Keep your brain active!

Have you been wondering how you're going to get through this baby thing without going mad? NCT Nottingham has all sorts of volunteering opportunities available. If you have never done voluntary work before, you might be surprised by the people you meet.

You can work to your own deadlines most of the time. Ok, if you volunteer to host a group, you have to, but once people are coming along, you're sure to find someone who will take over when you're on holiday/need a break/have a family crisis.

If you are the branch secretary your role mostly consists of passing on information and taking notes or minutes of meetings. Meetings are only held four times a year and you can bring along non-mobile babies (thinking about it, lots of them are non-mobile in the evenings).

There are lots of opportunities where you only need to respond to email in the early hours or when it suits you!

NCT is baby-friendly and no-one will be remotely concerned if you need to feed or just disappear to rock your baby to sleep.

In time you might consider training as a 'specialist worker' i.e. antenatal teacher, breastfeeding counsellor or postnatal leader. These are diploma qualifications accredited through the Univeristy of Bedfordshire and usually take 2-3 years to complete. The training requires attendance at monthly tutorials (might be 1-2 hours from home), a couple of weekends away on workshops, some study days and a fair few essays and practical assessments (teaching/counselling). A proportion of expenses of this training may be met by the NCT or by grant-awarding bodies.; [original article]