NCT Antenatal Classes, worth the money?

[Strawberry78]

Hi all,

I'm currently in the second tri, my hubbie and I are currently debating on whether to sign up for the antenatal classes that are run by the NCT, but are unsure as to whether they are worth the money (£135.00). Are there any ladies in the third tri who have done or are currenty doing the NCT classes that could let me know if they are any good. Any help / advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

[duffers]

I loved them. Nice relaxed amosphere and we met some lovely couples who I hope we will stay on touch with into the future. DH is going out for drinks with the boys on Wednesday!
They focused lots on labour - positions, relaxation, pain releif etc and also went through taking care of the new baby.

 

[Vici]

Think it also depends on how good your NHS ones are. I know ladies on here who had horrible NHS classes with 50 couples!! Whereas, in our area we had 8 couples, all very relaxed and informative and they were also local (we live rurally and our nearest NCTs were over 30 miles away!!). 2 couples in our NHS class did NCT and said if they'd have known how good our NHS ones were they wouldn't have bothered with NCT

 

[flower01]

i start mine on wednesday and im scared!

x

 

[Loubylou]

We really enjoyed ours, and met a great bunch of fellow parents to be that we will definitely stay in touch with.

Learnt a lot too - which I guess is the intention!

For me though it was more important to meet fellow mums and dads to be in the area as we haven't lived here long, and the hospital we have chosen isn't exactly local to us.

 

[purpledahlia]

If you earn less than 15.000 a year or are on benefits you only pay 10% of the fees, which is 13.50 for the course! ive signed up. cant wait!

 

[firegal]

We enjoyed ours and have formed a really good network of mums and dads. Our NHS ones were rubbish though!

 

[sallysausage]

Hiya, we just had ours this Sat & Sun. Highly recommend! we paid £175.00 and like you i kept wondering if it was gonna be worth the money. Ours was very informal with lots of chatting and asking questions - they didn't make us do stupid role plays etc!

The best bit was meeting 4 other lovely couples at the same stage as us who we'll be meeting up with in the future. The 'teacher' encourages everyone to swap e mail addresses at the end so everyone can get in touch.

Part of the course includes a breast feeding session too so that should be good. Hope that helps. xx

 

[SianMA]

Absolutely worth it - we met 5 other lovely couples and have stayed really good friends ever since. Other than meeting people due at the same time and in the same area the level of detail you go into is much greater than at NHS classes.

It's a really great way to share all your worries and hopes and as you get to know each other it becomes a very relaxed atmosphere, just make sure you make it fun - have a laugh and joke about everything and make sure you arrange some dates to meet up after the classes finish. We have met up for meals, tea and cake etc. virtually every week since classes finished.

I really think we've made new friends for life.

 

[katethegeek]

there are currently no nhs ones available in this area (rediculous!), but the NCT ones were over £200! the midwife recommended two midwifes who offer a full day private class or one to one at home and they were much, MUCH cheaper!
we had the class last weekend and it was great! incredibly informative and they were really lovely.
so, maybe look around / ask your midwife if there are any other options?

 

[Frankers]

we did NCT and can't rave about them enough. Met other couples in our area due at the same time as me and they're all really nice.

It was very relaxed and we felt very reassured and calm afterwards. A couple of people o n the course did our local NHS ones and reckoned if that's all they had done they would have been panicked after as it focused on what can go wrong.

The NCT ones are very much focussed on giving you lots of info so you can make your own mind up and learn tips and techniques to help things go the way you want.

Those who did the NHS ones too said they did however learna couple of useful bits of info that were specific about the procedures at their chosen hospital.

 

[bex2602]

We enjoyed our NHS one and was only 8 couples so got to ask loads so we didnt see the point, but yeah if NHS ones are not that good id go for it!x