I was just seventeen when I got pregnant for the first time. Never really thought whether or not I wanted children - it just happened. Morning sickness with the first one, crippling backache with #2 and both with my daughter, born two months before my 22nd birthday. Pregnancy didn't really seem to be anything special - with the first one I had the trauma of telling parents, going to court for permission to marry and a complete break with my parents as a result. For the other two, I had the second 15 months after the first birth and the third one day after the first turned four. I think that I was just too busy dealing with the others to give much thought to the child in my womb.

I can't really say that I felt any special connection with any of them before birth. I had a brother ten years younger than me so had some experience of babies when I got sent home three days after the birth of my first boy.

My older son when with his father when we split up but the two younger ones are still a joy to me, although I find it difficult to think of having a 40 year old son!