My pregnancy with Jasmine was much the same as my pregnancy with Zac. No huge problems but a few minor ones. When the time came for my routine 20 week scan, I took Gary and one of my best friends along. It was my friend's birthday and she had always wanted to come and see a scan. I was confident that the scan would be fine having had one child with no hitches already so I decided that it would be okay for her to come and have a nose.

The Sonographer called me in and then announced that there wasn't enough water in my bladder. I went away and drank another two cups of water and soon my bladder felt like it was fit to burst. She tried again. This time the baby was facing the wrong way and she couldn't get a good look at the face! I made on off hand comment asking her if she was looking for stuff like a 'hare lip' but it never occurred to me that that would ever be a possibility for my baby. After all, I already had a child who was ‘perfect'.

The Sonographer tipped the table so that I was almost upside down in an effort to move the baby into a better position. It didn't work and she sent me out again suggesting I have a bar of chocolate so that the baby had sugar rush and got more active. By this time my bladder was so full I thought it might explode!

When I went in to be scanned a third time I knew something was wrong. It was a different Sonographer and she was very quiet whilst she scanned me, then left the room and returned again. She then calmly announced that my baby had a cleft lip and that she was very sorry. It didn't really sink in straight away. I managed to keep smiling until I went to the loo and then immediately broke down in floods of tears. All I could think was that there was something wrong with my baby. I knew nothing about clefts and between the tears I said to Gary that my baby would be born with a hole in it's face. The next thing that occurred to me was that I probably wouldn't be able to breastfeed and this really upset me because I had been looking forward to having that bond again with my new baby.

I leaned over to my friend in the room and said to her ‘Happy Birthday mate!', riddled with guilt for bringing her and ruining her birthday.

I went home and looked cleft lip up on the internet. It was mainly full of horror stories about the genetic disorders and syndromes that are sometimes linked to clefts. I spent the whole week crying and wondered what I would do if the baby was severely defected in any way.

I went back to the hospital to see the Consultant at the end of the week.

I was offered an amniocentesis to check for genetic defects but declined. There was no history of this condition in either mine or my partner's family, the scan was completely normal in every way apart from the cleft and my AFP results were good. All this meant that the risk of other defects was very low.

According the scan the cleft affected the left hand side of the lip and was measured as being around at 4-6mm wide. The Consultant told me that it was a moderate cleft but that it would certainly be noticeable. She tried to see whether the palate was affected and said that from what she could see there was a 2mm gap in the palate. Obviously she couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't be more severe and it was just a question of waiting until the baby was born.

I received different advice about breastfeeding and it all came down to the same things. It would depend on the severity of the cleft and whether it affected both lip and palate.

Gary and I went to see the cleft lip and palate team who would be looking after our baby and we were both much more positive after that visit. The team were lovely and took the time and trouble to explain the step by step care that our baby would be getting right up until she was 20. They showed us around the wards and we looked at some before and after pictures of other babies who had had their repairs. We even met a young mum who's little girl, aged 4 mths, had had her lip operation the day before. She was beautiful and although her lip looked bruised, it was otherwise perfect and she was gurgling and laughing as if nothing had happened.

After that visit Gary and I were both of the view that this problem was largely just a cosmetic one and although it was certainly a bit of a worry with regard to breastfeeding, operations my baby had to have, and other problems she may develop in the future with speech and hearing, at the end of the day it was our baby.

One thing I noticed whilst we looked at the before and after pictures was that I didn't really see the clefts or the severity of them, I just saw really cute, beautiful babies.

The last few weeks of the pregnancy were the hardest. I couldn't stop worrying about finally meeting my baby, how she would look and how severly affected the palate would be. I also started to panic about how Zac was going to react to having a new baby on the scene. He was always a mummy's boy, still is, and I have to admit was always quite spoiled with attention. At only 2 years and 4 months old, it was very difficult to explain things to him and although he pointed at my belly when asked where his baby was, I wondered how much he really understood.

The thought of another labour was also beginning to get to me abit. My last labour was very quick, being only 4 hours from start to finish and there is a history of fast labours in my family. I had been induced because of bleeding and the contractions had been fast and furious! The thought of going into labour without an epidural really scared me so I resolved to make camp outside the delivery suite the moment I felt the first twinges!

I arranged to pick up a double electric breast pump that I had hired through my midwife and breastfeeding councilor ‘just in case'. They were both very encouraging and incredibly supportive with the whole breastfeeding issue.

Now all I had to do was sit back and wait for my baby to decide to make an entrance!

Despite trying out every old wive's tale to induce labour I was still pregnant! Hot baths, Rosemary Leaf capsules (the tea was to vulgar to drink), nipple twiddling, long walks and not slowing down over speed ramps did nothing to dislodge the bump.

My midwife gave me a ‘stretch and sweep' when I hit 40 weeks which was basically a rough internal to try and kick start things (although she was very gentle and made an unpleasant procedure bearable!). She said that I was very ‘favourable' and predicted that I would have given birth by the weekend. Another sweep and a week later……………..still pregnant!!!!!!

Exactly one week after my due date, after spending the day tidying, shopping and then having a nice relaxing bath I started to have contractions. I rang the hospital and went in to be checked but was sent home and told that I wasn't dilated or in labour even though the contractions had started at 5 minutes apart and were lasting for a minute.

I spent awhile at home resolving to go back to hospital once the contractions were closer together but at 3.30am I couldn't stand it any longer and went back to the hospital.
After being put in a back room I asked for gas and air, the midwife was reluctant to give it to me saying that I wasn't really ready for pain relief yet and there was certainly no chance of havng an epidural or my waters broken yet. The contractions were really hurting and I began to get distressed so the midwife checked me and announced that had been no change - still not dilated.

Not long after that I felt the need to push and when the midwife checked me again I was fully dilated and the baby was on the way out!!! My mum and partner, who were my birthing partners, said that the look on her face when she felt the baby's head there was a picture! She told me that there was no time for an epidural now, she broke my waters and two pushes later Jasmine Ann was born.

No dilation to birth in 45 minutes - not bad going!

She was beautiful if a little battered and bruised from her quick delivery and I only had a couple of stitches! Yippee!

She was perfect. Weighing in at 7lb 12oz she was a healthy baby with a fine set of lungs. After being checked over it was confirmed that she had a unilateral cleft palate as well as the unilateral cleft lip. I tried to breastfeed her for hours and despite her enthusiasm, she was unable to latch on. So began my days of expressing……..!