NCT classes

D3bbie

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Are NCT classes worth it?

My local hospital does one 2-hour antenatal course and that's it. The NCT one is quite a few sessions but is about £200 in my area. Is it worth the money as a first time mum?


 
I found a free course via my local council website - it led me to phone my nearest health/children's centre and make sure I was on the course - that was 6 sessions (having the last one next Wednesday). I couldn't afford the NCT ones! I've heard the NCT ones are great, but I've gotten quite a lot out of these free ones too. I'm a FTM and have no idea really what I'm doing, so it helped! Was good to meet with other mums at a similar stage too. Those classes started when I was around 27 weeks I think and were run by health visitors, though one week we had a midwife in to do a session.
That course was called Preparation For Birth and Beyond... maybe there's something similar for your area? :)
 
We've booked onto the NCT classes but haven't done them yet so can't receommend them or not. All our friends who have done them highly receommend them. In our area the NHS classes are 3 sessions of 2 hours each and run by the midwives from the hospital who know the hospital policies etc, so were doing those as well :) xx
 
Everyone tells me to do the NCT courses but they're just so expensive and I'm not sure I can justify it!!! Going to do a baby first aid course through them, that's £45 per couple or £25 per person. I'm just sticking with the day parenting course I'm doing at the hospital x
 
I did NCT with my son and found them brilliant. Very in depth.
There is also the social aspect....you are meeting first time parents from your area. I found this brilliant once my son was born....having people to meet up with and swap tips etc. Over 4 years later, the 8 of us are still in touch weekly and meet ip quite regularly.
If you can afford it, I would def recommend
 
Friends have told us to do them however they do cost alot of money and we can't afford it. I'm just doing antenatal classes booked through hospital. I will however attend the coffee mornings NCT do when I leave work in 6 weeks. These are free and it's a great way to meet other local parents. Obviously you don't get the information part but I'm more interested in maybe meeting people. If I could afford it then I would go. I won two gift cards for St Jones so we will be doing a baby first aid course too.
 
My Mum still speaks to the other mums from her group from having me, and I'm 35 in a few months :shock:
 
Oh I'll look into the coffee mornings as that sounds good.

They don't seem to do an October due date course just a sept and Nov one in my area. Which would mean the course would finish 10 weeks before my due date. That seems really early. I'm due 30th sept.


 
I'd ping them an email if you are interested and they can advise which they would recommend doing. We have just finished ours, really informative and great if nothing else for the networking and meeting other parents to be! I think the smaller groups and longer courses give you a chance to bond with the group more than shorter courses, if you can afford to do them then i would recommend.
 
I've put off recently as they had a security breach and lost a lot of data for their members, not sure if this included credit card details of any payments.
 
Biggest benefit of ours was that my son & I still regularly see a couple of the other Mums & babies, in fact I class one of them as my best 'mummy' friend now.... and we are both now pregnant with #2 so automatic new baby companion!

I research everything to death myself anyway, so in honesty I knew just as much as the lady taking the class - but it was still an enjoyable experience & great as something my DH could get involved in whilst I was pregnant.
 
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I've signed up for an nct refresher course which is for people on their second or more baby. It's £70 but let's you pay in two payments of £35. With my first baby I did the antenatal run by my local hospital and found it useful but didn't make why friends. I'm hoping with the nct I'll meet some mummies with babies and toddlers who know where I'm coming from xxx
 
I think nct classes are great, we made friends with 7 other couples in our area expecting at the same time and for me during my time off my nct friends were my rock! We went to bumps and babies (the nct coffee mornings) but the ladies who didn't do classes admitted to struggling socially there as the nct groups already had their friend circle set up. That's the one thing to be mindful of, as a lot of people made there friends in classes and dont really have the interest in making new friends. (sounds harsh but they all have new babies, lots to do and are just preoccupied!) not everyone was like it and definitely not intentional. I actually plan on doing another class for second timers this time round to meet mums who already have other kids.

There are free options places but in my area you tend to get a different type of people there. The hospital run classes I was told to avoid as in my area...

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Thanks ladies, you've convinced me. I'm relatively new to the area anyway and don't have friends locally so the social side is definitely something I want out of it.


 
NCT was best thing I ever did! Specially in the early days we used to meet us weekly for a year after the babies were born and in the early days got me through so much!

Our NCT group have just celebrated our little ones 2nd birthdays together by a massive trip to the zoo. You will make friends for life.


 
We didn't bother with anything more than the New class and we,were fine. I think a lot of parenting is commonsense so I don't o personally find them necessary. I couldnt justify spending money on stuff like that. They go through a lot in hospital. After baby is born if you ask.
 
I was too slow to get on the course in my area, so have booked into one across town. Not ideal, but we live in quite a small city so hopefully we'll still meet people to stay in touch with. I've heard so many good things about the courses!
 

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