Both Australians, Craig and Tarnya have been in the UK for ten years. “We’ve had the most incredible adventures living here – we’ve been backpacking through Russia and hot air ballooning over the Nile at sunrise. One year we visited thirteen different countries. We wanted to see as much as we could before starting a family.”

Eventually, the Highgate couple decided that they were ready to embark on a different kind of adventure. “We’d set the date of New Year’s Eve 2009 to start trying for a baby. We thought it would take some time to conceive, but on the 7th of January the little blue line appeared! Craig couldn’t quite grasp the concept at first – partly because I delivered the exciting news at 4am, and partly because we hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly. But later that day, after a strong coffee, he was bouncing off the walls.”

Tarnya and Craig forced themselves to wait until their twelve week scan, before sharing their news with friends and family. “It seemed like an eternity. We broke the news to our parents by sending them a book called ‘The Essential Grandparent’s Manual’ and putting a copy of the scan inside the front cover. It was a huge surprise to them – they’d been waiting for a grandchild for ten years and had probably given up hope. Grandma went into a knitting frenzy!”

Although Tarnya was lucky enough not to suffer from morning sickness, as the pregnancy wore on she found it hard-going. “We always hear about pregnant women glowing with happiness but that wasn’t my experience. I seemed to pick up every virus around, from travelling on the tube, and I had a nasty chest infection at one stage. I also suffered from restless leg syndrome which caused insomnia. Towards the end of my pregnancy I slept on the couch because it was more comfortable than my own bed. Some nights I had as little as an hour’s sleep – this made it very difficult to function at work, but, on the positive side, by the time Cora was born I was already accustomed to surviving on very little sleep!”

A scan in the week before Tarnya’s due date suggested that she was carrying a 10lb baby, and her obstetrician recommended a caesarean. “We decided that we would rather have a calm elective c-section than risk an emergency one.”

And it seems that this was the right decision for Tarnya. “Cora’s birth was a calm and wonderful experience. We met all of the theatre staff before we were wheeled into surgery, which put me at ease. The most tense moment was when I was leaning over the bed, while the anaesthetist put the epidural in my spine and said ‘whatever you do, don’t move!’.”

Ten minutes later, Cora was born. New father, Craig, held her while doctors finished the surgery on Tarnya. “It felt a bit like someone doing the washing up in my stomach!  Afterwards our midwife, Francis, brought me the best toast and I tea I’ve ever had. It was a really positive experience for me and I can safely say that a c-section is nothing to be afraid of.”

Although Tarnya was well prepared for the arrival of her daughter, she still found those first few weeks a little daunting. “Looking back, I wish there had been a lecture that would have given me all the information I needed at once. Instead, I had to read numerous books and attend different classes to work out what to do with a new-born baby.”

Tarnya and Craig found bath time particularly tricky. “No matter how many books you read, nothing prepares you for trying to give your baby a bath for the first time. I’d rehearsed it with a teddy bear weeks before Cora was born, but having a little squirming baby in my arms was totally different. Our yoga teacher, Anna, had taught us to relax and trust our instincts, which was great advice for our first week at home. We found that getting in the bath with Cora was the easiest option – and we didn’t learn that in a book!”

Having found their feet, Tarnya and Craig have confidence in their own, laid-back, form of parenting. “Cora is a very happy and settled little baby and I think it’s because we’re quite relaxed. Before she arrived, I’d read every baby book ever written and I was determined to get her into a routine from the beginning. But I’ve learned that babies don’t always fit into pre-determined structures. In the end, the best thing for Cora was to throw routines out of the window and let her develop in her own way. Craig and I have learned to relax and take each day as it comes, and it’s been a fabulous experience – in spite of the sleep deprivation!”

Gaby and Greg are quite the globe trotting couple, but they could hardly have imagined, when they first met as flatmates in New York, that six years later they would be married, living in London, and the proud parents of a baby boy.

“Greg and I didn’t know each other before we shared the flat,” says Gaby, “but we got along really well and became very good friends. After months of living together we decided to give it a shot as a couple. We didn’t know whether it would work out – but here we are!”

Gaby and Greg, who is American, spent two years together in New York before moving to Gaby’s home country of Argentina. In 2010 the couple decided to move to London, and settled in Notting Hill. “We both work in finance, so London seemed like the ideal city – and London has a much better balance between work and personal life than New York.”

Gaby has always known that she wanted to have children one day. “I love kids, I love my nephews – I always wanted to be a mum, so when the right moment came I felt ready.”

The couple were very excited to find out that Gaby was pregnant, and immediately began to plan for their new arrival. Tommy was to be a first grandchild for Greg’s parents, but the sixth for Gaby’s, who already had five grandsons. “Everyone was expecting it to be a girl, and we were convinced that it was a girl too, but we found out at the second scan that the baby was a boy. All my nephews were very pleased – they’re planning to form a football team! Of course, Greg and I would have been happy either way.”

