Madeleine Teahan has narrated this article for you to listen to.
Many of us remember at least one morning in our childhoods when fate threw us some unexpected twist and we knew instantly that life would never be the same.
Mine came in July 1991, two months shy of my fifth birthday. I had just received the news from my aunt that my mum had gone into labour overnight; my siblings and I had a new sister. We were gleefully baking biscuits that morning when we heard my father’s car on the drive returning from the hospital. But someone almost unrecognisable walked into the kitchen; shell-shocked, with a ghostly pallor. Something was wrong.
Today, hundreds of women in the UK will discover they’re pregnant. Those who choose to keep their baby will be offered a blood test, usually at their 12-week scan.