NCT membership

jellyhead

i wish i'd asked about mine lol! midwife told me there were classes but i later found out that i wasn't allowed to go to them not being a first timer. they allowed me to go to the labour class and it was rubbish, everyone left more worried than they'd started!

Ellie2758

Just to commiserate with the last two posters. How much worse do things have to get in the NHS????? Unbelievable. I attended NCT and NHS classes. NCT were far better but that is not to say that the NHS ones werent any good, plus I met some good friends through them.

Ellie

jellyhead

yes i'd have liked to join in the NHS classes, i may not be a first timer but my other baby was 9 years ago and i was pretty much unconscious when induced, so i don't know anything about labour. the woman taking the classes wasn't very good though, she explained things badly, there were a lot of blank faces and people asking each other what she meant during the breaks. everyone came out saying they were more frightened about labour than they had been before the class, and when somebody asked about breathing techniques she said we didn't need to bother with all that nowadays, just have an epidural and we'd be fine! i'm glad i bought the miriam stoppard book or i'd know nothing.

Ellie2758

Not bother about breathing techniques???? Good grief. _pale_ Speechless.

Ellie

s@sha

Yes, I would still have gone to the NHS classes had they been running, as I could have started those now & then if baby came early at least I would have had some classes. Got to be honest, it doesn't inspire me with much confidence knowing the classes are cancelled because of a midwife shortage...I hope they've got enough to cope when I'm actually giving birth!

I know classes are not essential, people have been giving birth for ever & managed without classes...but you do tend to think that they must be offering them for a reason, so when you don't get them you worry a bit. My midwife did say she would run through what I would be missing in a one-to-one with me, and I can still have a tour of the maternity wards, so I suppose I'm not missing too much. I nearly didn't book the NCT class though, as I honestly thought the NHS classes would be back on in July...I'd be really mad now if I hadn't.

CDP

Jelly head

Have you thought about contacting your local NCT branch to see if there are any spaces? Alternatively some NCT teachers run 1 to 1 session with couples too which can be useful for 2nd timers.

Give them a bell. Where in the UK are you?

CDP

sooz

i tried to get nct classes when we moved house at 30 weeks pregnancy...having moved areas so missed out on nhs ones. they were fully booked. lovely nhs midwife managed to get me onto a single class at 38 weeks, which was ok. however, despite not having joined the nct, they were wonderful. called me with a postnatal class cancellation - think i had asked to be put on cancellation list - when my son was one week old.

in my area a 6 lesson postnatal class cost 50 pounds - discounts for those on low incomes were available, and this was soooo much more useful than any pre-natal classes. i got to sit in her house for 2 hours at a time, with 7 other new mums, and she would make us cups of tea, and pass tissues for those with pnd, and hold and rock our children whilst they screamed, so we could talk and drink tea. later on, in the same area, same structure of classes was run in a church hall, drop in at 50p per session. nowhere near as good.

i met some lovely people, who i still meet up with regularly over 2 years later, and the fact that we'd paid to go in advance gave us an incentive to get out of the house in those early days.

our nct leader didn't push breast feeding too much, but said some others did, however on the last session handed out loads of nct freebies, all covered in 'breast is best' slogans......


would certainly recommend thier private postnatal classes

HappySad

s&#64 wrote: »

I was just wondering what made people decide to pay for the NCT ante-natal classes, rather than use the free ones provided by the NHS? Or did you go to both?

I'm 3 months pregnant, and had heard of the NCT, but didn't know they provided classes until reading this thread. It seems like I'm going to have to decide quickly which classes to go to...what is better about the NCT ones that make them worth paying for?

Also, my midwife told me breastfeeding support is available to me on NHS as well..again, what is different about the support you get from the NCT?

I went to the NCT and the free NHS antenatal classes. They were both good and I would recommend that you go to both. I was disappointed that the NCT class did not cover bottle feeding...but covered breast feeding at great length. The NCT breast feeding helpline was fantastic!!! I also had a home visit from a breast feeding counsellor who was even better!!!

Thanks NCT :rotfl:

HappySad

building

if you are on tax credits membership is £1! hope that helps!

Counting_Pennies_2

HappySad wrote:

I was disappointed that the NCT class did not cover bottle feeding...but covered breast feeding at great length. The NCT breast feeding helpline was fantastic!!! I also had a home visit from a breast feeding counsellor who was even better!!!

Thanks NCT :rotfl:

HappySad

Apparently there is some ridiculous guideline that states no health professional is allowed to give instructions on bottle feeding due to a danger of the guidelines being different to that of the manufacturer. Crazy I know but neither my NCT or health visitor were allowed to inform us. Just told to follow manu instructions!