Should i go to nct classes

I was completely ostracised and it def made my recovery harder. Plus our local hospital only did one 3 hour session part of which was the tour anyone could go on. Our group was lovely. Our group all got on well, and spent the year after birth catching up, going to groups together including all doing water babies together. Plus leading me to be on the NCT committee for our area which broadened my local friendship group as well.

But you have to be lucky with your area and group. A friend ended up on a course miles from home and none of her group really made friends or stayed in contact as they were all from different places. The membership was good for the Nearly New Sales though. I found the information helpful but was mostly in it for the support network.

Initially it worked well, but before long the group splintered. I was suffering with postnatal anxiety following a traumatic delivery and it made me very paranoid and sensitive. One of the girls in particular was appalling to me and eventually I removed myself from the WhatsApp group.

We even ended up a few beds down from one of the couples after Joshua was born so it was good to have someone else around going through the same experience. All round it seems that most people found some benefit from the classes, for the most part it was because of the friends they made who then helped to make the early months and years of parenthood that bit easier. Your email address will not be published. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.

That annoying bit around eight weeks when your baby inexplicably stops napping during the day? The first time you try to give Calpol to your newly vaccinated baby using that syringe thing?

The week sleep regression? It turned out, of course, that their mothers had met when they were in the same NCT group, and remained lifelong friends. So, if you get lucky, put in the time, and no-one falls out over the correct way to swaddle a newborn, you, and your child, might just make friends for life.

The result is that you might well find yourself in quite a middle-class bubble on your course. This probably depends quite heavily on where you live, but friends of mine who have lived in cooler younger and more transient parts of big cities have found that a year or so in, when second children and the need for a second or third bedroom came onto the agenda, a lot of their groups moved out of the area, in search of their own front door and outdoor space.

So try not to put too much pressure on yourself if it doesn't work out. But there have also been reports over the years of women receiving poor or no information on areas including pain relief, formula feeding and C-sections.

Two and a bit years later, and that whatsapp conversation we started shortly after first meeting is still active on a near daily basis. And as time goes on our friendships deepen as we learn more about each others lives.

I think everything positive I have to say has been covered by everyone else already! I would highly recommend NCT courses to any first time parent. I know he really values this x. I did Antenatal courses with Noobies as their course was advertised at our hospital and is run by professional midwives. I remember thinking that I wanted to do the course because I wanted to make local friends who would be having babies at the same time as me. And we chose Noobies because the content was delivered by a midwife.

My partner and I are very social and have a wide circle of friends but we knew this was something we wanted to do. We also did the NHS Antenatal class which was two mornings, and was a wealth of information and we have even kept friends from that. We did Noobies, specifically to make friends, and make friends we did! We have the most wonderful group of friends and I love chatting to them.

I even am friends with the Noobies organiser and midwife who led our course. Both have been so personal and emailed me after we had our baby and the midwife who led our course even came to see us in hospital after we had had our baby. The course content was excellent, and very open and inclusive to all views of how we each perceived our journey ahead, and of course run with spot on professional knowledge.

We felt very supported and very happy we did the course. Our baby is four months old now, we are still as social as ever with a wide circle of friends who we see for a night out or who come to visit our baby. And added to this, is our new circle of Noobies friends. It was exactly what we had hoped for and far more. I adore our new friends, and we learnt a lot and feel we have this big circle of love and support. So, for us, it was the best decision ever to sign up.

One of the main reasons that me and Al signed up to NCT rather than doing the free NHS ones was because we were hoping to make some parent friends that are local. We have some close friends who are parents, but one couple live miles from us in Wales and the other already has a 1 year old. All our other friends are spread all over the place or at different life stages.

The first sessions we were all asked what content we would like to cover, so she is tailoring the sessions to what we all want to get out of it. I think it will give him a real confidence boost to know what is happening at each stage, and how he can help with things like advocating for me if I need him to and interacting with the medical staff.

Still to come in our course is covering C-Sections, what happens at actual birth pushing, birthing placenta , what to expect post partum and caring for a new born. We also have the breast feeding session in the new year. The course was brilliant, not at all preachy although that definitely depends on your teacher I think — we covered all types of birth, drugs etc.

I went to a separate feeding class at my hospital NHS which was far better and definitely more informative, definitely suggest looking it up if you are keen to try breastfeeding as the detail was brilliant in terms of how you get a tiny baby to feed, not just positions. But my NCT lot are all having second children at the same time, so no doubt we will reconnect on that front again. And also practicing how to put on a nappy!!!

Silly as that sounds none of us had a clue about which way they went… There are loads of different types of courses, we went for a two-weekend condensed version that suited us really well. And actually the dads connected really well, I think people forget about the dads but it is important for them too.

My husband has curry nights with the dads every now and again, which is lovely for him too and of course dads to meet up with for play dates.

