT, but everyone else in the group is also part of various local nct groups. In hindsight I wish we'd done it!