Practical Information

We advise that you choose the course that is allocated to your due date. However, if this course is full or the dates do not suit, please aim to choose a course that ends at least four weeks before your due date.

Places are limited on our courses so we cannot always guarantee your first choice. Full courses will no longer be shown on Twizzit. It can be, however, that the course is not yet showing full on the website. Although the website is updated regularly with information on availability, we often have sudden rushes of demand and cannot update it as frequently as required, especially during holidays and festive periods.

Please note that all course administration is carried out by volunteers.

Some private health insurance schemes do refund the cost of BCT Birth and Parenting courses.

While our teachers are experienced and highly qualified, they are not medical professionals, thus many Belgian mutuelles/ziekenfonds will not offer a reimbursement.

You will need to check with your own mutuelle, health insurer and/or your employer’s Human Resources department to find out whether or not the costs are reimbursed.

It depends on how much of the course will be missed and by whom. Partners are often unable to attend every session and you are unlikely to be the only person in this situation. Sometimes mothers-to-be attend alone, and even fathers-to-be do so on occasion. If you wish, you can bring somebody else along with you for those sessions your partner cannot attend.

If both you and your partner will miss fewer than 4 hours, please contact your course teacher as soon as possible and she will outline your options. If you have not yet received her contact details, please email the booking team. Where possible, please contact her before the first session of your course (unless you are already part-way through). Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that we can make arrangements to help you with missed sessions but the earlier you let us know, the more likely it is that we can find a suitable option.

If you and/or your partner will miss more than 4 hours of the course, please contact the booking team as soon as possible. They will advise you on whether it would be better for you to switch to a different course, depending on availability.

Please contact us immediately at prenatal@bctbelgium.org or servicestreasurer@bctbelgium.org if you are unable to attend the course, so that we can see if there is a suitable alternative available that you might wish to attend.

It depends on the exact circumstances and reason for the cancellation, as well as the timing of the cancellation. However, if you cancel for non-medical reasons less than six weeks before the start of the course, you would not normally receive a refund. If a non-medical refund should be granted, an administration fee may still apply.

If you have to cancel part way through the course, partial refunds would only be considered for medical reasons, and then on a case-to-case basis.

The BCT has a range of services available to its members throughout pregnancy and early life as a family.

Apart from our Pregnancy in Belgium evenings, which provide practical information on pregnancy and birth, we also have TENS machines and valley cushions for hire.

After the birth, we have a team of postnatal support volunteers to help with everything from general emotional support to feeding concerns. We work in conjunction with Life First to offer First Aid for Parents classes.

We have a small library of relevant books at our Clubhouse. Most importantly, perhaps, we have many parent and baby meet-ups, weekly coffee mornings and playgroups at our BCT Clubhouse and at members' homes throughout Brussels. We also organise events throughout Brussels and surrounding areas to give you many opportunities to meet other families at the same stage as yours.

Read more about the benefits of a BCT membership.