NCT antenatal classes

Thanks for all the input and basically it echos a lot of what I'm worried about. I like science and whatnot, I can't get onboard with doing things because people think its best I prefer the opinion of people who went to years of university backed by years of research!

If its all fluffy new age I won't be happy. They are charging us £200 for the privilege too which damn near gave me a heart attack - but I'm not risking the wrath of the pregnant misses even if that's what it costs lol

[dizzyblonde]

Originally Posted by Ed

...mainly, long since buggered off

Buggered orrf ....or sat at home in the garage doing more interesting things, like reading the Haynes manual to their future bike rebuild project?

The NCT stuff will be backed up with studies, research and information too. You can ask them for references for all their information. They should be able to provide it.

For every good study out there, there is a poor one, the trick is deciding which is which.

Definitely go along to your midwife led classes and compare the two, then decide what you found more useful after the "big event".

Speaking as someone who was married to a midwife, has had two subsequent girlfriends who are midwives and is currently chasing after another midwife, any woman who doesn't take the advice of her midwife and decides to do her own thing deserves a prolapse. My ex who has three kids is still best mates with the lady who looked after her through all three pregnancies and can't praise her enough. I have even heard that my ex-wife is a nice person from one of her ladies... but I find that very hard to believe.

'deserves a prolapse'

not nice

[dizzyblonde]

You like midwives Lozzo?

The best midwife I ever had was the one that looked after me throughout my pregnancy with my first son. She'd been around since the year dot, every woman that came into contact with her, said she was the best, and to this day, even after many years of retirement, people still speak about her.

I didn't think much of the woman who was my midwife with the second, not that I ever saw her much, always someone else there when I had appointments......every step of the way I always went to Melody for reassurance, when theres so many complications, its good to have a mate as a midwife......shes a good girl, not even anywhere near our hospital and our midwives knew her.

A good midwife is always spoken highly of, usually with years of experience! The young lasses that floated around on the wards, although pleasant, and knowledgeable, seemed shall I say....a bit wet behind the ears, that made you feel slightly uneasy.

Originally Posted by dizzyblonde

childbirth by any other means, is a piece of cake......in my own experience.

I'd say you are talking out of your wastepipe.

"In your own experience" means nothing. Every childbirth is different, no two are the same because every baby is different, as is every mother as are the circumstances. The same woman can require different pain relief at different levels in two pregnancies, she can have a large baby that is easier to deliver or a smaller one that is a nightmare and vice versa. Your sweeping statements about childbirth and what can and can't be achieved or tolerated are taken from your very limited experience of the subject. Whilst you may have had two children, in the big scheme of things you don't have what I'd consider to be a wealth of experience. Your spouting off that certain ante-natal classes are a "crock of sheeeite" and how childbrith by any means other than cesarian are a piece of cake only show your apparent ignorance of certain important things, and for that reason I'd only ever encourage people to listen to what their midwife and other healthcare professionals recommend rather than heresay and what's said on forums.

[dizzyblonde]

Lozzo, have you ever given birth.....personally?

Hence the words...... 'in my own experience'.
I've had two children with exceedingly difficult pregnancies....I've also lost two children, due to not being able to carry babies well, getting beyond 26 weeks is pretty damn good, hence why theres a ten year gap between the two.
I have breastfed both, one I had to learn myself, as at 3.30am there was nobody about to help me...ending with me and my baby being frickin cold and blue, I got left with the bottom of the bed down, so I couldn't even curl up properly, they didn't read my notes, they had no idea that the baby was due to pop out at any given moment, if they had they would have known my history.
I've had one baby try to come at 28, the second at 26 weeks, they don't tell you what steroid injections in the ar$e feels like in a class, or how many weeks of tablets follow
Oli nearly died in me in amongst a barrage of tests and scans, I had an emergency caesarian section 3 weeks before the due date, he was in an incubator for a week being fed by drip, then after five days of practically no contact somehow manage, to overcome his rejection of me and get him to breastfeed, whilst spending my time in the hospital walking the 'seemingly' half mile of corridor to SCUBU, every two hours...with a foot of bubble wrap and stitches across my gut. I spent every week, nearly every day of the week tbh, in hospital after the 26 weeks shennanigans.

Limited experience, extremely.....to a trained person,
not so to an ordinary person on the internet maybe, I could reel off my entire contents of notes

Listening to your midwife is extremely important, as is their superiors. Have I ever said otherwise?

Ante natal classes....., every baby is different.....no ****, and it still all goes out of the window what you have prepped for when the day comes.

Back to the OP, Ante Natal classes, what can you expect?

If they're anything like the ones I went to, you can expect;

a) nervous jokes told by nervous parents followed by nervous laughter
b) toe curling embarrassment and awkward moments
c) sickly loving looks between some couples
d) macho posing like "I don't give a feck" by some blokes
e) 2 hours of basic info' that you can get from a pregnancy magazine or manual

and the odd moment of humour like when an Asian guy put his hand up in our session and said in broken English "how long will it be after the birth before I can have sex with my wife and make her pregnant again"?

I nearly threw him out myself. Good luck btw.

[Sir Trev]

I won't respond to some of the bigotted comments above but as a parent who went to NCT and surgery anti-natal classes the NCT ones were by far the better. Yes you can get a lot of the info from other sources but to talk about things with someone as a group was far easier to understand. We got a lot out of it, it was not hippy-drippy or middle class snobby in ANY way. The surgery group was mums-to-be-only so straight away less helpful, the midwives were not always there, and didn't discuss half of the topics we got through at NCT classes.

It ALWAYS depends on who leads the sessions. You cannot say which is better unless you try it and EVERY group will be different. If you have the chance to go then I'd say do the sessions if you have any questions or concerns - you can always dismiss it afterwards but you may well learn something that will really help. And that first time is not a fun time so being as pre-warned as possible is always better.

We have good friends still from both NCT and surgery sessions. Very helpful when we had just moved to a place and had no local acquiaintences. That on it's own was useful.

And a final note about midwives. Even though we did all those classes we didn't meet the midwife who delivered my daughter until the big day and we never saw her again (lovely lady by the way). It would have been nice but it was not an option for us. The post-natal support midwives ran the surgery classes and saw us just twice at home afterwards. Both members of this team were large, happy, delightful West Indian ladies with accents neither of us could understand...