We have all seen the films and the soap operas where the beautifully made-up women, lets out a couple of blood curdling screams and is then presented with a clean wrinkle free ‘new born’ toddler. It is no wonder that young girls think after an hour or so the inconvenience of childbirth will be a distant memory, but the reality is far removed from this. No two pregnancies are the same, and nor are any two babies.

I had my first child when I was twenty, an easy pregnancy followed by the shock announcement from my consultant that there was a problem with the baby’s growth and I will need an immediate induction. This sent my mind into total turmoil and started imagining all sorts of outcomes. After only two hours of labour, ‘yes I know that’s nothing lucky me’, I was then presented with a lovely little boy. When the doctors had eventually checked him over, I was informed that he had a deformity. A cleft lip, to me at that time, after all the horrors that had been going through my mind, a cleft lip was nothing, he was still beautiful, had all his organs and fingers and toes and he was mine. We were the lucky ones and we knew it, my Son went on to have two operations and absolutely no lasting problems from his little hic-cup. I went onto have another son, textbook pregnancy, born on his due date, a two hour labour again, oh this baby lark was a breeze. After three days my Son had a fit and after months of hospital visits he was diagnosed with Motor Dyspraxia and severe speech problems, 18 years later my Son is still fighting his way through with sheer determination and is now in his third year of a National diploma course in performing arts. How can I feel sorry for myself when my Son some how turns his problems into a plus. After two heart breaking miscarriages I had a little girl, again perfect pregnancy, birth and a perfect child, and thankfully apart from the teen tantrums she still is. After another two miscarriages, I had a very difficult pregnancy, it felt like most of my life was spent in the maternity department, the doctors decided on a c-section there and then, no time to think I was wheeled off. My beautiful son was perfect, premature, small but still perfect. That’s when my luck run out, sadly he died after a three-week struggle. That’s when our struggles started. After a terrible couple of years and fertility treatment, I managed to fall pregnant again, it was the worst and the best feeling I could imagine. After what seemed like two years but was evidently only nine moths, my little girl was born by C-section, after all the checks possible, she was pronounced perfect. Does pain out weigh the pleasure? YES. Are any two pregnancies and baby’s the same? NO