Should I join the NCT?

[McDreamy]

I am about to move to a new area and am 21 weeks pg with no.3. I won't know anybody in my new area and was wondering if joining the NCT would be a good way to meet people. What's your experience/advice?

I joined the NCT when I was pg and got a lot out of it, went to bumps and babies groups and met some nice people, and now am a fairly active member.
I did AN classes with NCT and made friends with 5 of the class (the other 2 don't keep in touch with anyone), and we have regular meetups - in fact all 6 of us and partners are going out to a Dinner Dance tomorrow night!
Only problem for Bumps & Babies, is that you would not be allowed to bring along older siblings, if they are crawling/walking due to it be predominantly tiny babies. But branches often have coffee groups with babies and children of all ages are often welcome.
I would also see if there is any Surestart centres in your area, that is also a great way to meet people as they often run groups for new and expentant mothers - ask your MW.

And congrats, btw

Pretty much what BouncingTurtleSkulls said.

My DS (only DC) is a month old. I joined the local NCT group and went to the antenatal classes for Aug-Sept due dates. I've made some good friends and we all meet up once or twice a week. DH and I also learnt a lot about parenting and childbirth, but did it primarily for the social side, as I knew no "Mummies" locally.

I have also been to NCT coffee mornings and other mum&baby groups run by Health Visitor and Surestart. I m still finding my feet with the whole mum thing, and go to any group I can find! All good support and potential new friends, especially as my best friend moved to the other end of the country a week before DS was born!

Hi, I'm very interested in this thread and was wondering what others with an older child as well as a new baby thought about joining at this stage. It seems really nice for 1st babies but would I be able to take my 2.5 yr old to anything?

I joined the NCT only to discover that the nearest group that met were 25 miles away from me. I was glad to support them with my subscriptions, but didn't benefit at all from ante-natal classes or coffee mornings as it was just too far to easily travel. So I would say check how close and how active your local group is. I did consider finding out about starting a group in my town, but ended up being too stressed with my first born and then we moved when he was 9 months, so gave up the idea.

You should be able to find your local NCT group contacts via the national NCT websites. Why not contact them and find out what they do in your area? I think most groups have tea groups etc that would be open to people approaching them before joining, and they may know of other activities in your area. I went to two groups.

In my borough they do do stuff for children of different ages - there's a baby and toddler group which is open from pregnancy to older toddlers as far as I understand, although when I got there (only once) there were far more babies of ds's age (then about 9 months) than toddlers. I would have gone more but normally went to a much more local baby group at that time.

The drawback in my area is that there's a rather sharp geographical divide with a lot more activity/people signing up for antenatal classes etc in the wealthier west of the borough. I don't regret joining but I would have liked to meet more people who live nearer to me.

I don't think you have to join the NCT to take advantage of many of the things that they offer. If you google them you should be able to find local web-sites. I thought the classes were good, but your local hospital will probably offer you classes too. My only warning is that its often only after you have the baby that you bond, so don't be put off if you don't feel you have found soul mates immediately.

I went to nct ante-natal classes and met a lovely group of people. The dads have only met up once on their own (it was the nct teacher's suggestion!) but the mums still meet up pretty much every week more than one year on. I don't always go as I live slightly further away and it makes it a bit of a pain (and I am a bit lazy / disorganised). I do wish there had been classes a bit closer to me so that it was just a short easy stroll to meet-ups rather than a bus-ride or a long walk. still well worth it though.