One of our mums (from south county Dublin) has very kindly offered to tell us her story of how she didn't find out she was pregnant until 2 days before her beautiful daughter was born.
For years my periods had never ever been regular and I had tried everything possible to regulate them. I had been on the pill for a few years which helped, but I decided to come off it as l felt I was gaining a lot of weight. Even though I was in a stable relationship I had never really thought about having kids. When I came off the pill my focus was on losing weight, so I threw myself into Weight Watchers and boot camp, but I noticed I just couldn't shift the weight off my sides. I had also been suffering really bad back pain and enduring heavy periods. I regularly went to my doctor, who simply told me to watch my diet. On Sunday 2nd January I got incredibly painful cramps, and was in agony. That Monday in work, I was feeling awful, and I decided to go to my doctor again, however, my regular doctor was not there, so I was scheduled to see the locum instead. She told me that I wasn't ovulating properly, and therefore would never conceive naturally. She said she would refer me to Coombe hospital for fertility treatment.
As you can imagine, I was devastated. I went home to my mother in tears, because although up to that point I had never considered having children, I had always thought that one day I would. By Tuesday morning I was feeling so unwell, my mother made me go into the hospital to get fully checked out. She had packed an overnight bag for me and as we drove to the hospital I remember saying to her there was no point bringing a nightdress, that there was no way I was staying in overnight.
Within a few hours at the hospital, I had been seen by a doctor who ran a few tests and returned to tell me I was in fact pregnant. I was so shocked; I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. I was told that the period I thought I was having, was in fact my waters breaking. I was rushed by ambulance to the maternity hospital that evening, and on the morning of Wednesday 5th January they decided to induce me, and my daughter was born 4 hours later, weighing a healthy 7lbs.
To this day, I thank God every day, and I truly believe she was meant to be here. During the pregnancy I hadn’t taken the normal precautions, I was completely unaware of this little person's eminent arrival. It's not ideal obviously, but as it turned out we were lucky to welcome a very healthy little girl into the world that day. Since then, she has brought my partner and me so much joy and happiness. She is now 3 years old.
Whenever my period is late now, I rush to the chemist to buy a pregnancy test - I have also changed doctors since then, having gone from being unable to conceive naturally to being a new mummy in 48 hours was a bit crazy and not something I'd care to go through again. I didn’t even have nappies, but with great support from my family and friends we muddled through, and have never looked back since.
