Depending on where you are in your pregnancy and if you already have children, you may have already heard of “NCT” – National Childcare Trust, they are the UK’s largest charity for parents and respected independent provider of antenatal support.

NCT offers antenatal courses and workshops that will essentially help you prepare for birth and your new life as a parent; “exploring both the practical and emotional aspects most relevant to you”. The courses are not free – we paid £200 for James and I to attend 4 evening sessions of 3 hours each and a Saturday session from 10am until 4pm.

The course you are allocated on is typically about 6 weeks to a month before your due date which means the other folk on your allocation are experiencing the same things at virtually the same time. As each course is provided in your local area, the likelihood is these folk will live fairly near to each other. It was the “meeting people” aspect I wanted to focus on in this particular feature.

To summarise the contents of the course and workshops for me it was, at least for the most part, really useful. I have always absorbed information better in a kind of discussional “practical” environment rather than from a textbook.

Each group has a main group “leader” if you will who takes you through everything from knowing when you have gone into labour (!) to the first few months of parenthood. I’d heard mixed reviews from friends in terms of both the quality and depth of information supplied but James and I both learnt a lot. We had a different lecturer to take us through breast feeding specifically and she was great, not at all pushy and extremely knowledgeable. It was because of her I had the confidence to give it a go and persevere.

The only aspect I couldn’t understand was how little we covered on the subject of c-sections, and I couldn’t help but feel as though you were considered a bit of a failure should your “birth plan” go array… when actually for the safety of you and your baby, you didn’t have any choice. For the record, out of the eight of us girls, 5 of us had c-sections (1 elective, 4 emergency). It would have benefitted us greatly to have been supplied with more of the facts and less of the negativity.

Ahem. Off of my soap box.

Back to the girls. This for me, and for the majority of new parents I speak to, is the major benefit of enrolling on an NCT course. We have built a lovely and supportive network of new Mamas, all eight of us keep in regular touch – we have a whatts app group and there is a meeting organised every Friday, usually at one of our homes. Of course not everyone can make every week but it’s useful (and fun!) to exchange hilarious baby related stories, advice and experiences. I was lucky in that quite a few of my best girls already have children, one of them even having a little girl just two weeks before Mabel was born but even so, the group has been invaluable.

You will find us messaging at all times of day with random questions and reports on our babies latest development. It’s amazing to have people to talk to who are as genuinely interested as you in every waking moment and can restore your confidence when you feel like you are a crap parent, don’t know what to do for the best in any particular situation or you are so exhausted you just want to spend the day in bed.

The image above was taken on my living room floor (please excuse the tragic bloody rug, it’s a long story – we now have a new one ha!) when the babies were all around 7 weeks old (so tiny!). There is Noah who belongs to Saira, Phoebe and Louise, Mabel and yours truly, Eléna and Vilija, Lyra and Lisa, Miles and Becky, Florence and Lucy and Anoop and Bevleen. I hope we (and our littles) remain friends for a very very long time.

Joining NCT isn’t cheap, especially when there are so many costs associated with preparing for a newborn already, but if your budget allows, I would highly recommend making the investment.