[Closed] Random question... antenatal classes. Are the NCT ones worth it?

nazi childcare trust?

YOU WILL BREASTFEED!!

i have no idea whether this is true

Yes well worth it IME. They were good about breastfeeding- no more pushy than any of the NBA staff we spoke to. Having the classes over 6 weeks also meant that we have kept in touh with several of the other mums - this gives a good mutual support group after baby is born. Don't forget that your NCT membership will get you priority access to the craziness that is the NCT sale!

You'll make lots of new friends.

No, we managed twins with nhs class-one session. The plus is an enduring network but those are also accessable for free.

Depends who you are and what you want.

Its the most middle class, Guardian reading, organic yoghurt eating, breast-feeding experience you'll ever go through.. And it'll mean you don't have to mix with Baz and Sharon from the local council estate or y of the lower orders 🙂

Seriously though, its really helpful for the support side once the little'un has arrived and the other half is off on maternity leave. Baby yoga?

12 hours of my life I'll never get back.

We made an amazing group of friends who three years later we are all still in touch the kids all know each other so well and I ride with two of the guys weekly so yes it was for us.

You can't underestimate the help having friends with kids the same age is, my mrs and the other mums met up weekly its been a really good thing for us!

Mrs BigG here. I would definately say they're worth it. The classes were really informative and prepared us, realistically, for the labour and birth. I liked the way the midwife split mums and dads to be into groups to talk about what was relevant for them. Once the class finished, the mums met for coffee and cake and now all the babies are here, it's fantastic to have the support network, not to mention catch ups and baby cinema! Money well spent, i'd say.

Yes. Little known fact: that's where I first met Kevin McCloud (and his missus) (he of the Grand Designs prog).

Learn about all the available birthing options. Then carefully craft your birthing plan, discussing it with the group.

Then wait for the birthing plan to encounter reality and shatter into a thousand fragments. Demand an epidural RIGHT ****ING NOW.

We did it and I think the only useful thing is to meet other people which you can do at NHS classes...my wife went to those too but the people there were a bit lower class really. Anyway...£190 to meet people who might become friends, up to you. Can't say we learnt anything useful that you couldn't find in a decent baby book but maybe we were lucky as the hospital we used were great and had loads of help for breast feeding, if your hospital doesn't do that then maybe NCT might have some value. Or use the money for a nice meal or two.

It's good for the social side of things; we had a good group. As long as you go into it with your eyes open, and don't consider it a failure if things don't subsequently go entirely to plan, then it's worthwhile, not least as (and as said above) it gives you a support group of people with very similarly-aged babies.

Andy

(very sleep deprived father of a 4 week old)

Or put it this way...you could meet people like mudshark. Your gamble 🙂

We went along mainly as MrsP.S wanted to accrue some mates for whilst she was off on maternity leave, and for this it worked out well. I can't say either of us learnt that much about the whole child birth thing, but some folk seemed to, and we were lucky to get a group that clicked. I thought it was just going to be 12 hours of my life lost, but despite my flawed personality I still see a few of the fella's for some form of weekly sporting activity followed by a pint and we are nearly a year on. Some of the people and the NCT stuff was a bit smug, but you take what you want from it, and overall I'm glad I went.

Or if you can swing it that you are skint - I just said I was, they gave me it for 10% of the cost.

13 quid instead of 130, yes I'll go. It beats going to the local church with the missus to discuss weaning babies of smack and how to maximise my benefits by spreading their legs.....or I could just be being a bit cynical about it after discussing the class with the midwife who got very snotty at the mention of NCT.

Or put it this way...you could meet people like mudshark.

heh heh...actually we all got on pretty well and I enjoyed the sessions really - though why they had to have one on a sunny Saturday morning so I missed my club ride I really don't know; and then the baby came on a sunny Saturday so I missed another club ride, nothing but trouble these babies. Anyway, I don't mind that we spent the money but it really wasn't needed, so many people manage to have babies fairly successfully without going through all those sessions.

Of course you don't really love your wife and baby if you don't go.

I'd be just worried that he might be lower class and trying to do a but of social climbing. You'd see right through him though I guess.

complete waste of money. they don't teach you anything you can't get for free from other parents or books or websites or the midwife/HV.
and birth plans are a load of shite, dont know anyone thats ever stuck to one!

we did it, we still see some of the other parents from 11 years ago, and my wife especially enjoyed it as she met other mums to be from near us and so she had friends after the baby was born, the trouble with nhs classes is often the group can live up to 40 miles apart as it was in cambridge area

'You will make loads of friends'

Hateful selling point. Are you lacking in friends?

190 notes?! NHS is hit and miss- in our area it was teen mums.

You make friends at the playgroups. Then mrshora comes home with photos of peoples houses telling me 'look how nice it is'!!

I'd guess like most of this kind of thing, the usefulness of it depends a lot on the teacher, and the other people there.

Ours was dead useful, best hundred and something quid we've spent on the baby. Also worth it for the support network of other parents afterwards. Really helpful in terms of preparing you for the whole birth thing, and the teacher person was a brilliant help for my wife when she was starting breastfeeding, whereas the nhs people were a waste of space, had no idea how to deal with such a wriggly baby, and ten different sets of conflicting advice.

