UK Ladies (First time mums) - NCT Courses?

[Wtbam]

Hi Ladies,

I have been recommended to go on an NCT signature course as I am feeling a little unprepared for motherhood having no prior experience.

The course is quite pricey at just over £200 so I was wondering if I could have some thoughts on UK ladies who had done one?

Or is the NHS ante-natal course sufficient on its own?

 

[itsnowmyturn]

I have no idea but would like to hear about people's experience of the NHS courses

 

[RoxieHart]

My midwife team do their own classes, they are free. I took them when i was pregnant with my first and preparing to be a first time mummy. They were informative and fun, but they only taught the basics. Is the NHS one free/cheaper? If so I would go for that. At the most I think all the classes can only give you the basics, labour, feeding, nappies, sleeping, if baby is unwell etc etc ... It's good to have all this knowledge but you never know what your little baba is going to be like, therefore you can never fully be prepared. However much info as you gather I do think it's a learn on the go kinda thing, it comes naturally (to most mothers) and I think you could save yourself having to spend that much! Just my opinion though

 

[JLLM]

With my first born I went to the parent craft classes in my local hospital I found them really worth while, the first part of the class was about preparing for labour pain relief etc and also preparing you for having a new born in the second part we were able to see the physio who showed the best positions for labour! We also got a tour of the maternity ward and were shown the birth rooms and birthing pool. I would definitely recommend I never went with my second pregnancy but they definitely prepared me for my first labour experience!

 

[hope&faith09]

I did nct first time around - it was good to meet people in the same position and learn bits and pieces but personally I would say the midwife led courses are enough! None of the ladies on my NCT course had a 'normal' labour as the the tutor suggested so most of the information wasn't appropriate for me!

 

[Rickles]

Personally if you don't know any other mums in your area - NCT is great... However I would have preferred to do a parentcraft class as the NCT focussed entirely on the birth and not what to do with the baby once it was here!!

Also it was very pro BFing and natural births - which is fine, but we had to really push our leader to tell us about ALL the options. I had to have a consultant led birth due to a blood condition and she was not very helpful at all... We also spent hours "visualising" which wasn't for me.

So I'm glad I did it as I met some great Mums and had a local network to ask lots of questions to... but it wasn't worth the 300 I paid (London) and my anxiety about after the baby arrived went unrelieved (luckily my mum stepped in and gave me a timely pep talk and some good advice) xx

 

[Cangaroo]

We did NCT last time around as most people do here and I thought it was a good way to make mummy friends. The tutor wasn't great and the course wasn't as informative as I'd hoped. I think it very much depends on the tutor you get as to how good it is, though. My friend had a much better experience. I'm still in contact with the other NCT couples, but we see each other very rarely and we didn't really gel. My friend had a much smaller NCT group and they're still great friends, so it really is the luck of the draw! I think the NHS classes are more basic and larger groups so it's less easy to make friends. Depends what you want to get out of it, really!

 

[dlj2]

I did the nhs free course but in honesty wouldn't recommend mine, I found it made me very anxious and a lot of ( in my opinion) unnecessary scary scenarios were talked about, I'd gone in calm relaxed and excited, came out scared n nervous so didn't bother going back. I hear the nct ones are a great way of making friends.xx

 

[stxcamh]

It really depends what you want from the course. I did nct as I wanted more detailed information about the birth and to meet ladies in a similar position to me. My course was detailed anout birth but hardly anything on what do to when baby arrives. very pro natural birth/ breast feeding which we all hoped for but in the end we all had a range of different experiences and I think some felt a little let down as they didn't end up with the experience they had been set up to expect. The best thing for me was meeting everyone else. We all tried to catch up at least once or twice a week while we were on maternity leave and we set up a FB group so we could chat at all hours when we were up feeding. It made the whole experience in the early days much easier as you weren't going through it on your own and had great support from each other. My DD is two now and I still see most of the girls once a week. In fact my best friend from NCT is due her second baby 2 weeks before mine! It is expensive and you shouldn't have to pay that amount just to make friends but my nct group were invaluable to me and I'd say well worth the money!! But I guess it depends who you end up with?! I think I've waffled on enough now! Xx

 

[Countrygirl13]

My OH and i have just done the nct classes. It was described in the media a few months ago as a'middle age, middle class rite of passage' due to the cost. I'm in my early 30s as were every couple there, something that you might find ok but if you are younger ( like a good friend from work) you might struggle with.
I agree with what has been said above. Our course leader did focus on BF and natural childbirth but gave us a lot of scope to design our sessions. We did stuff on how to feed, bath and check for illnesses in babies as well as trying out slings and did a mock up of a c- section. She did say our group was more worried about the baby than the birth and not all groups are like that.
We all now meet up on facebook and our group are giving birth right now. Looking at some of teh conversations the mums are having already, i'm so glad we went. They are giving each other tips on breastfeeding and reassuring each other when their babies can't sleep.
I didn't go to the nhs classes so can't compare them, what i will say is that whichever class you decide on ASK questions! However silly! And be prepared to take some of the answers with a pinch of salt.
Good luck.