Thanks for the replies everyone. It is useful to see others have had similar experiences and also nice to see some people have gone on to make some good friends from their groups (Luna).

I am hoping as the course progresses we might find our natural bond with one or more of the others in the group; I was doing the course more because I wanted to make baby friends in the area as, like others here, I have done a lot of reading myself (and am also bestowed with a lot of common sense :P). Next week is ladies only and the men are going to go to the pub (how cliché!), so maybe we will bond better next week.

I am starting an aquanatal class in my town tomorrow, so maybe that is where I will find my baby buddies. The people in my NCT class are from quite a way away from us. The closest is about a 15 minute drive, so in reality, they probably won't end up being super close friendships anyway.

Thank you again. I'm useless in new social situations because, contrary to how I am on here, I am very shy! I guess I'm just good with words!

We love ours - awesome people (teacher and participants), I read a lot and I still learn something every time and I think they're well worth the money.

That's how I felt! There were only three couples on our course but after our final session I felt much more positive towards the others and the mums-to-be have already met up and plan to do so regularly. I wouldn't say they are "my kind of people" but they come across as honest and sincere and I think it will really help to have a network of support.

I loved my NCT classes so much I'm considering becoming more involved with the organisation following the birth!

I am really enjoying mine - there are about 8 couples, including us, and everyone seems really nice. We have done 5/8 so far. They've been really interesting and very informative (maybe too informative sometimes....!). We went to an NHS one last night and it made me ever more pleased we were doing NCT - 40+ people crammed in a room and the MW went through pg, labour and birth in about 70 minutes! The MW was lovely and very encouraging but there was no interaction and because there were so many people and so little time, lots of areas weren't really covered.

Hopefully yours will improve!

x

mine starts 8 March. I'm still not sure what to expect but I certainly don't intend to make friends with any of them! Is that part of the objective?

I have 1st time mummy friends who've done them previously and really found them to be very useful so we'll wait and see

Nicola xx

I recommend aquanatal. I've been going since 16 weeks (though not every week I must add!) and it is a very sociable activity. I'd say I get more from the social-side than the actual fitness side now i've got my birthing ball at home.

Hi,
Yes I think it is part of the reason a lot of people do the classes. It was one of the top reasons for me choosing to do them (apart from the reason I am a first time mum and thought I would NEED them despite all my reading); I don't originally come from this area so a lot of my old friends with babies, still live back in Wales, and others of my friends haven't actually even had babies yet (I am 26). I had hoped to find people I could have some kind of friendship with, although not best buddy type friends, just people to chat to and maybe have a bit of a babysitting circle type thing. The latter won't happen because like I said, our closest couple to us is about 15 minutes away.

I'd like to have as many social connections as possible as I don't have family round here either.

I will see how it goes next week. Maybe we will start to bond more when it's girls only.