The letter (9 August) from an NHS doctor about the National Childbirth Trust triggered a memory. In 1989, full of enthusiasm in my first pregnancy, I joined the NCT. My husband and I had our separate reasons why he would not be present at the birth, which satisfied us. I applied to several local NCT antenatal classes. All rejected me because I would not be accompanied at the birth. Behind the medical orthodoxies lie social orthodoxies. There is no flexibility to include the individual. All must conform.
Honor Cooper
London
• “A 2,100-year-old Roman shipwreck carrying about 500 amphorae has been discovered three miles off the coast of Mazara del Vallo in Sicily,” you report (10 August). I wonder if in 2,000 years there will be a headline about an Evri van being discovered with about 500 parcels, one of which might have been addressed to me.
Norman Paterson
Anstruther, Fife
