Booking NCT Classes

[sillywoman]

I'm following the homebirth thread with mounting horror, and have been prompted to post.

Recently it's come to my attention that not all NCT Antenatal teachers teach the same topics. It seems that there are some teachers who chose to take, what some might term a "positive birth" approach to teaching antenatal classes. That is to say that these teachers might chose not to cover issues such as Assisted Births (forceps or ventouse), Induction of labour, or Caesarean Birth in their courses.

Personally, I cannot debate the rights and wrongs of this approach on this forum, but what I wanted to say was this;

If you are booking an NCT class please double check that you are getting a class that will provide the information you want/ need. For some of you that will be a 'positive birth' class, others would like a more comprehensive approach.

Most Antenatal teachers local to us take the comprehensive approach, but not all. Please make sure that your course is the right one for you. Ask when you book.

SW

[Yak]

That is really helpful advice, SW. My experience of trying to book through the NCT website was that all the courses looked pretty similar in terms of coverage, and we booked simply on the basis of availability of a class that both me and my husband could attend. Even though we booked quite early, availability was slim.

If I ever did an NCT class again, I would definitely ring up and have a chat with the teacher beforehand, to get a sense of what I was getting for my (not inconsiderable amount of) money.

[srisky]

Great advice, Sillywoman.

I had heard similar stories about NCT teachers pushing home birth/natural birth from friends (not in this area) and, therefore, I completely avoided NCT and booked my antenatal classes with an independent midwife.

Is there some way in which you could provide this (albeit anectodotal) feedback to the NCT organisers?

I appreciate that some women would prefer the 'positive birth' classes but they should also be informed of assisted delivery/c-sections/epidurals etc in a less negative manner so should their delivery go down this route then they don't feel guilty, isolated etc.

[sillywoman]

srisky Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> Is there some way in which you could provide this

> (albeit anectodotal) feedback to the NCT

> organisers?

>

>

Ideally yes, but as ever where big institutions are involved, there seems to be something of a 'disconnect' between what those of us working with women & couples know, and what those working within the management mechanism of the charity seem able to hear & understand. Hence me posting on here.

[oimissus]

i am about the only person I know who liked her NCT class, simply because everything, home birth through to epidurals and c-sections, was discussed - the very first thing the teacher said was 'NCT - the NATIONAL Childbirth Trust, not the NATURAL Childbirth Trust', which reassured us all - but other people's experience seems to have been dippy-hippyish at best, and downright unhelpful at worst. And we had quite a bit on the first few weeks at home. With the best will in the world, mainly women will end up having an assisted birth to some level and I think it's very irresponsible not to prepare people for what might happen, in an informative, non-scaremongering way. I was so surprised when I found out not everyone's experience of the NCT was as good as ours.

[neilly1973]

my NCT teacher was AMAZING - and all of us that did her class thought the same.... in fact I have friends who did their NCT with tessa going back 5 years - all of us love her.... she gave a balanced view on ALL the options. She's ED based (from her home).

good luck

[emmylondon]

Very helpful reviews!

I have to book my NCT course (first time mum and also from abroad) and hopefully will get a complete course;)

[neilly1973]

book asap if you want tessa... she get's booked up very very early!

[oimissus]

mine was Becky in Nunhead, I thoroughly recommend her.

[anyjoy]

I can also recommend becky in nunhead for realistic, balanced and thorough teaching and advice. We all thought it very worthwhile...the breastfeeding workshop however was useless and would recommend the nhs one over the nct one!

[Mathilda]

I too had a bad impression of the NCT, I did the free NHS classes instead which were great. I've since heard that NCT in this area is good though.

NHS breastfeeding workshop has some useful advice but is more than a little odd and really piles on the pressure I thought. So treat with caution!

[DishandtheSpoon]

I had Sarah Savaskan in Herne Hill and really enjoyed the classes. She seemed pretty realistic about how things might turn out, as a Mum of 4 hersef it helped. The 5 of us still meet, 3 years on, and I really think that alone was worth the money.

