Daisy Birthing Classes or NCT

[HarrietCro]

Hi there
I am five months pregnant and deciding whether to sign up for Daisy Birthing Classes or NCT classes in Edinburgh. I wondered if anyone, in their experience, had any preference over either as I am not sure how to decide! Thank you, Harriet

I haven't done NCT so can't comment on their classes but I loved Daisy Birthing. It's a mix of yoga based movements, education & relaxation. I've just started my second course I enjoyed it so much the first time round. It's totally changed my attitude to labour & the birth - I feel so positive & confident about it now. Xxx

Like Rach I did Daisy Birthing (just finished it last week) and can't recommend it enough. I feel so well-informed approaching labour and have made some lovely friends. It's also been great to learn relaxation techniques and has helped me write a birth plan that I feel sets me up to have the most positive experience of birth that I can. For what it's worth I also contacted my local NCT before deciding to go to Daisy and couldn't believe how expensive they were. From what I've read a lot of people say they went with NCT mainly just to make friends and meet "the right kind of mums"... but I paid a fraction of the price for Daisy and met utterly lovely local people, plus the wider education NCT covers is all covered by your free NHS antenatal courses, so personally I'm very pro-Daisy and am already looking into baby Daisy sessions for after little one arrives 😊 Enjoy whichever you choose! X

Hi, I can't comment about NCT but I am loving my Daisy Birth classes. DH and I did the couples birthing workshop as we left it too late for NCT. I got so much out of it that I decided to enrol on the six week course. The class is so lovely and relaxing, and very informative. I am half way through the course now and I leave each session feeling excited and positive about my birth. It's also very non judgemental and all forms of pain relief and birth are discussed. In fact the instructor herself has had two EMCs and other interventions, and the course explains how you can use the techniques to feel in control no matter how you give birth.

LOVED Daisy! I also did an NHS antenatal alongside it.

I did NCT and also loved it. I think it maybe depends what you are after. NCT does focus on birth, but not exclusively. There were also sessions on parenting and relationship changes after birth, which I found to be incredibly helpful. I didn't feel like I needed much support for birth as I felt confident and positive already about a natural birth (and had a lovely birth). Basically how I chose what to do was based on the number of sessions. The more times you meet (2 hours over 6 weeks vs. one 8 hour session, which is what the NHS one here was), the better. The real benefit was to meet other mums/couples going through the same thing and the more time you have to get to know each other, the more likely you are to connect and keep in touch after. My NCT group was an enormous source of support in the first weeks and months, and I am still friends with most of them today and our kids are school age.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this! x

Thank you everyone for your very helpful comments!