NCT - Is it worth it?

Counting_Pennies_2

The two biggest benefits for me were:

The antenatal class, where I gained a huge amount of invaluable information, not available on my NHS group, and have now formed fantastic friendships with 5 other couples, who have all become a second family to me, in fact more helpful than my actual family!

The other was the breastfeeding helpline, which encouraged me to carry on and gave me a great deal of support

I have also attended and helped out at nearly new sales (if you become a member you tend to get the first 15 minutes of the sale exclusively with other members, often getting the best bargains)

For me it was a case of supporting charity when I joined giving back to an organisation who helped me immensly.

I highly recommend it.

sanfrancisco

Wow. Thanks for so many responses. Almost overwhelmingly positive.

I feel really inspired to join now. Fortunately I get ante-natal on the NHS, but will definitely look at nearly new sales and maybe coffee mornings later.

Thanks again. Totally comprehensive. I have no questions left!

Coupon-mad

I have 4 kiddies, all under 13 now and have never found the need to be a member of the NCT. I too found it too expensive to consider, when you could pop to your local Mums & Toddlers groups for the cost of a cuppa and make friends there. Try out a few local groups, you'll soon know which you and your child prefer.

BUT the nearly new sales have been fantastic, I have bought and sold regularly for years so hats off to the NCT for the hard work in organising these! Here's a link to your nearest nearly New sales, put in your postcode and it should come up with the Spring dates/times:

http://www.nct.org.uk/local/events

HTH

JuJu_3

The NCT nearly new sales are great. The best way to get the biggest bargains is to volunteer to help - there's usually a "helpers required" phone number on the posters advertising the sale. That way you get first choice of the bargains, for just a few hours of (easy) work.
I've never been a member, but they have always been happy for me to help.
Ju

black-saturn

inkie wrote:

I think that you need to test the water of your local group - I went to an NCT P &T and found it very cliquey - a lot of 'in' jokes and people even ignoring me and DD - not for me. However, I make money by selling in their NN sales twice per year!

This was what I found at my local NCT group. Plus I found that all the families in it were all well to do with lots of money, houses with pools and husbands with highly paid jobs. Someone like me living in a small 2 bedroomed house as a lone parent on a low income might feel a bit out of their league.

dondo

Hi there

Myself and our wife attended the NCT classes prior to the birth of our 1st child last November- we just paid for the classes not membership- and I can highly recommend it.

The main reasons we went to them was

1)Friends who had kids recommended them
2) Our NHS classes were cut from 6 sessions to 3 due to staff shortages (and in the end we only made 2 as daughter was born 5 weeks early)

The NCT classes were excellent and I would highly recommended them as you get a lot of good information and due to the size of the class compared to the NHS one (8 couples on NCT vs about 25-30 on NHS) there was a much more social aspect to the NCT ones and we are still in touch with everyone from our NCT classes and the girls meet up every week. We are fortunate too that 2 or 3 of the couple live close by

So in summary - you probably would get a lot of the same info on both classes ( I would say do both ante natal classes as the NHS ones will give the info that is pertinent to that particular hospital) but for the social/share experiences side of things the NCT can't be beat

inkie

Quote:
Originally Posted by inkie
I think that you need to test the water of your local group - I went to an NCT P &T and found it very cliquey - a lot of 'in' jokes and people even ignoring me and DD - not for me. However, I make money by selling in their NN sales twice per year!



This was what I found at my local NCT group. Plus I found that all the families in it were all well to do with lots of money, houses with pools and husbands with highly paid jobs. Someone like me living in a small 2 bedroomed house as a lone parent on a low income might feel a bit out of their league.

Forgot to add that when they did find it within themselves to speak that they were so patronising, and talking to me about baby/pregnancy etc as if I was thick - and they knew I was a Midwife!!