Alternative to NCT classes?

[Eliza_V]

Thanks for the update! As it happens, thanks to DH's work mucking around with our plans yet again (me having to drive DH around 300 miles out of the way for a meeting and me having to sit around and wait, thus wasting a whole day when we were on our way to visit family 200 miles away for the bank holiday weekend..) he has been given the time off work for 4 daytime classes (although it looks like I'll be going to the breatfeeding one alone but I assume that's normal?) And I've booked the Early Days Postnatal course as well.

Thanks for your indepth report though, it makes me feel so much better about it and now I'm looking forward to going! xx

 

[rachiedata]

Glad it helped! It really was a very supportive environment and you should feel right at home if you're used to what's talked about in this forum.

I know how you feel, one of our MW appointments last week fell on the only shift OH does where he wouldn't have been able to make it - he had to make the point to his manager that he'd already booked the weekend of the NCT course as annual leave and made sure all the other appointments fell on early/late shifts. They surprised us both by granting the morning off as paid leave. Found a useful link at https://www.bis.gov.uk/files/file20795.pdf - there's no legal right for fathers to attend antenatal appointments and classes but that publication basically guilts them into being a bad employer if they don't grant it, maybe it helped us out!

 

[Eliza_V]

Thanks I have to say though, DHs company are generally very good with time off and things like that.. It's just he's been much in demand lately (he's on his 5th payrise and 2nd promotion since joining 2 and a half years ago so they love him lol) so I think we'll be okay

Thanks again. I'll probably bump this thread when we eventually get to the classes too! x

 

[Bumpsy baby]

Its a shame you can't find any private classes near by, more and more midwives are recognising the fact that women need classes tailored to their needs. While I offer classes in the evening and at weekends I also offer one to one classes in clients home - you may not get to meet anyone (lots of mum and baby groups around) but you do get the service you need.

 

[Eliza_V]

NCT rang me today (just days after we'd paid) to say they'd cancelled the course as only two couples had signed up!! They offered me a place on the original evening course as someone had cancelled (and it was only down the road, so ideal really) so I said yes, then they told me it had been moved to BRADFORD! So much for meeting local mums-to-be That and my husband has to drive back from York (about 45min drive outside of rush hour), and now will have to leave earlier and plough through rush hour on the days we have these classes! And I asked the lady on the phone and I'm the only homebirther.. I'm struggling to see the point

Bumpsy baby, it is a shame there aren't any private classes nearby. But the midwives/PCT seem to be a bit slow here.. We seem to be one of the last PCTs in the country to introduce the nuchal scan on the NHS (so bloody recent that I didn't get offered it, yet friends of mine in other PCTs were having it a couple of years ago). *sigh*

 

[Mervs Mum]

Have you had a look at Laisy Daisy classes? They're an alternative and there are quite a few teachers in Yorkshire

 

[Mervs Mum]

Link here >>>>. https://www.thelazydaisychain.co.uk/lazydaisy/

 

[Eliza_V]

Ooh thank you Mervs Mum, I'll have a read Initially it seems a little too "out there" for me, but I will keep an open mind and do some research before I make a decision xx