When we first fell in love, my husband and I had very similar ideas of how our life would look. We would travel the world, eventually settle down, buy a house and have a family. After seven years of courtship and a year of marriage, we were on track and ready. When it came to trying to have children, we were somewhat naïve. We thought we’d stop using contraception for a bit and boom! Nine months later we’d have a baby.

‘Shall we try for a baby?’  Probably one of the most important decisions that a couple make. Less than a year after we were married, we were fortunate to fall pregnant very quickly. It was August 2008, we were young. Up until then, we felt like we had it all, family, great friends, a beautiful home and more than we could ever imagine.
The first two trimesters of my pregnancy were trouble free. We chose to only share our news with our parents before our 12-week scan. I was desperate to find out the sex of the baby, secretly hoping for a girl. We were relieved that when we had our 20-week scan, all was well and delighted to find out we were expecting a baby girl. Everything became very exciting and real at this point.

“I’m so sorry, there’s no heartbeat…” six words that changed my life forever.

At 23+3 weeks pregnant on Monday 27^th May 2019, I woke up as usual at around 6.30am, but there was something unusual about this particular morning, I couldn’t feel my baby moving. At first I didn’t worry too much, I innocently assumed that after a hot cup of tea and some breakfast, I’d soon feel the familiar kicks, but as my day unfolded, this did not happen.

Three words, Group B Strep, have you heard of them?

Until the morning of the 9^th July 2004, I had never heard these words before and would little realise how they would impact my life.

After years of suffering with painful periods, I was diagnosed with PCOS and was told I would find it increasingly difficult to fall pregnant.  So it came as a huge surprise to eventually see two lines appear on a pregnancy test.   As I was already three months along and the pregnancy moved along swiftly.  After a failed sweep when I was ten days overdue, I finally went into labour on the 8^th July 2004, and gave birth at 1.31am the following morning.  To this day, sixteen years later, I can close my eyes and return to the labour room and watch everything happen like a scene from a movie.