Is NCT Antenatal class worth it?

[midivydale]

Jj55 have made great points and like her i did not have the funds for nct. The dulwich hospital group covered most things just fine. My advice would be that if your main reasons for joining nct are social to make friends then there are other ways. The forum has opened up a whole new world to me and i too have met some great friends with other mums.

[kerry.finlay]

Hi

For me the NCT charge was too much for us at the time and I felt that I could learn all I needed to know from books, online, friends and the NHS classes. For the social side, you are on it already - I found all my mummy friends through the baby group on the forum. I thought the NHS class we did was great and everything we needed to know. And I've met some really lovely friends for support on this forum. So for me I didn't need NCT classes.

Good luck!

[Ramble66]

Thanks ladies,

Lots of great advice, it's been really helpful. By the sounds of it it's great if you do it but mainly for social reasons and I will make friends if I don't. I just need to make the effort. We are so lucky to have a great forum and lots of different meet ups around.

At the moment I think the money will be better spent elsewhere. If we had it spare then I'd go for it but as money will be tight and there is a good chance I'll have to stop work earlier than I'd like I might save the pennies.

THanks again.

[millymoll]

I'm sure it doesn't matter where you do an ante-natal class - NCT, free hospital or whatever but I do think it's fantastic

to be a part of a group of people all experiencing the same thing. My children are now 16 and 13 but we are still in

touch with some of the NCT group we joined at the time and I have really strong memories of us all supporting one another

during the inevitable worries and then having people to spend time with when we had newborn babies - a really isolating

time for lots of people. As for the "just like you" comment, that wasn't really the case, but perhaps back then it wasn't

expensive, we wouldn't have been able to afford it if it had been... Anyway, hope you find some group that suits.

[etta166]

I would really recommend the NCT classes, but I realize that this is a totally personal opinion and that they wouldn't be right for everyone. I consider that it is one of the best investments that I made in spending money on my children. I have made really good friends who live in my local area, and their support has been invaluable over the last 3-4 years. Our children are all friends with each other as well, which is lovely.

I'm not endorsing it as anything other than a means to make friends that are "just like you" and about to experience the same thing together... I don't consider that to be a bad thing. We usually make lasting relationships with people because we have something in common with them, and in a way the NCT class helped me to find a like-minded group of couples in my area who were all about to have a first child.

I'm not sure that I really learned that much from the course, and my partner didn't really take much in. I didn't actually agree with the teacher a lot of the time (thought the info about the downsides of intervention was really OTT and not based on research at all, and the pressure for home/drug free births was immense). I acknowledge that not all NCT classes are like this, but mine was very centred around preparing for a "natural" birth.

Second time around, I didn't do any antenatal classes so the experience was quite different. I am lucky to have friends on my road with similar aged (some second, some first) children as well. It gave me a good social circle when I was on maternity leave, and has given my second child some similar aged friends that live locally without having to wait until school age for that to happen.

Good luck with whatever decision you make, and enjoy parenthood - it's great :)

[Ramble66]

Thanks ladies.

Think we're going to do it.

It doesn't seem many regret spending the money.