We found it the other way round. The midwives etc were amazing and Trafford/Chorlton NCT were a waste of space. I think they are into one upmanship/social climbing (wrong area for that).

£190! Christ I'll tell you all the stuff they tell you foir £100, but I can't help you find friends... but I could give you an internet website addy 🙂

Honestly though, we had our first 9 months ago and in our area you get 2 free classes on the NHS which were good.

IMO they help give you a little reassurance about what is going to happen, but when baby pops out every second is different and there is no way they can prepare you for it.

The other thing to note is that the recommended guidelines change all the time, so what might be the advice 1 year ago will not be now, and certainly we have constantly found that some things our praents did are big no no's now... strange though that we all made it through.

From what I can remember our concerns were.

1. How do we know when Mrs FD contractions are the real deal and shes about to drop - 1st time round I think you just naturally are cautious and might end up in hospital a bit too early before the proper contractions have started.

2. Beastfeeding - They all make out its easy. It is not. Many women find it difficult, but the Nazi's even at the hospital say its easy, and make the women feel awful when they can't do it. There are alternatives to feeding off the breast which means the baby can still have breast milk but they wont even tell you ie breast pumps.

3. Nappies - No one even showed us how to clean a baby or put a nappy on, sounds stupid but 1st time you need to do it you feel stupid when you dont know how!

4. Buying Stuff - Don't buy loads of stuff, you don't need it.

5. Support - Try and have family or friends around who can give you support when you need it, and dont be afraid to take it. ie cooking meals for you, buying stuff you need etc.

yes well worth it imo, but i do think it depends a lot on the teacher.

They covered all points raised by funkydunc in our classes. I meet up with our group twice a week and it's been great.

The wife went to the free one's on the NHS, why would you want to pay?

3. the girl on her own because her other half didnt come

Guess that was my wife and all the others that were there, I think 2 of the husbands went once and that was it.

Out of our 3 - I think the wife went to one class with the first one

Declared them a total waste of time - which saved me having to make excuses why I couldn't make it to any of them 🙂

Me and none of my sisters were breastfed. I don't know why idiots bang on about physically weak and well-meaning new mothers must do it otherwise its some sort of hate towards their newborn. Pathetic interfering folk.

we had a good experience - made some good friends, and our kids are good friends too. Some good advice - far better than the local hospital classes we attended (which were full of teenage mums and chavvy couples). We did the 2 day course, rather than the strung out over a number of weeks, which softened the blow time wise. Oh (and aimed at the comment above about breastfeeding nazi's) - wasn't pushed at all (in fact I seem to remember the woman said she wasn't allowed to push either) - encouraged to do what was right for us, which is a total contrast to the NHS and community midwife who tried to shackle my SO with guilt when our son wouldn't take to the bitty and started to loose weight -no help or advice from them - not that we needed it as we had already worked out he needed supplementing - just narrow minded comments about the 'benefits' of breast milk and how we were wrong to be using powdered milk - lets just say she soon felt the benefit of my sharp tongue and medical knowledge.

I owuld say to the OP, go for it - your SO will get a good support network for mat leave, there will be the odd bit of dad bonding (although out of all the dads I only still speak to one) and you will get some good advice.

Its the most middle class, Guardian reading, organic yoghurt eating, breast-feeding experience you'll ever go through.. And it'll mean you don't have to mix with Baz and Sharon from the local council estate or y of the lower orders

Yep, 'tis true, esp. the last bit

Worth it though as my wife still meets and goes out drinking with her NCT friends.

Sorry, I must clarify. My comment above was aimed in general not at NCT's.

Media/mags/guides etc- we discussed this and mrshora seemed to think it (along with the governments advice) was the 'best' you could do for your kid. I tried my best to talk her out of it mid-way (she was bloody knackered and half-awake) but she continued. 🙁

I think ours were a waste of money really. Our tutor came across as a little preachy and anti pain killers and very pro natural birth (we later found out she was a partner in a natural birthing centre) and we never really clicked with the others in the group, though this was mainly down to location (we were in London and no-one really lived in the same area as us). It all felt a little forced to be honest, and on the day I think natural instincts kick in anyway.

Worth it, met some good people and it does help knowing someone else is going through it as well (parents - you know what I mean, non parents - you can only imagine). We're still in touch with most of the people we met 8 years on.

Inspired MrsF so much she now teaches the BF part of the classes

"(parents - you know what I mean, non parents - you can only imagine)"

God I hate people who make those sort of comments!

Fast forward a wee-bit. There are some yummy mummy's at nursery 8)

Er, clear as mud then! It would be good to meet some people from the area, as we haven't lived here that long, but it seems like a lot of money for the privilege, at a time when money is about to become more of an issue.

Thank you all for your replies though, very useful.

Funky Dunc - Thanks 8)

Poppa - I imagine in your area there will be baby groups that you can go to after the baby is born which are not NCT related and free.

Mrs FD has made quite a few good friends there. Besides for the first few months you will not have time to leave the house, or the energy 🙂

The NCT in our area is apperently a bit, we are richer than you, my babys better than yours.

