A message from Belinda Phipps, CEO of NCT

A look back ....

As 2009 draws to a close I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has helped in any way to make a difference for parents this year.

The NCT is nothing without its volunteers and branches.

Our 103,000 members and volunteers, between 10,000 and 16,000 (we think), are the people that do the work of the NCT. It is you that are in touch with about 350,000 parents a year. You put on countless Bumps and Babies events, Nearly New Sales, coffees, events for dads, send millions of newsletters each year and run websites and facebooks and twitter and all sorts right across the UK. Between you give hundreds and thousands of people the chance to meet and get to know each other, make friends and feel part of the community of people that are doing the work of raising the next generation.

Someone said to me that this doesn't seem a big or important thing to do but when you know that the biggest cause of death in mothers with a child under a year old is suicide and the postnatal depression rate in women is over 20% (we don't know the level in men because it's not measured) and one third - yes one third - of all women recall their birth as traumatic (citing lack of support and medical interventions as the reason) and the relationship breakdown for couples is highest in the year after birth and .... so you can see what we do is vital and can be life saving - in the physical or mental health sense - so it is important, really important. It is clear that stressed and depressed parents find it much harder to be the sort of parents they wanted to be.

You also work with the public sector providing volunteer support along side them and you have a NCT reps representing parents on MSLCs and other bodies across the UK, working to make the policies we have successfully had the governments and assemblies put in place (we will get there in N Ireland and the islands too soon) real with action by the service provides, not always a popular role with the health service and others, but vital.

As well as this you raise millions, yes millions, of pounds between your membership fees and the fundraising you do. Some of this money you spend locally to make a difference but the majority you pass on to the UK office and we use much of it to train new breastfeeding counsellors and antenatal teachers and postnatal leaders. We have nearly 1000 qualified workers and we will be training 1200 students to diploma level by the spring. They are in contact with about 120,000 parents through courses and class and the individual breastfeeding support given as volunteers by the breastfeeding counsellors and on the 3 phone lines which your fundraising pays for.

By paying the salaries of the staff team you also enable us to get our messages across in the media, to lobby and campaign in each of the countries to influence what research is done. The healthcare commission survey done a while ago was lobbied for by us, led by an NCT member who was employed to do it and written in close consultation. It can now be seen in user friendly format on Birthchoice UK which is a site developed and run by an NCT antenatal teacher.

You pay for the NCT website and the work of writing and editing the information that's up there

You pay for Perspective, a publication that goes to 12,000 midwives to encourage them to support parents in the way they want in line with evidence.

You pay for Bumps and Babies, a free magazine for parents and for Stepping Stones a free e mail stage by stage resource, so parents don't have to rely on commercially produced information which may well have the sales motive behind it rather than the good of parents.

Some of you also volunteer directly for the UK office, giving us expertise, or writing or being case studies for the media - taking photos and all sorts so to these volunteers thank you.

And most of you do all this knowing you will not benefit yourselves because you have had your babies, you do this for the next generation of mothers, fathers and babies, and NCT members in the past did it for you.

So thank you. Thank your on behalf of all those parents who never became NCT members, who never knew it was you that did the thing that made the difference for them. We know, so thank you.

Belinda NCT CEO
b_phipps@nct. org.uk
07976 272 305

(if you want to ask/say anything that your branch coordinator or regional coordinator can't answer then e mail enquires@nct. org.uk or to find out more come to the Big Weekend )
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