And it seems as though Gaby is a natural at the whole parenthood thing – she had such a smooth pregnancy that she even managed to carry on running until the sixth month. “I felt amazing. I didn’t have any morning sickness or pains. I enjoyed the changes in my body, and I took pictures of my bump every other week to see the progress.”

Nine days after her due date, in the middle of the night, Gaby started to have contractions. She spoke to the midwives, who advised her to stay at home until the contractions became more regular and frequent, and, in the morning, when Gaby’s waters broke, she and Greg headed in to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

“The birth itself was not exactly a smooth experience,” says Gaby, “but thankfully Greg was there with me the entire time. After a hard labour, I felt blessed when I first saw Tommy and held him. He’s such a healthy, strong little boy! Greg and I fell completely in love with him straight away.”

The new family were able to go home the next day, and Gaby’s parents, who were visiting from Argentina, had organised a lunch to celebrate the arrival of their newest grandson – and New Year’s Day.

It seems that Gaby is now sailing through motherhood, just as she sailed through her pregnancy. “I started breastfeeding at the hospital without any problems, and I’m still doing it. I’ve developed a very strong bond with Tommy, and I feel great in my new role as a mother. Our life as a family is everything we always dreamed of. We look forward to seeing Tommy grow, and we’re enjoying every part of the process.”

“The only person who had a hard time accepting the new arrival was Pepa, our King Charles Spaniel, but now she loves him just as much as we do!”

Both psychologists, Dirk and Esther had met at a New Year’s Eve party. “It was a bit of a set up, without either of us knowing we were being set up. Dirk asked me to marry him eighteen days later, and I told him to ask me again when he was sober!”

Esther was thrilled to discover that she was expecting a son, but stunned that it had happened so quickly. “I thought that at my age it would take ages – but it happened the first month we tried.” Dirk, who has twin sons from a previous relationship, was less surprised. “He said that with his track record he didn’t expect anything else!”

Despite having SPD (symphysis pubis dysfunction, which causes pain in the pubic area and groin), Esther managed to enjoy her pregnancy. “It was better than I expected – I really liked watching my body change shape and feeling my baby move. The SPD was hard, but I had lots of support from the Whittington and through my antenatal yoga class.”

At 38 weeks, Esther had rising blood pressure and protein in her urine, which together indicated that she was at risk of pre-eclampsia. Her doctors took the decision to induce, but, after five days of trying, the medical inductions failed to bring on established labour and she had to be taken into theatre for a caesarean. “There was great camaraderie on the ward, although I was so jealous of the women I could hear groaning through their contractions, when I was making no progress. The induction process just wouldn’t work. It was a relief to finally get Toby born, even if he did have to come out through the sunroof!”

“Dirk cut the cord. He used to be a nurse, so nothing about any of the medical procedures floored him – he was totally calm all the time, which really helped.”

In the recovery room, Esther was able to bond with her new son. “It was a really happy time – I was feeling no pain, Toby had been born at last, and the midwives who had been involved in the many days of trying came to find me and congratulate us – it meant the world to me that they took the time to do that.”

“I thought Toby was the most beautiful thing in the world – and clearly a genius, as he latched on to my breast straight away. We had loads of skin to skin contact, it was bliss. Looking back at the photos I sent out at the time, they were so inappropriate for work colleagues – because I really wasn’t dressed at all! But I was so happy, I thought it was a great idea.”

“Coming home after a week in hospital was a bit nerve wracking, I felt very strange and I was enormously tired. The first night we tried to put Toby in his cot and he looked ridiculous – he was so tiny, and we had no moses basket, so he ended up sleeping his first night in a drawer that we pulled out from under the bed! It was about the same size as the crib in the hospital so we thought it would do.”

The first few days were not exactly plain sailing for the new family. “My milk came in a bit late, and my blood pressure didn’t go down. Toby lost twelve percent of his body weight and I wasn’t making a good recovery, so we were both readmitted to hospital just two days after we’d come home. That was a bit of a blow and we were there for a further five days, though Toby got better much more quickly than I did. It was really hard on Dirk, who was spending the days in the hospital with us, but nights alone in the flat.”

Happily, Esther received a lot of support which helped her to establish breastfeeding, both in hospital and at local breastfeeding clinics, and things gradually got easier for everyone. “Motherhood is so much better than I ever imagined.” Says Esther. “I didn’t realise what a joyful experience it would be, and how much I would be capable of loving my son. Dirk is a brilliant papa, and we are so enjoying getting to know Toby – he’s such a character and we have lots of laughs.”