In the summer holidays they put on an event nearly every day. They do amazingly well considering they also have jobs and lives of their own. They helped me so much when I felt very lonely on maternity leave. The eldest of 4 kids with big gaps meant that I knew quite a bit about looking after babies — how to put on a nappy etc. But it gave some much useful info about birthing and how your husband can help and their role.

It was so useful for my husband to prepare him although from farming background does help!!! They did promote breastfeeding — after all it is the best for babies in most circumstances — but also gave some advice on combi feeding. Interesting most of the group did breastfeed or combi feed — I think only 1 out of 8 did exclusively bottle. So for this reason it is good they cover breastfeeding in detail.

They did say where else to get help if you were struggling. The course leaders just gave us our options and courage that we could ask for or not for things eg water birth, loud music, dimmed lights, ALL the drugs if you wanted!

Also our bf course leader became my hypnobirthing guru for baby no 2 — worth the money for Nct just to meet her — my angel. It was a small class with only 5 sets of parents and we we were spread geographically across 20 miles so not in any way neighbours.

It was not a fun, supportive group! Not something someone with pus filled nipples wanted to hear! In the end I made most of my friends at the local breast feeding support group.

They were local, supportive and the kind of women who id happily share a glass of wine with as much as a cup of tea and a biscuit. We did NCT and were so glad we did. Something not many people have touched on is how useful it can be for your partner. James learnt so much on the course and just as us mums used our WhatsApp group to help us through so did the boys. They do treat NCT as a bit of a drinking club though and decided a heavy night out together a couple of weeks before the babies were due was a great idea — they were wrong!!!

I will absolutely hold my hand up and say I could initially relate to the Grazia article. My own midwife recommended an antenatal class that was run by NHS Midwives to me that she was actually going to be teaching at, Noobies Antenatal.

As soon as I looked at their site I knew it was for me. Noobies seemed so much fresher and personal than NCT did, and the fact it was run by Midwives from the hospital I knew I would give birth at just made so much sense for us. Noobies gave us all the information and support we needed going into what we now know can be an unpredictable situation.

The friends I met at Noobies have made the sometimes dark times you face as a new Mum so much brighter. Our teacher Sam was super lovely, not at all judgemental and really helped us to make informed choices. Hannah who ran the breastfeeding session was amazing — definitely not pushy!

She came out to me on day three, when I was a crying mess and patiently sat with me until I managed to latch my baby without pain. She also supported me with my second baby this year. I feel very sad when I read negative things about the NCT as they were the most helpful thing we did.

I had also heard mixed reviews. We did the NHS antenatal one day course which was ok but no use for Meeting people. I was very conscious of not doing NCT and so made a real effort to meet other pregnant people in advance of having the baby, mainly through work.

I also researched local baby groups as well in advance of baby arriving. I then went along to a couple of baby groups and a breastfeeding group where I met other mums who have become friends. I have been amazed at how the shared experience of new motherhood means making friends is suddenly so much easier. Friends who have done NCT have sometimes found it amazing for meeting people, others not so much.

And as with everything so much depends on the teacher I think. We booked too late to get onto the NCT classes in our area as they were all fully booked — Cue irrational, pregnancy hormone induced crying session. I had heard great things and was so disappointed to miss out. My advice is get out to a group or two ASAP as a tiny squishy new born is a great ice breaker and be brave.

I found my NCT experience is very similar to a lot of the lovely comments here: a support group of women with whom you can feel immidatiely connected to. I would add that while I knew a large amount of what we were taught, my husband did not and our wonderful course leader ensured that the men were neither overwhelmed or bored by the content.

Finally, we were given a very balanced talk on all different types of birth and both breastfeeding and bottle feeding were discussed equally although the focus did naturally fall on breastfeeding as all of us out of 8 had said we would like to try it. In summary- loved it! I would recommend it to all, just go and see if you like it, if you dont you dont have to go again. I dont understand why the promotion of breastfeeding is a bad thing — if anything it gave me more belief in my body and myself!

It helped my husband and I to realise the effort and struggles we were likely to face so that we didnt feel like the only ones struggling. The friendship network was invaluable no matter how supportive other mums are — unless they have a newborn they wont be up at 3 am like your NCT buddies.

I had NO idea about birthing types and my NCT yoga helped me to have inner confidence as well as know my options, our group NCT classes helped my husband to understand how he could help and come to terms with his life changes too.

I was introduced to an already established group of friends who regularly met for lunch post play group weekly, I am generally a shy person and I find it hard to put myself out there but they were so lovely, plus they had wine over lunch, I knew there and then they were keepers!!

I love those ladies. I would say never discount the opportunity for new friendships, it may not work out that way but what have you lost by trying. I realise I am suuuuuper late to this party. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

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