Finished ours on Monday night and learnt a hell of a lot from it. I really hadn't looked into it all that much, just assumed most things would come naturally or be common sense but I'm very glad we went as I think it was really beneficial. We'll see if it actually makes any difference when we get to the big day but it's definately made the wife a lot more relaxed about the prospect of the birth (she was gettin a wee bit nervous about the mechanics of it) and I now know how I can help with that.

Admittedly some of it was a bit hippy dippy (well the teacher was from Stroud) but everyone left their egos at the door and got involved, we even had a 95% attendance from the guys and that was only due to work commitments in one session. Everyone got on well and the girls have already organised some lunch time stuff for later in the week.

There's nothing like being in a group of people who are all scared of the same thing to generate cameraderie, reminded me of the blitz. ;o)

It's not going to be for everyone but if you're reasonably open minded I'd recommend it.

Gaz

We just went to the standard NHS one and from talking to friends who did go to the NCT ones I don't think we missed anything though we did have to mix with single mothers-to-be and poor people, neither of which did me any lasting damage 🙂

Like most of the people who say you should join the NCT to meet people, we did that just fine in our plebs version 😉

I think it depends a lot on the quality of the NCT leader / tutor in your area.

We went to the classes in Swindon and they were a waste of time and money, friends of ours in other areas of the country went to classes with other tutors and thought they were great.

Ours was very much sitting around talking about our hopes and fears with the tutor asking us questions about what we knew already instead of telling us what we needed to know.

We also moved shortly after the birth of the Beamlet so Mrs B now misses out on the whole "Thursday-morning-get-together-at-Starbucks-and-compare-notes" aspect of the NCT which I would imagine would be one of its strongest selling points.

For me it was 2 days of my life that I won't be getting back. (Oh and plus the evening at the Breast Feeding "clinic". Now that was a waste of time.)

We also moved shortly after the birth of the Beamlet so Mrs B now misses out on the whole "Thursday-morning-get-together-at-Starbucks-and-compare-notes" aspect of the NCT which I would imagine would be one of its strongest selling points.

But that happens anyway or at least it did with our NHS group. I think maybe some people think it's the NCT or nothing...

Thought it was brilliant, and as with our other pals who went through them at other times in various parts of the country, we are still very close friends with the other families we met. Our closest friends even moved out to Switzerland at the same time as us, and had their second child within a week of ours also. freaky, and all coincidental, although I fear the women folk may have been manipulating things to a degree we have not yet fully appreciated.

Husband was a kite-buggying mate of mine when we lived in the midlands, and it was a real surprise when he walked into the first NCT class.

Can't recommend highly enough.

Best memory was on the 3rd class playing footy in the hall next door with the other dads and using one of those big bouncy birthing ball things. what a hoot. One guy almost broke his neck heading it. Great goal though, so totally worth it! 😀

Kev

Yeah really good but I think it's a regional thing so experiences tend to differ.

Far from being breast feeding nazis, quite realistic about the statistics and very pro-active about the support network if it's not going well.

Plus ended up with five other couples who we've become friends with.

Our NHS local classes were massively over subscribed (30 plus people rammed into a room) and delivered with about as much energy as a flat Duracell.

Oh yeah two of the dads are quite bikey in our group so that's cool!

Pretty much the same experience as many of the posts above - we found them really useful and a nice informal atmosphere. The leader was a lovely woman and not at all pushy about BF.

We made lots of friends and are still in touch with all the couples 19 months after our twins were born.

We also went to the four week NHS course. Week one got us to the moment of birth, in week two we were told that weeks three and four wouldn't be done because of staff shortages and that session would also be cut short because she was doing it in her own time. I don't think we were actually told anything other than that.

Ohh, and one of the expectant mothers had an ASBO tag. Twas nice.

But that happens anyway or at least it did with our NHS group. I think maybe some people think it's the NCT or nothing...

Also if you're a relatively shy type like me, baby groups are really hard to make friends in.

It may not be for everyone, but it was absolutely worth it for us (including the BF lesson).

My favourite session was the one where we stood in a circle passing a 'crying baby' and demonstrated ways of stopping it crying.

the nhs classes in our area are 2 sessions in a lecture theater. I don't think anyone is going to come away from that having made friends

Ah, fair enough - ours was about 10 couples in a local NHS centre.

Ah yes, if we'd had that it would have been great. personally I think the money for us was well spent in that with out making the friends I did through NCT I would have just sat in the house after he was born and given myself PND.

MrsFlash but don't you have local baby groups that you take/took baby along to which are free of charge?

Where we live there are free groups just about every single day where you can take baby rather than paying some money over...

NCT, was great and really good for Mrs L as had a mums to meet up with after the birth too.

Funkydunc yes, but if you're the sort of person I am you don't go becasue it's all too much. With the nct meetups I don't get a choice 😉

Not bothered to read the thread. But to answer the original question, I would say our NCT lessons were well worth it. The NHS lessons were almost totally pointless from a male point of view, and my wife is now in touch with a group who have become friends in a similar situation and she feels much less isolated than she might have.
I thoroughly recommend them to anyone who asks.