Joining NCT or not

choccielover

You dont just have to go to the clases to meet people. The nct runs things like coffee mornings which are free and.you dont have to be a member to join in with.

I did the course and found it excellent. A real balanced view on both breastfeeding and pain relief.

There are also the nearly new sales which are great if you want to grab a bargain.

I also did our nhs "active birth" session and was horrified. it was jist terrible and more anti pain relief than anyone at the nct.
However, some of the nhs classes were good (waterbirth, aromatherapy, the dads class)

The nct do offer discounts too so its always worth a look on their website i think.

Congratulations on your pregnancy and i am sure you will find lots to do and lots of lovely mums to do things with

choccie

Charlie23

I would investigate what your childrens centres/nhs do locally to you. when i had my dd (now 5) there were free ante natal classes and baby groups to go to. I made amazing friends there, our children all go to different schools but we still manage to meet up during holidays or with our younger ones (we all had second children within a year of each other) and meals out in the evening.
I knew nobody locally when i had my dd and to be honest the wonderful ladies i met have probably saved my sanity and made my family life miles better- a group of women with the same relationship/child/family problemsmeans you can talk about anything and everything.
In the last 5.5 years we have seen 14( soon 15) children born, 3 weddings, a divorce, people moving, bankruptcy, home loss, post natal depression, redundancy and job loss every few months. One thing whice has stayed positive and the same is our friendship and love for our children.
Congratulations on your pregnancy. I hope you gain wonderful friends that are there no matter what! :-)

NorthStar

TBH I didnt learn much from the classes as I'd done a huge amount of research and reading, however, it was great for my husband to b there and he learnt loads and is was useful as a way of us discussing options together.

I valued having the friendships I made fom the classes, I worked right up to having my daughter and didnt do anything else antenatally so it was nice to hav these new contacts as oon as my baby was born as in the first few weeks I wasn't in the right place to make new friends.

For me the money was worth it, bu it certainly wasn't an essential expense of me.

dizziblonde

choccielover wrote: »

I also did our nhs "active birth" session and was horrified. it was jist terrible and more anti pain relief than anyone at the nct.
However, some of the nhs classes were good (waterbirth, aromatherapy, the dads class)

I found our NHS one to be selling some kind of dream really - they promised a lot, but the reality of what the hospital underwriting all of this actually offered was just shocking. I wish they'd done more on non-"conventional" births - instead of just passing the forceps around for everyone to cringe at - preparing you for the reality of this sort of thing, even just in terms of the sheer number of people present, would have helped a tonne.

As for pain relief - well considering the shambolic nature of our hospital in actually delivering the aforementioned pain relief - I think it was a waste of time talking about it at all really!

About the only thing that my classes mentioned being available that actually was - was the aromatherapy... you can't sit down around here for 2 seconds without someone trying to accost you with a bottle of ylang-ylang or something! (Personally I find the aromatherapy obsession around here hilarious to watch)

It's just not my cup of tea - I find them a rather artificial idea of friendship - yes, I've made some friends around here on a maternity ward - but this idea of universal acceptance based upon a shared due date... follow that to its logical conclusion and you'd be sunshine and rainbows with the family with 96 visitors in the next bed on the post-natal ward, with the toddler pulling the curtains away from around your bed, the world's most obnoxious ringtone going off every 90 seconds and a baby allowed to scream all night (can you tell I'm getting really cheesed off staying on one of these wards?!)... however in reality - you're not going to feel much other than the urge to murder that kind of bed-neighbours, and you're going to assume they're not the "sort" to be in your NCT group - so yes, it comes back to a traditional socio-economic catchment and mindset really and the idea of paying for the course PLUS a somewhat pre-screened group of mummy friends.

Plus I'd be appalling at competitive parenting!

Thegirl

I joined whilst pregnant and did the antenatal class. They don't offer any antenatal classes on the NHS in my area.

Good things:
Our teacher was brilliant, lesson plans were decided by our concerns so we were all (mainly) happy with the content.
Most of the couples were lovely-still in touch, kids now 18 months old.
You don't need to be a member to attend any NCT events, normally £1 entrance fees, but priority to nearly new sales and things will go to members.
Good library if you want to borrow birth/child related books.
Ours really pushed you to investigate things yourself.

Bad things:
Not specific to the NCT but our experience of it. One of the couples were awful people. Soooo patronising (telling one of the girls, who happened to have an english degree, how to spell birth, telling the breast-feeding councillor that she was wrong and totally disrupting the breast-feeding meeting). They tried to completely take over the classes and the agenda, it was a battle getting them to shut up and do what we were there for, learning.
The wife of this couple now virtually runs our local branch which is why I am not a member of the NCT anymore (I do still attend some of their events in other areas though).

If I had to levy a criticism at local groups it would be that because everyone is so nice that people who aren't can take over.
Also, a bit pricey at £240 for the course, but if you are on certain benefits this was vastly reduced or free. It was worth every penny for the friends I made.