by Megan Stephenson
I originally
joined when pregnant with my first child. We booked NCT antenatal classes
(after they were recommended by someone at my antenatal yoga class) and paid
for 4 year's membership, because we had some vague idea that this would give us
access to services and support we would want in the early years of parenthood.
I now know that all the services and support offered by the NCT are available
to members and non-members, and besides, my youngest child is five, so I don't
really need those things any more. So why still pay?
Maybe it's because I am now an NCT breastfeeding counsellor, and NCT membership is mandatory for all NCT practitioners, but that is a rather superficial answer, because it doesn't explain why I spent five years (on and off) studying to become and breastfeeding counsellor - it's hardly well paid, a lot of it is unpaid, and the paid bits are in antisocial hours.
Maybe it's because I am my branch co-ordinator, and that post can only be held by an NCT member. But since I would happily hand over the role tomorrow if anyone offered to take it from me, that's clearly not it.
Maybe it's because I get a quarterly magazine, but I rarely read more than a quarter of it these days, as it's mostly no longer relevant to me.
Maybe it's because I've got my membership set up as a direct debit and cancelling it would seem like too much effort.
Maybe it's because I have seen parents struggle to do what they feel is best for their children, against a backdrop of social pressures and misinformation, and I want every parent to be able to look back at those early years with pride at what they achieved, not shame at how they felt compromised.
Maybe it's because without the local NCT branch I think my experience of early parenthood would have been lonely and exhausting, instead of just exhausting.
Maybe it's because I think childbirth can be amazingly empowering for a woman, but too often she is forced into decisions without being given the information to make them. Or even treated as though her opinion on what was happening to her own body was irrelevant.
Or maybe it's because I am glad I was enabled to give birth where I wanted to, surrounded by the people I wanted to be there, and I know that much of that was down to campaigning by the NCT.
For information on NCT membership and to join or renew your membership, go to http://www.nct.org.uk/get-involved/become-nct-member
