I still remember the moment I was cancelled by my NCT instructor.Though it was over 13 years ago, it’s lingered in my memory, much like the labour itself, which went on for almost three days and ended with my daughter being cut out of my abdomen via an emergency C-section.It was all a bit of a shock, given that said NCT instructor had refused to talk me through such an eventuality in the ante-natal classes I’d paid hundreds of pounds to attend.As we came to the end of a session, in which the instructor spoke at length about water births, breathing and what she’d put on her labour playlist, I asked if she’d be giving us any information on emergency C-sections. After all, at least two of us in the room were statistically likely to give birth this way.‘Let’s not end on a negative note,’ she said and that was that. Then she removed me from the group email list, presumably as punishment for my negativity.Though the NCT had changed its name from the Natural Childbirth Trust to the National Childbirth Trust way back in 1961, the organisation was clearly still very much entrenched in its founding principles in 2013.Later, as I set about recovering from major abdominal surgery while also trying to navigate the life-changing matter of looking after a newborn, I felt great shame. Perhaps if I’d just focused a bit more on golden-thread breathing the birth would have gone as planned?But as they often say: if you want God to laugh himself silly, tell Him your birth plan. There’s no way I could have prevented my daughter’s heart rate from dropping dangerously as I tried to push her out. The quick thinking of the midwife in charge saved the day, and I feel lucky to have had such an advocate on my side. Though the NCT was clearly still very much entrenched in its founding principles in 2013, writes Bryony GordonBecause, as I read Baroness Amos’s report on NHS maternity services in England this week, and how women and babies are being failed ‘on a scale that shames our society’, I realised with horror that maternity care seems to have gone backwards in the 13 years since I had my baby.The report said that racism and discrimination is ‘embedded throughout the system’, with too many women not being ‘listened to, heard or believed’.But even more extraordinary is the claim that things were removed from the report just eight days before its publication.According to Dr Bill Kirkup – who has chaired numerous maternity reviews and has since resigned from the Amos inquiry team – criticism of ‘normal birth drive’, a campaign which encourages vaginal birth without medical intervention, was taken out at the last moment, despite being signed off by a ‘significant number of people’.‘We ought to acknowledge that this is a problem, and that it’s got patient safety implications for mothers and babies,’ Dr Kirkup told the BBC this week.Baroness Amos maintains that natural birth ideology did not emerge as a theme in her investigation. Either way, I’m amazed we’re still having these conversations. One friend who recently gave birth tells me that while Caesareans are now mentioned in NCT classes, the focus on them is ‘all too brief’, as is any discussion of birth trauma such as tearing and incontinence.Time and again, women with perfectly reasonable concerns are still fobbed off and urged to trust the process. Our pain is not seen as important. We’re reassured that our bodies are miraculous – but then so is science, I find, when the body goes wrong. Still, science doesn’t come for free, and an emergency C-section is thought to cost the NHS almost £9,000. No wonder there’s such a drive for ‘natural’ births.This drive is not at all reflected in reality, sadly. It’s estimated that more than half of UK births now involve medical intervention of some sort – not that you’d know this from looking at the NHS website, which until this week featured statistics which hadn’t been updated since 2008. (Back then, one in four had C-sections, but this is now actually more like 45 per cent, due to women having children later in life and a rise in complex health conditions.) As I read Baroness Amos’s report on NHS maternity services in England this week, I realised with horror that maternity care seems to have gone backwards since I had my babyIndeed, it took a social media post by former Made in Chelsea star Louise Thompson, who underwent her own traumatic C-section in 2021, to point out this glaring omission. Her followers complained, and the NHS duly updated its website this week after almost 20 years.In response to the Amos report, the Government has said NHS maternity services need a radical overhaul. I’d say the NCT does too, as it’s the biggest provider of antenatal care in the UK and recommended by the NHS.You have to scroll a long way down the NCT website before it mentions C-sections. There’s information on what to pack in your hospital bag and postnatal exercise before you see anything about one of the most common ways to give birth in 2026.Given the dire findings of the Amos report, NCT instructors would be better off telling women how to speak up and advocate for themselves during pregnancy and labour, rather than teaching them the basics of hypnobirthing.It’s high time we did away with the patronising, idealistic twaddle that still gets served up to so many parents-to-be. If a woman is grown-up enough to get pregnant, please let’s assume that she’s also grown-up enough to hear about the realities of childbirth.What me and TayTay have in common...Today’s the day Taylor Swift is due to marry Travis Kelce – although, given the secrecy surrounding the event, nobody can be sure. An insider says the couple have decided to ‘embrace the spectacle’ of a giant wedding, hiring New York’s Madison Square Garden and inviting 1,100 of their closest friends. Today's the day Taylor Swift is due to marry Travis Kelce. An insider says the couple have decided to ‘embrace the spectacle’ of a giant weddingIt’s also my wedding anniversary this weekend, and while I can’t give TayTay any tips on an arena wedding (ours was in a register office, followed by fish and chips at the pub), I can commend her on picking a wonderful time of year for it. Congratulations, Taylor and Travis. I know the agony of Emma's stress fractureTennis ace Emma Raducanu has had to withdraw from Wimbledon at the last minute after a scan revealed a stress fracture in her lower right leg. I’m no athlete, but had to wear a boot for six weeks after suffering a similar injury in my shin while training for an ultra-marathon two years ago. Tennis ace Emma Raducanu has had to withdraw from Wimbledon at the last minuteI learnt that stress fractures are far more common in women – especially perimenopausal ones – and have upped my Vitamin D supplements and strength training ever since. Here’s hoping Emma gets well soon.The new trend I refuse to join Bryony won't be joining the scramble to reserve 'usernames' on WhatsAppThere’s a scramble to reserve ‘usernames’ after WhatsApp announced it would be allowing people to chat without swapping numbers. But do we really need more ways for people to contact us? I like the privacy of old-fashioned digits. Numbers may be a hassle to remember, but at least you can choose who you give them to – and who gets to slide into your phone messages.Wonderful Zoe Ball is off to Greatest Hits Radio, joining fellow Radio 2 alumni Ken Bruce and Simon Mayo. The signing is a brilliant one for the little-known station, with a growing fan base, and the surest sign that the BBC is in serious trouble.How can five cups of coffee be healthy? Good news for caffeine obsessives – according to a new study, people who drink five or more cups of coffee a day are 50 per cent less likely to develop liver cancer than non-coffee drinkers. Which is all well and good, but that much caffeine in my system is going to significantly raise my anxiety levels about my health.