NCT antenatal classes??

Teej

Growing a mini me
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
1,056
Reaction score
0
Hey ladies :flower:... sorry to be cheeky but i've crept over from 2nd tri to get some of your opinions...

I have been advised by someone to book up for the NCT antenatal classes, they are quite pricet tho so just wondered if any of you have done these and what you think?? Thanks in advance x
 
I'm booked onto one but haven't been yet. Highly recommended by several friends of mine so we forked out the cash!
 
i would love to go to these classes but just cant afford them
 
The best thing is you get to meet other new mums from your area, due at the same time. I am still meeting up with the girls I met. The classes themselves concentrate very much on labour, and sometimes get a bit repetitive. There is a bit on looking after the baby but I would have liked to have seen more of that.
 
I asked my mw about these classes and in her opinion they were based too much on an 'average' birth/labour, and many aren't. I'm pregnant with my first and went to the free antental classes that my mw offered it was a 3hour course and covered labour, pain relief and briefly looking after your baby. I thought the free class provided lots of info and it was really helpful, i suppose doing the NCT class depends on how much support you have with family ect, if your going to have someone that can provide help/advice (i've got my mum, aunty and gran!) then you probably don't need them, but if you've got the spare money and think they will help then go for it x
 
I booked the NCT classes and had my first last week. To be honest, I would save your money for something more important. I'm not saying the class wasn't useful, but they are only really designed to help you meet other parents and discuss your fears.

In all honesty, most of what was discussed I already knew from reading posts on this website. Also, the Bounty website has some useful presentations from midwives which give you the same info.

We had 12 people in our NCT class which is much bigger than I thought it would be. My friend has just been to the NHS class and there were only 4 people so the session was more one to one.
 
I really enjoy our NCT classes, maybe it's down to the area you're in? We got discount on ours, look into how to get a discount, we paid £12 for £160 worth of course!

My last one is next week and I'll be really sad, what am I gonna do with my Tuesday nights?!
 
Highly recommend. My NCT buddies were a lifesaver when I had James. I'd say its more valuable for the after birth bit, but honestly worth every penny. My NCT buddies are some of my best friends now and also we are babysitting buddies which is fab! xx
 
I had NCT classes and absolutely loved them. We went after my sister in law spoke very highly of them and we did have to take a bit of a deep breath before paying for them, but I'm very glad we did. I found the course content to be really useful and my teacher was lovely, that's obviously something that will change for everyone.

I was a bit worried beforehand that the course would have a lot of emphasis on natural/home births and breastfeeding but it covered all the options/possible outcomes and I found it definitely didn't concentrate on just the averages - we actually did a big part on how births don't follow a nice little plan and all the variations that can happen.

I haven't had my little one yet, but have already met up with a couple of the other girls for coffee and a chat and for me (I don't know anyone near me having babies, my own age or otherwise!) I have found that one of the most valuable things as I have no idea how I'd have met mums near me!
 
Victoriajane, wow your classes seemed to be quite different to mine. We simply covered the average labour and didn't venture into problematic births unless someone had a specific query. It sounds like it is down to the area you live in - mine is south London.
 
Hi,

I do NCT relax stretch and breathe once a week and to be honest I'm thinking of giving them up. I find them a bit of a rip off and I can do the same exercises at home for free! Luckily you pay for each class on the day so I've not lost that much. I think it totally depends on the teacher you get and the area you're in. I guess they're worth trying if you can have a taster session for free though.
Maybe it's worth having a look at other local classes, netmums often have listings?

xxx
 
jjbump, did you do the whole course? We did the same as victoriajane at mine, was a whole session devoted to what can go wrong, how problems and interventions can occur and was valuable in helping to make my mind up on what pain relief I needed!
 
Hi Pinkclaire, I paid £250 for two all day sessions. Last week was the last part of pregnancy and labour/birth. Next week will be newborns + breastfeeding.
 
I'm going to my final NCT class tomorrow night. I found them highly enjoyable and useful. I also like the fact there are only 4 couples at our class. The only thing is, I think it's the social aspect I enjoy rather than the content of the course. Although i have learnt a lot. I would recommend them. In 6 weeks we have met 1 couple (who had a difficult labour) and their 4 month old baby and one of the tutors brought in her 2 month old.

I have heard people say they really force breast feeding - we have not seen any evidence of this and the course certainly isn't generalised. It covers difficult births and various problems that can arrise. But our tutor is great. I guess some aren't so good xx
 
Victoriajane, wow your classes seemed to be quite different to mine. We simply covered the average labour and didn't venture into problematic births unless someone had a specific query. It sounds like it is down to the area you live in - mine is south London.

I'm in Cardiff! The more I hear about the NCT in general, it does seem to be that classes and available advice in general is down to the luck of the draw, which is really unfortunate for something like the NCT which you would expect to be a little bit consistant! (oops, *breathe*!)
 
I'm going to my final NCT class tomorrow night. I found them highly enjoyable and useful. I also like the fact there are only 4 couples at our class. The only thing is, I think it's the social aspect I enjoy rather than the content of the course. Although i have learnt a lot. I would recommend them. In 6 weeks we have met 1 couple (who had a difficult labour) and their 4 month old baby and one of the tutors brought in her 2 month old.

I have heard people say they really force breast feeding - we have not seen any evidence of this and the course certainly isn't generalised. It covers difficult births and various problems that can arrise. But our tutor is great. I guess some aren't so good xx
 
I am in Canada so our courses may be a little bit different (and certainly cheeper). From what I learned in the classes and what other couples have said it really depends on your instructor. Some couples said that the classes where amazing while others hated them. The information is the same as you would get in a pregnancy/labour/breastfeeding book but the social aspect and the style fo the instructor is what made the courses for me.

It does also feel good to be able to ask direct questions about the random things that you are worried about. However if you get a bad instructor they may push breast feeding and natural childbirth your way. Personally I had a great experiencein my classes and I didn't feel like there was any bias wither way whenwe where told the information.
 
I have heard people say they really force breast feeding - we have not seen any evidence of this and the course certainly isn't generalised

Ooh, definitely want to second this! I had heard similar things about NCT classes and although I do want to BF, I was worried that they would be super pushy about it. In reality, our BF counsellor was very happy to discuss potential problems and how expressing and mix feeding can be used to best advantage and I never felt like I would be a bad mum for thinking about mix feeding if I wasn't able to exclusively breastfeed or similar.

Also, not sure about all of the courses but for us the BF session was run as an optional extra, so if you had alreadydecided you were going to formula feed, you didn't need to go to that particualr class.
 
I looked into NCT but ended up doing a free whole day course on a Saturday run by community midwives. It covered everything me and DH needed to be honest. The only thing is that there wasn't the time to meet others or make friendships for after baby is here etc. But I have lots of friends nearby who are either pregnant now, planning to be soon or already have little ones so i'm not worried about the social bit right now, plus I'll meet other mums as I plan to use my local children and family centre groups when baby is here.

J x
 
One quick question about the payment side of things, there are very expensive, can you pay them in installments or do you have to pay beforehand? and would they have any benefit for a 2nd time rounder? i didnt find the free ones that i went to very good to be honest!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Members online

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,650,299
Messages
27,144,633
Members
255,753
Latest member
zzzepprut
Back
Top
monitoring_string = "c48fb0faa520c8dfff8c4deab485d3d2"
<-- Admiral -->