NCT Evening classes

[mrs f]

Hello everyone,

I was just trying to find an NCT evening class (as both myself and mr f work full time) or even a weekend one. I'm due at the end of March and I was looking on the NCT website. It seems the ones in East Dulwich are all during the day time.

There are classes in Hearne Hill and also Nunhead during the evenings / weekends, I was just wondering which location other people from ED had signed up for / what they thought they might go for? Or am I missing something??

Ideally I'd like to meet some local mummies so when I'm on mat leave I have some local friends to hang out with and help each other out..... it's my first so I think I'll need a bit of time to adjust to not working and also the having the baby all the time bit!!

Thanks

[slh2009]

Hi there

I've just finished an 8 week evening course in West Dulwich, can really recommend it. There were some couples from E Dulwich there as well as other areas (I'm in Forest Hill). I also went to classes primarily to meet other local mums to be and we were encouraged to make some dates to meet up over the next few weeks/months so hopefully we all will. I'm on my third week of maternity leave and it does take some adjusting but am getting used to it, altho baby has not arrived yet :-)

[reren]

You are entitled to take time off for nct from work and I would highly recommend doing the long course run by tess. The best thing about doing the course over a 4 week period is that it gives you much more time to get to know the other couples. I've just had my baby and it is a godsend to have a group of mums and dads going through exactly the same things. I didn't realise quite how tough the first week or so after birth would be (the physical recovery was tougher than expected and emotionally more of a rollercoaster)

and having other people to email/ see soon afterwards who were all experiencing the sme things was really helpful.

[sandy_rose]

You really do want to have the NCT group nearest to you. The info they give you to be honest you can find in a book or free class at the hospital but the main benefit is having other mums on your doorstep once the baby is here - invaluable. The one I did (with Alice) was part evening, part weekend and the odd weekday morning. I'm surprised you can only find them during daytime as the dads really benefit from the classes too. I would call the coordinator and ask, as when I was looking into it they hadn't organised a local one yet that suited me and they booked me onto one in Brixton!

[reren]

Just to clarify the east dulwich classes w tess are twice a week with one evening and one morning class for a 4 week period. The women all came to every morning as well as evening class as we all got time

off work and many of the men were able to ask work if they could take a few hours and made it to a few of the morning classes.

We found the classes very useful in and of themselves and much more fun than I'd expected. Really helped me get into baby mode as I got closer to my due date.

You should sign upsoon as they get v booked up

[Sicilia]

Hi there

I'm due on 5th March with my first and have signed up to evening/weekend classes in ED starting mid Jan. I think they might be booked up though as they don't seem to be online anymore but I wonder if its worth contacting the local co-ordinator to see if they can fit you in? (let me know if you'd like details of who I spoke to)

Also, you've probably already seen it but there's a Spring babies club thread started - I work full time too so haven't been able to get to their first meet but hopefully we can organise an evening/weekend one at some stage!

[jollybaby]

My nct course was in west dulwich and 5 out of 6 couples were from east dulwich. It was on Tuesday evenings for 8 weeks.

[HollieES]

I had a similar problem and couldn't get onto a standard weekly course in the East Dulwich area, so ended up booking onto an intensive one which was run by Tessa in East Dulwich. It was run over two Tuesdays (10am-4pm) with a breastfeeding workshop on one Thursday morning (10am-12.30pm). I am SO glad we ended up doing this course, and thought it worked really well over the two days. There were seven couples all together, we all live within about 5 minutes of each other and are already meeting up in the pub on a weekly basis (Tess gets you to set dates in the diary to meet up with each other when the course finishes, then a reunion when the babes arrive). You are entitled to take time off work to go to the classes, and I'd say it's better to get on an intensive course locally rather than a standard one further away.

[mumra]

Think I have already sung the praises of Tess on here (am tempted to have a third so I can go round and listen to her wise words) and the value of NCT. Nearly 6 years on we still meet up and can claim to be the the first group Tess had. Meeting quickly after and bonding over a few classes of wine round each others houses was the most valauble support. Think finding and making the time to accommodate your antenatal classes are one of the first times you have to make sure your life is fitting round your kids, rather than the other way round! If you can, try and find a way to do it.

[tigger]

Hi there,

Apologies for the slightly random reply to this email, but I'm a local East Dulwich mum and - first off, in answer to your question, with my first child, I too went to classes in West Dulwich and met couples who lived mainly in East Dulwich. Post natal NCT coffee groups are also great for meeting new mums so get yourself signed up to those straight away after you have your baby.

I also wanted to ask you and any other 1st time mums who are either in their 3rd trimester of pregnancy or who have a baby under 3 months if you are interested in taking part in some market research for a baby products brand. I run an agency called The Lounge Group - a marketing and insights agency based in London Bridge. We're going to be running a piece of market research from 13th December for 1 week, which would involve you spending about 30 minutes each day (x 5 days) to a private Facebook discussion group with other pregnant and new mums. For that, we'd pay you ?50 cash + ?50 in baby product vouchers.

If you're interested in taking part, could you pop me an email at [email protected] - if you could let me know by Tues 7th Dec, that would be great!

Thanks and good luck with the NCT group!

Sara