Bump & Baby vs NCT

[chi13]

Hi! Has anyone here had any recent experience between Bump and Baby and NCT for antenatal classes? From what I have heard NCT tends to have more options so due dates are closer, and it's potentially better for actually staying in touch with people. But it's also £100 more expensive than Bump and Baby so wondering if it's actually worth it... Any recommendations/experiences that would be helpful to make the choice? Thank you!

I'm not sure about bump & baby as I did NCT ad most of my friends did too.

Pros: we got a good, local group, all babies born within a month of each other and still in contact nearly two years later

Cons: can be hit and miss whether you get a good group/gel with the group. For me personally we didn't learn anything I didn't already know from reading a couple of birth books (90% of the content is about labour and birth options, and 10% actually caring for the baby once it arrives!) Content wise I think DP got the most out of it as he hadn't read the books.

Hope that's helpful, in general I'm really happy we did it if only to get such a good group, but I agree for the expense it's a difficult choice!

Did NCT recently, babies haven’t been born yet but we’ve already met up on mat leave for lunch and walks. All babies due within 3.5 weeks of each other.
Didn’t learn a massive amount but I wouldn’t say it was a total waste of time either.

If I had a good group of mum friends already I wouldn’t do it again, but I’m the only one from my existing friend that is pregnant, nobody else has kids so for me it’s been worth it for that. Even if it fizzles out as babies get older it is nice to have people to chat to at this stage.

Just done my first bump and baby session. The group you book onto is based on your due date which allows around 4-6 weeks so everyone in my group was due around 4ish weeks apart from each other.
The content is 40% labour and birth, 40% infant feeding and life with a newborn and 20% first aid (which I think is separate with nct). So for 5 sessions you get a good balance in my view.
Whether the group gels or not is a risk you take with any group, we've only had 1 session so far but we've all been signed up to a WhatsApp group and we've started a separate mums one already and been chatty in class so it's looking promising!
The social aspect was the main reason I joined but I've also already found it informative, the midwife leading the group works at the local hospital too so has given us a lot of tailored, local info already. I also like that it's very factual as I'd heard that nct could be a bit biased towards natural birth etc. - but I haven't tried it so can't comment on nct!

I did bump and baby last year and loved it! I was in a group for babies due a month after mine was due as I couldn’t get on the earlier one, but most of the babies were born without approx 3 weeks of each other. We all still talk and meet up when we can. I’m so glad I did it and it is such a lovely bunch of people 🥰

There are other antenatal options too. I would do whatever is the most local to you.
I didn't do NCT as it was slightly further away, I did a London chain antenatal class that was very specific to my local area and all the mums lived very close so it was great.

Thank you all! This is super helpful