NCT Antenatal classes - worth it?

Woby_Tide

musical_norwich wrote: »

I am a bloke so I don't know how useful you will find my feedback, but, as far as I can make out the main reason why people do NCT, if they live in a city like we do, is to meet other middle class mums and dads to be. The 16 year old kids with the scrunchie-induced Croydon facelifts tend to predominate in the NHS classes. That frankly I think is the truth.

Sounds more like a reason not to go if you end up coming out of them with such blinkered views. Surely a few copies of the Daily Mail would have been cheaper?

rls1973

no, i agree with musical norwich and i am a woman!

we went to nct classes which were £50 , that was 9 yrs ago (god has it been that long)

i'm afraid it just wasn't for us, although obviously lots of people disagree with that and find it useful.

i just didn't find anything there that wasn't available on nhs or in pregnancy books. and also we couldn't stop laughing because the teacher had all of us doing our pelvic floor exercises, even the men, while squatting and sliding up and down the wall "and you locate those muscles by isolating the ones you use to stop you from peeing"
(when everyone knows that in real labour, you just pee wherever you are at the time!)

for me, too much was made of the 'natural' approach. even before i'd had my first contraction, i knew i didn't want to suffer in this day and age, so why should i?
i worry that first time mums, which it mainly is, are made to feel somehow wrong for having pain relief, and don't get me started on people who can't breastfeed being made to feel bad:sometimes there is a reason....
you could go through all your labour and birth without so much as a paracetomol, and guess what, no-one cares or gives you a medal. don't suffer!
i found the breathing techniques and the position advice, just obvious and natural: you know when you stub your toe, and you automatically breathe in and out really fast and rub it really hard to numb it? well, it's like that-a natural instinct.
i think £200 is outrageous, although i know a lot of people swear by nct, which is great if it helps, whatever works for the individual.

jozshi

We did NCT classes recently (our little boy's 9 weeks old today ) and we had the same concerns as you Agutka...i.e. lots of other things we needed the money for, but also completely clueless about anything baby-related! We had to do the 2 day sessions as well, as the weekly ones were all booked up so early. Both me and my hubby would recommend them to absolutely anyone. Admittedly in our area the NHS provision is only 2x 2hour sessions, which definitely enhanced my need for more preparation!! (even though I must have read every book I could get my hands on!) We made great friends with the other 7 couples and the mums are meeting up regularly now that all of the babies have arrived. The dads are coming along too when we all have a BBQ next month Our classes were only £115ish (I say 'only' meaning relative to your £200!) but by the end of the 2nd day, we both felt it had been worth every penny. We didn't necessarily learn anything that was not mentioned in our NHS classes or in all the literature I'd read, but it was great to have the time to discuss issues in more detail and the class teacher allowed us all to chip in and really talk through pros and cons.

As for not bonding in 2 days, I think you'll be surprised how quickly one bonds with people when you're using words like 'vagina' and 'mucus plug' within a few hours of meeting!!

patchwork_cat

Hi
I did NCT classes with DS. There were about 8 2 hr sessions. MAde some good friends that I stayed in touch with for a few years. It is a long time ago, but they were much better than those offered at the hospital.
Some of the exercises were useless like the one where you had to try and divide up your day after the baby and say how much time each thing would take. Absolutely pointless as we hadn't a clue and things take as long as they take.

Would I take them given what I know now, yes probably as you aren't given enough info. at NHS ones. 2X8 hr sessions that will be 2X one hell of a day on a beanbag!

inkie

This thread has got me thinking - I am a Registered Midwife, not currently employed as one, but still registered. Do you think that there would be some mileage in a professional like me (I have also done the ante-natal education course), running a series of classes privately on the same lines as NCT ones - i.e. available to couples? If so - what do people think would be a reasonable price to pay? TIA inkie

themaccas

I'm sure that many NCT classes are very good and they certainly fill a 'gap' left by the withdrawal of many NHS classes due to lack of funding. However the one that I observed was in my view, dangerous. The advice the NCT teacher gave out was really awful and I ended up reporting her.

bylromarha

inkie wrote: »

This thread has got me thinking - I am a Registered Midwife, not currently employed as one, but still registered. Do you think that there would be some mileage in a professional like me (I have also done the ante-natal education course), running a series of classes privately on the same lines as NCT ones - i.e. available to couples? If so - what do people think would be a reasonable price to pay? TIA inkie

GO for it.

Nothing lost except a bit of money on advertising. Don't forget to talk to Inland revenue before you set up tho.

You'ld have an excellent base of people to go to to find pregnant mums...no doubt your church runs mums and tots, so ready source available there:D

patchwork_cat

Hi
Yes Inkie give it a go. Bearing in mind that the NCT classes are £200 say £100 to £150 . You could make it a social thing as well. I certainly would have liked to have a registered midwife available when mine where tiny as a 'friend' to ring and ask questions to.

Hapless_2

I never attended any childbirth classes, I have 4 kids. I used a tens machine on 2 occasions until they could get someone to administer epidural (had to have due to other non preg reasons).
I went and bought a tens backache and muscle pain.after for stuff like

1012donna

I didn't attend any ante-natal classes with my first as we were in a remote German town and only saw a British midwife 3 times in my pregnancy. With my 2nd we were in England but I wasn't offered any classes.