I have been a tea host myself for SE15 for the last 2 years, which has been great for meeting lots of other local Mums.

[Avelana]

Dear Anyjoy,

I've been reading back through old posts & came across this thread. It must be almost a year ago now that you had your NCT bf session but I felt I must reply as it would have been led by me.

Reading that what we covered was "useless" for you was very difficult. However, I care passionately about support for new parents here in se London and can see that you weren't happy with the information covered.

If you have time, it would be a great help if you could contact me privately to discuss what I could do to improve the session. All my clients are offered an opportunity to provide feedback to NCT after course completion - I hope you were able to. Feedback is sometimes difficult but always helpful in the long run, for our practice but most importantly for the parents (& babies).

I've supported families in se London for well over 10 years; my aim is & has always been to be a positive help at an often difficult time. I endeavour to continually improve my service, through reflective practice & ongoing education. I try to provide an informed, relaxed & humorous approach to a tricky subject. When hosting antenatal classes I aim to be warm & approachable so that new parents feel able to seek help post natally. I currently support around 300 families each year as a voluntary BFC offering phone support & 1-1 at Deptford BF Group on Tuesday mornings. I offer private bf support as an IBCLC & have contracts with Lewisham & Greenwich PCTs training local mothers as peer supporters. I strongly hope I am regularly a great deal better than you have described, though of course - being human - I may have the odd 'off day'.

I'm really very glad that I've read your comment as it's given me the opportunity to revise and revisit my bf class to make sure it works as well as possible for the majority of my Mums and Dads. I do hope you will feel that you can contact me to let me know your opinion on how it can be improved.

Warm regards,

Hazel

[cornelia]

Hi Hazel, I also took one of your classes, but as I didn't give feedback afterwards, here are some thoughts I've had after the fact.

My NCT class discussed our breastfeeding issues a lot - on the whole we weren't very successful - and I don't think any of us realised how hard it was, nor how the various midwives, GPs, paediatricians, health visitors that you encounter would all have contradictory views and some even undermine breastfeeding (for example, there were Cow & Gate information leaflets at my GP surgery, and one GP actually told me that if I can only get one ounce of milk per pumping session then clearly my baby needs formula - true about needing the formula, but not because I couldn't pump! A paediatrician told me when my baby was five days old that I should feed every 3-4 hours).

So basically, what I would say is, the class just doesn't prepare you for the reality of breastfeeding in SE London in 2011 (or 2012, I presume) - I guess it must be hard to strike a balance between wanting to provide a warning and wanting to help build confidence.... in a way I wish I had been warned, because with the amount of cash I've handed over to formula-producers I could have paid several private lactation consultants! Which would doubtless have been better for my baby.

Ah well... maybe next time.

[simonethebeaver]

Hi Hazel

I also took your class. I have to say if I could change something it would be to spend less time talking about photos of baby animals and more time on actual discussion and information about BFing. I also found the NHS class better for me because it was far more factual and down to it. I felt that your class spent too much time selling us on BFing and not enough time preparing us for it.

Having said that, neither class covered what turned out to be my problem, which was supply. No one mentioned cluster feeding, which is so common, and a real reason why people give up as they think they can't meet their baby's needs. Also there is a message that anyone can feed their baby when in reality lots of women struggle with supply. I desperately wanted to exclusively BF and I ended up mix feeding after my HV and Katie Fisher at the Tongue Tie clinic scared me stupid over my daughter's slow weight gain. I have IGT, which is rare but checked for pre-natally in Norway I noticed on the NHS video, but others have their own reasons to struggle with supply, and had I known it could be an issue I would have sought help sooner and perhaps managed to preserve exclusive BFing. Also I never managed to get through on any breastfeeding lines.

Saying all that, I am still BFing my ten month old. But I have spent a fortune on various substances, pump hire, LCs etc to get here!

[Avelana]

Apologies this was meant to be a private post, my mistake.

[hellosailor]

have pm you