When I 1st became pregnant and told my 2 closest friends they both said to me that I had to Join NCT and do one of their Antenatal course. They are a charity for parents that are here to support parents. They give them accurate, impartial information so that they can decide what’s best for their family, and we introduce them to a network of local parents to gain practical and emotional support. They run course like the antenatal one, hold nearly new sales where you can purchase 2nd hand (but sometimes new) items for your child from other parents and get together’s.
Nearly new sales
I had been to one of the NCT sales with my friend, was an eye opener. I went with a complete open mind and no list, I would say it’s an idea to know what sort of things you wanted. I went to the Henley Branch one, you can look on the NCT website to find your local one. As my friend wasn’t an NCT member I waited with her, but members can gain entry early, which probably is wise if your looking for certain things. I think I paid £30 for a years membership and then had to pay £1 for entry into the say.
When you enter you are given a big ikea style bag to put your bits in, then the hall is spilt up into logical sections like bedding, clothes, books, toys etc. My friend just advised me to pick up what I thought I might want and then we’d have a cuppa and have a look through it all. Everything had a raffle ticket on it and then you take it paying desk. I got some bargains and will probably go to another one once baby is here
Antenatal Course
So after my friends advice and after a discussion with Hubby we decided that we would sign up to the Antenatal course, the only slight downside is that it’s about £200.00. I opted for the session run on a evening rather than a couple of long weekends, mainly because I thought I might process the information better. Are sessions are as follows:
Session 1:
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Tuesday
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23.04.2013
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19:00
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21:00
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Session 2:
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Tuesday
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30.04.2013
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19:00
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21:00
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Session 3:
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Tuesday
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07.05.2013
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19:00
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21:00
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Session 4:
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Saturday
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11.05.2013
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09:30
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12:30
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Session 5:
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Saturday
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11.05.2013
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13:30
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16:30
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Breastfeeding session.
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Session 6:
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Tuesday
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14.05.2013
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19:00
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21:00
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Session 7:
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Tuesday
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21.05.2013
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19:00
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21:00
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One thing I would say I differently recommend taking someone with you to the course, ideally your partner but can be anyone else.
Session 1: I was very nervous leading up to the 1st session. One as I didn’t know what to expect and two the fact I still feel nervous before meeting new people for the 1st time. Due to me not getting my arse into gear when I got home, we ended up being about 5 minutes late but that was ok. Our trainer is called Esther who has 3 children and has been an NCT since 2011.
We started off with the basic getting to know each other, so had to tell everyone our name, why we were called that or if it was short for anything, where we planned to give birth our due date and then 1 word to sum up the birth. There were I think 7 other couples in our group so quite small. We then had to decide in small groups what we wanted from the course and what % of labour and after we wanted to cover. Our group decided about 40-70. Overall I enjoyed the session am now looking forward to next week
Session 2: Well we were on time for this one. At the start we had to re-introduce our selves and then say 1 thing we we’re looking forward to being parents. Today’s session was then all about pain relief during labour, we had a chance to practice different positions during labour and shown how are partner could help. Esther talked us through some breathing exercises, which I found ok. We then had to split into groups and come up with our perfect pain relief drug, our group came up with chocolate favoured gas. The rest of the evening was spent looking at the different pain relief methods, we had a look at a tens machine and were able to try it. We were told not to use before 37 weeks as it may induce labour. Then we talked about gas & air. Think this is the most popular option that most women start with. Next time we will look at the heavier pain relief.
Session 3: The session started by us having to say 1 thing baby related we’d done this week. We then had the task of writing the ‘what to pack for hospital list’ – one list for baby, one for us and then a list for life. Organised me I have already packed the baby bag and part of my bag, I will write a separate blog post on what I’ve packed and a good list. We then when went through the heavier pain relief like an epidural. I have to say I have no idea what I’m going to do mainly because I don’t really want to think about it due to it scaring the crap out of me. After we then looked at ways we can help bring on labour, this included curry, walking, pineapple and sex! The session ended on looking at pictures of babies when they had just been born.
Session 5: This followed on
after lunch from session 4. I did really struggle in the afternoon, think it
was a combination of eating too much yummy bread and cakes, being over hot and
lots of Braxton hicks. Anyway session 5 was all about breast feeding! Who knew
there was so much to take in. We’d have decided to try it, I am still slightly confused
by it all as I don’t want to do baby led feeding but from what I understand in
the 1st few weeks this is what you need to do as baby stomach to
begin with is only a size of a marble! I know how small and it increases over
the 1st few weeks then my plan is to try and fed every 4 hours but
maybe not through the night and never wake baby up for a fed but this may all
go out of the window. I think chris found it helpful. I differently appreciated
him being there and understanding what emotions I might go through in the 1st
6-8 weeks as this is how long it may take to get established at breast feeding.
I know I’m lucky not only in Reading do we have lots of breast feeding clinics but
also of course I have my 2 best friends who have both done it.
Session 4: This session we started to look at what
happens once baby arrives. Esther had set up 4 stations for us to have a go at
and gave us all a toy baby
- Changing
- Nappies and what’s acceptable
I thoroughly enjoyed trying all this but I think it will be
different with a real little person. The biggest hint I learnt is a new baby
should have 1 more layer on than you. We also split into small groups and where
asked to discuss topics like dummies or no dummies, will you change your
routine to a baby or fit baby into your life. I’m lucky Chris and I have very
similar views on how to bring up our little boy. I differently want t get into
a routine, I don’t want having a baby to stop us going out I just know we may
have to change the things we do, I’m very wary that I don’t want him spoilt esp
by the grandparents though I do know that’s their right. It’s important to me
we have family time and meal times as he gets older. We are lucky that both
Chris and I have jobs at the moment that means we’re never home later than 6pm
and very rarely have to work weekends. We also want our little one to be
behaved as much as possible, i.e not running around restaurants, shops etc as
for everything else I can’t say I won’t use a dummy or he won’t be spoilt occasionally!
It was really nice at the end of session 4 the group had got
together and done a buffet lunch. I’m very jealous of some of them bringing
homemade breads and cakes! I have got very lazy recently but my plan is once
little one is here and I have routine set up I plan to do lots more! I’m
already looking forward to his 1st birthday party and deciding on
what cake I will make!
Session 6: The one bar last session! The session
started by recapping 1 thing we had learnt from the breast feeding session on
Saturday. We where then given 8 cards that had 2 options on to do with birth
and were asked to choose which one we preferred and lay them out in front of us
then were told to flip over cards 3 & 6 and discuss if we had any issues
with the changes. The main thing that came up for me was a natural stage 3 or a
active stage 3 I understand the process’s now more information can be found here but I’ve not
decided what I prefer, think I will leave it to the guidance of the midwife on
the day. The next part of the session we were split into group and given a dear
Aunty Midwife letter from a husband and we had to try and offer advice. Ours we
concluded was that the wife had baby blues another group
had postnatal
depression and the last group the husband was suffering postnatal. I have
strong views on depression so I thought I’d write a separate post on it on my
blog for you. The last part of the session Esther put on a recording of a baby
crying and passed the ‘baby’ around to everyone to give one suggestion on how
to get it to stop. Suggestions included:
- Change
nappy
- Fed
- Baby
over tired
- Baby
too hot or cold
- Baby
actually ill
- Baby
just wants comfort from you
- Baby
feeling your stress and needs to be calmed by someone else
- Baby
needs white noise like fan, hoover, car engine etc
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