I started mine tonight and I'm not keen!

The teacher is good and the content looks like it will be interesting, so I will definitely stick with it (as I have paid as well, and haven't been offered NHS ones). My husband really enjoyed it as he said it gave him so much better insight and has made him feel something is really going to happen, whereas upto now he's been quite distanced from the whole thing, which I think is quite common for first time dads.

But the class is small (8 people) and so irritations are so much more evident. There is no one I dislike; however, there seem to be one or two people who are rather erm, stuck up? Very opinionated and don't listen to other people when they are talking, giggle through the whole thing. It's fine really, but they also seem to be quite odd in that they are blanking certain people who try to talk to them and being all overly pally with the ones they obviously want to pair off with. I think it's because it's such a small class that I am feeling irritated by this!

I have my husband there so it's OK, but he really likes all the men so it's not really much of an issue for him. I suppose it's only the first night, but I feel a bit sort of out on a limb.

How did you find your classes? Or how have you found your first couple? We spent the first hour chatting about expectations of the course and doing a get to know you type thing; and the last hour was looking at the stages of labour and touching on a bit about breathing and relaxation. This really helped my husband to understand a bit better, so I am pleased from that perspective.

We don't have any NCT classes in my area so I will just be going to the one antenatal class. 10-4 on a Sunday, which hasn't impressed my DH since he is a chef and Sunday is his stock count day and busiest service!

I really enjoyed mine and find them super informative. By and large I liked the couples although who knows how much we will all keep in touch afterwards.

I would stick with it as they are helpful and if anything it's nice for your partner to feel involved. Hope they get better as you get to know each other xx

im not doing any. im taking labour as it comes. might regret saying that lol xox

Hello

I felt exactly the same as you after my first class. I'm not sure if I've made friends for life - but I'll definitely keep in touch with some of the mums - even after not being totally keen on everyone at first.

Stick with it - the classes are worth it. Its amazing how much you can get on with people that you would normally have nothing to do with when you are all going though the same experience at the same time.

Hopefully your first impressions will change. Perhaps the others will settle down a bit and you'll find you all get along really well.

I really enjoyed our classes...we had the last class last weekend. I was really sorry to have them end!

I didn't find them overly informative...but I've been doing alot of reading myself. They were great for hubby though. The 7 other couples seem lovely...but two gave birth halfway through the course...so I guess that is less bonding time they had with the group. Like first timer said...who knows how well we will keep in touch from now on, but we have all planned to meet for lunch this weekend, which I am looking forward to

We did the weekend course and found it really good. It was great to see just how much my OH knew compared with the other dads.

We where definitely the poorest, and OH was probably the youngest there, OH was the only man without a job. We where the only couple not married and the only couple where the woman was older than the man! We where also the only home birth. And the only people that got the bus there (during the big snowy part of January)...so I think we stuck out like a sore thumb!

I'm not sure if I learnt all that much, but it gave me and OH the chance to consolidate our knowledge and think about things we may not have done.

I had my first one last saturday and felt pretty much the same as you!
As we were walking home we were talking about each couple (there were 6 couples including us) and thinking oh I wonder what they were saying about us!?
We were split into groups of 3 couple and then boy/girl by how we were sat in the room, ie not handpicked and even DH said I think that split is probably the best ie we all seemed to be around the same age and the other groups a bit older. We even discovered one couple in our group live just 19 doors down and are due the same day so I hope we continue to get on well with them!!

Overall we enjoyed ours. Like a couple of others have said, I didn't learn a huge amount either as I'd done a lot of reading/research before going, but I think OH picked up a few useful pointers.

We were one of 6 couples, which I still think was quite a small group. I'd have preferred to be part of a bigger, more interactive group but I guess that's not always possible.

We formed some early opinions on people (which I'm sure they did with us too) and to some extent they still stand; we had one guy who clearly took the lead and seemed to want to 'clarify' everything we were taught after each section, and also had a drama queen. We decided that the others probably thought we were a bit 'Monica and Chandler'... me wanting to get all the answers right, and OH coming out with all the funny (sometimes inappropriate) comments! BUT at the end of the day, what people think doesn't really matter. You can interact as much or little as you want and as the course progresses you should find this to be the case.

We have kept in touch with (so far) 3 of the other 5 couples and of course I'm glad to hear that their babies are arriving safely. Whether we'll remain friends remains to be seen.

At the very least, I'd expect you to get a handful of techniques and words of advice which, when you return home, will be food for thought - you and your OH will find yourself talking about subject matter that you otherwise probably wouldn't have considered. Also, on a relatively superficial level, I really enjoyed spending those 6 evenings and 2 Saturday mornings purely with my OH. We'd go out for a cheap pub dinner before the evening ones, or lunch on a Saturday... it was just lovely to spend some time properly together, talking about our baby!

We loved ours! Now have 5 couples who already meet for coffee and noone has had their babies yet!