Kate Morris: Why Sure Start was a lifeline for me

There's no dressing it up. The first months of motherhood are amazing, but they can also be amazingly hard. For me, the transition was more challenging as we'd just moved to Cambridge where my husband had a new job. My health visitor thought I was heading for misery. "So you're new here, you don't have any friends, and you've given up a busy and interesting job for motherhood."

What she didn't appreciate was my mission to find friends – and my local Sure Start centre.

It's not complicated: most new mothers just need to sit and share their sleep-starved woes with others who find themselves in the same situation.

This is why Sure Start centres and others like them are so crucial. There is no underestimating how important a good support network is for all women struggling with a small baby, especially those like me whose family live far away.