Antenatal Classes (NCT vs NHS)

As I have mentioned earlier, my experience with babies is almost non-existent. I have not had to look after any friends or families' children that are less than talking age and so having a baby is going to be a big shock, I'm sure.

During the first midwife appointment that Claire had, which I went along too, one of the things that she mentioned was about the National Health Service (NHS) baby classes available to us. The classes are designed for new parents, to explain to them the things you should and should not do, best practises, etc. Great.

Not long after this, one of Claire's friends suggested that we look into the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) classes, as she had attended the classes nearer her and thought they were far more informative than the NHS classes.

• NHS Classes

The NHS classes are free to attend and were being taken from 1500 to 1700 once a week for three weeks, held in the small room to the rear of Chatteris Church, only 2 miles away from us.

The first lesson, I was unable to attend due to work, but Claire had gone by herself. There, along with one other couple and a midwife, they sat in a circle and discussed baby-stuff and tried to stay warm. Claire came home with lots of reading material.

The second session, I was able to attend, as I had a day off work. Again, the same other couple was there, a different midwife but no other couples turned up, despite several more couples being on the paperwork to attend. (By this point, we had already attended 2 or 3 NCT classes.) We sat around, cold, in a circle in the middle of the room, being thrusted hand-outs, leaflets, etc to go away and read. Some of the hand-outs were based on important topics such as breastfeeding and were talked about briefly before being moved onto another topic.

Just over half way through the session, the midwife had already covered everything, due to speaking at break-neck speed and called it an evening. She also thought that we'd had enough information (on paper) to cancel the final session.

• NCT Classes

The NCT classes are a paid service and there's a waiting list to attend. Our nearest classes were based either in Huntingdon or Ely, to which we chose Ely, for one reason or another. The sessions were held in the comfort of the home of an experienced NCT Teacher, where we and four other couples sat in the front-room on sofas and had the meetings. The meetings were 2000 to 2200, twice a week for four weeks and cost £20 a session, paid in advance.

During the eight sessions, we were encouraged to ask questions and speak to the other couples, as there was an emphasis from the outset to encourage us to become friends, starting with the fact that we all had something in common - all of our firstborn children would be born within weeks of each other.

Some of the games and challenges we were set may seem childish if I were to try and explain what we did, but there was always something that made us sit back and realise that we were going to have a baby, and understand that our daily routines will never the be the same again. Something that we all knew, but didn't actually appreciate nor realise; this new baby that everyone was dreaming about will turn our worlds upside down.

Important topics, like breastfeeding, pain relief during pregnancy, trying to calm a baby down, and so on, were exercised through games or discussions and we have even seen DVD videos of women giving birth in different scenarios - home birth, water births and in hospital. Not particularly pleasant in some cases, but if we hadn't had attended the classes, we certainly wouldn't expected half of what happened if we had simply turned up to hospital expecting to have the baby!

The lessons came and went and December (2008) flew by. Literally. Soon, the course was over and the NCT was still encouraging us getting together and meeting up in March (2009) after all the children were born, which I am sure will be great and that'll be upon us in no time. Five new mums looking after five new babies whilst five new dads talk rubbish in the corner.

The two sets of classes (NHS and NCT) could not be further apart from each other. In my opinion, the NHS classes were appalling. Topics were whizzed over and supplemented with a hand out. Whereas the NCT classes, I actually felt like we now stand a fighting chance in doing a decent job looking after our son when he arrives.

I really would encourage more parents-to-be to at least investigate the NCT classes and, if possible, to also attend both the NCT and NHS classes too, as we did, as it seems like we've had as much information as can get in preparation for looking after a small baby.

To be honest, I think I have had more lessons learning to drive a car that we've had in total with regards to baby classes; imagine if someone was let loose with a drivers licence after 2 short lessons of driving! (Somehow, I think the 'test' is going to be different this time around...!)

My badly-put point is, had we have only attended the NHS classes, ignorance would certainly have been bliss. I'm not saying that we will not make mistakes simply because we have attended the NCT classes, we will. But at least we have an idea as to what to expect, thanks to the NCT classes.