NCT or the group antenatal?

[rste88]

Hi there,

I am wanting to sign up for antenatal classes for my first pregnancy - does anyone have any experience of either the group antenatal classes or NCT? The prices are quite high so want to make sure I make the right choice for us but would be great to hear any positives or negatives from people who've been through it

thanks!

Rose

[Monts_55]

I chose NCT purely based on class times. The thought of going to a class from 7-9 after a long day at work filled me with dread and NCT offered a two day ?crash course?, which was great and I was lucky enough to meet some lovely people too. One other thing to think about is proximity, a few people in our group missed out on classes in their local area and had to look further afield. It meant that all their new ?mum? friends lived miles away and they were constantly travelling around with a young baby. Good luck with your decision

[alex_b]

We did NCT in East Dulwich. Don't expect to learn all that much, you're really paying to have a group of five other local families all with babies due around the same time. It's still well worth it though. Good luck.

[xapis85]

We did Bump and Baby in East Dulwich, held at The Lordship Pub (same as the group) and highly recommend. We also went to the NHS classes and got a lot out of both - social group from B&B, very informative re birth and aftercare at King's from NHS.

[swquiz]

I'm also thinking about this!

Does anyone know what the differences or pros/cons are between The Group and Bump & Baby?

[Charlottedale]

Hello - I am having the dilemma too :) choosing between 'the group ' at the half moon , or the nct at Effra space in Herne hill .. I recon it just comes down to luck if you gel with the people on the class ... any advice on which is best would also be appreciated ! Heard good things about bump and baby , but it's a bit far from where we live in Herne hill .

[Greengramaphone]

Hiya!

I did The Group class at The Half Moon in Herne Hill over the summer (as The Lordship ED session was sold out) and really highly recommend it! My partner and I signed up to the NHS free sessions as well and were also unsure about which, if any, additional paid antenatal class to choose because of cost. In the end we were gifted The Group classes from a family member and I was so so pleased we were able to do them. We did them at the same time as the NHS sessions and although it was nice to also do the NHS sessions, we kept thinking, really the amount of information and detail covered by The Group was much more extensive and incomparable to the NHS which was a far more casual overview.

The Group do 3 sessions on all birth scenarios and then 3 sessions on looking after a baby. The Half Moon sessions also included hot snacks, dinner really, during a break half way through which were a lovely perk and make the cost really good value! We chose The Group over NCT as The Group sessions are run by local midwives (NHS sessions are also run by a midwife but NCT are not). It was so brilliant having first hand qualified advice and the overlaps with the midwife teams that we/class members were with, whether home birth or hospital birth was lovely. They are such lovely people, even offering the option to turn to them for advice after the sessions have finished and they also run a lovely local free parent group called Mother Cuppa for afterwards.

We debated on signing up for ages and were just so relieved and happy that we did! Honestly if you go with The Group, I can't imagine you would regret it :) ! And yes, bonus is you also meet several local couples going through the same thing at the same time. I wasn't necessarily thinking we'd need this as we do have friends with kids and recognize there are other ways to meet friends with babies the same age, but there has been something very bonding, fun and helpful in going through the before, during and after together! Location-wise, even though we did the Herne Hill group, there were other East Dulwichers doing that session and it's been great sorting ED or HH meetups together afterwards.

[sillywoman]

Actually Greengrammaphone, some NCT sessions in East Dulwich ARE run by a local midwife (me) :) I also run some of the Bump and Baby groups in ED, the others being run by the extremely experienced, highly trained, knowledgeable and entertaining Becky (those of you who have had the pleasure of being taught by Becky will know just how much fun and humor she injects into her classes - she also runs the NCT courses in Nunhead).

As far as I can tell, course structure is inevitably similar throughout all three providers in East Dulwich/ Nunhead - NCT & B&B also aim to cover antenatal and postnatal issues, usually over 12 hours and divided roughly into half labour and birth and half postnatal issues. The main difference in all these classes as far as I can tell is that the B&B sessions include a specific 'first aid' session run by a qualified infant first aider, and that with the NCT all the money from your booking goes to a charity that lobbies for better conditions for new parents - it's a not-for-profit organisation. Otherwise it's really down to which timings suit your personal circumstances best.

I would just add that Alex_b I am very sad and disappointed to hear that you felt you didn't learn much. I will pm you separately as if that really is the case then I suggest that you ask for your money back. All these classes are expensive - personally I'm aware of this, and I work hard to give good value for your hard-earned money - If I was your NCT teacher I want to know about it and will be following up.

I hope this helps you decide which classes are right for you. Really there's not much to chose between them, and as for being run by midwives or antenatal teachers - well after 15 years of teaching antenatal classes, and being a midwife Ive actually found that the most, informative and entertaining sessions I've observed have been those run by highly qualified facilitators who have been trained to teach adults to a high standard - sometimes these are midwives, but more often they are not. Did you know that now NCT teachers have to have a degree in teaching Antenatal Education to run classes, and up until recently they also had to have been through labour and birth themselves? So I wouldn't concern too much over knowledge base - it's much the same for midwives and NCT teaches - just coming from a slightly different angle.

[alex_b]

Sorry Tess I didn?t mean to insult you. What I think I wanted to say is that much of the medical bits were things we?d picked up elsewhere. We also did our NCT class quite late in our pregnancy and so this probably meant we were already more prepared than most.

What we valued the most was the opportunity to build a community of families that would be with us through the first months post birth. I still think it was absolutely worth the money (and then some) and wouldn?t dream of asking for a refund.

I?m less sure we got much value from the ongoing membership of NCT post birth, but I?m happy to support a worthwhile cause and I know some of our friends stayed much more involved.

[rste88]

Thanks everyone for your help! Sounds like we won't regret either so may choose based on price/convenience!

[sillywoman]

alex_b Wrote:

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

> Sorry Tess I didn?t mean to insult you. What I

> think I wanted to say is that much of the medical

> bits were things we?d picked up elsewhere. We also

> did our NCT class quite late in our pregnancy and

> so this probably meant we were already more

> prepared than most.

>

> What we valued the most was the opportunity to

> build a community of families that would be with

> us through the first months post birth. I still

> think it was absolutely worth the money (and then

> some) and wouldn?t dream of asking for a refund.

>

> I?m less sure we got much value from the ongoing

> membership of NCT post birth, but I?m happy to

> support a worthwhile cause and I know some of our

> friends stayed much more involved.

Thanks for your post alex_b, not to worry - I wasn't insulted at all, just concerned :D I did pm you if you'd like to elaborate further off thread.

OP I'm sure whichever you choose you'll have a great time, meet some lovely people and make some new, strong friendships. :D