Madeleine and Michelle’s story has a romantic beginning, as befits the daughters of a Norwegian composer. Their father, Ole, is the only Norwegian to have produced and staged two musicals in the West End, and he proposed to Randi after they had known each other for only three weeks.

The couple met on the 17th May, which is Norway’s constitution day, an important celebration for Norwegians. Randi’s best friend was living in London at the time and Randi decided to make a break from tradition and join her there for the celebrations. Ole, who lived in London, had always  gone back to Norway for the 17th, but this time he had decided to stay in London.

Randi and Ole met at the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in Rotherhithe, where Norwegians in London were gathering for traditional celebrations. After her holiday, Randi went back to Norway, but she and Ole met up several times over the following weeks, culminating in his proposal, on a mountaintop in Norway. “Ole picked a branch of Ricola and made a ring, then he went down on his knees and surprised me. I still have the ring, which is framed, and hangs on the wall.” A few months later, Randi quit her job, sold her car, rented out her flat and moved to London to be with Ole. “It all happened very quickly, and, of course, people wondered whether it was for real.”

A year later, Randi and Ole put all such doubts to rest by getting married in the Norwegian Fjords. They bought a house in Notting Hill, and Randi, whose background is in marketing, decided to work with Ole. “Ole had just started working on his second musical, which was composing music to a dramatic poem by Henrik Ibsen called Terje Vigen.  Terje Vigen turned into a multimedia musical that we’ve staged in the USA, China, London and Norway.”

“I also started making bread in Norway – based on the story in the musical – and I’ve now started producing the bread in England, with a bakery in London. The bread won a Gold Star in the UK best taste awards, and we are now talking to Harrods and other places that would like to sell it.”

“Although Ole and I do have our discussions, working together is great and we love spending so much time together. I guess our story really is proof that if you dare to break traditions, wonderful things can happen.”


In 2009, Randi and Ole were not too surprised when they were told that Randi was carrying twins. “My mother is a twin, so we half expected it. We were thrilled when we found out – though a little shocked when the doctor wondered if there were three in there! Luckily it was just that one of them was very active – and she still is.”

Randi’s waters broke during a routine examination at 32 weeks, and she was then kept in hospital for two weeks “They did everything they could to stop the contractions, because they wanted me to keep the babies for as long as possible. It was a long time to be in hospital, and stressful. I spent a week back home before the waters broke again and I had to go back to hospital. I had wanted to have a natural birth, but as Madeleine was in a breech position and Michelle was transverse the doctors strongly advised me to have a c-section.”

Both babies were delivered successfully by caesarean, and for Randi and Ole the challenge of life with twins began. “They needed to be fed every two to three hours. We were brought to the very limit of our capacities by the constant lack of sleep. It was like a never-ending rollercoaster that you couldn’t get off, and part of you didn’t want to – but it was the most tiring time of my life! Twins are a lot of work, but we also feel lucky to have been blessed with two fantastic children who love to eat.”

A few months on, and Randi is finding it a little easier now that the girls are in more of a routine. “They sleep from 11 at night to about 5.30, which is magic! We go for walks, and although I do have a big buggy, most of the time there’s no problem getting around. It’s still hard work, though, and when I hear people complain when they’ve only got one, I think ‘he he - try two’!”

Self-proclaimed forward-planner, Heather Lizamore, seems somehow to have managed to organize almost everything about the birth of her second child – from the sex to the day of the week that she was born. Even though, initially, Heather hadn’t been sure that she was ready for a second pregnancy.

“Andy had been keen to go for the double for at least a year. I was more reticent as I was very much in the throws of establishing my business, and I felt I was still adjusting to being a mother of one – finally, I panicked about my advancing age and decided to go for it!”

“Being a planner, I did a home pregnancy test the minute they were reasonably accurate, and Caitlin, my three-year-old, who had followed me into the loo, was the first person I told.”

Unsurprisingly, given that she likes to be prepared, Heather was keen to find out the sex of her baby in advance. “I’m known amongst my friends as being boy-phobic – I come from a long line of girls and the idea of a boy terrified me! Andy was, I think, disappointed that it wasn't going to be a boy for a fraction of a second, but he quickly came round to the idea of being thoroughly outnumbered by the ladies in the family!”

Perhaps slightly less conventionally, given that she was having a natural birth at home, Heather had also decided the time and day that her baby should be born. “My due date was the 30th of June, and I was terrified that she would be born on the 4th of July, as I had an ex-boyfriend born on that day, and I didn't fancy my darling baby sharing her birthday with him. I’d also decided I wanted to go into labour on a Friday night, so I would have at least two days to recover before I would have to get any orders out.” Heather runs the mail order children’s bedding company Quick Brown Fox of Dulwich.

“The week I was due Andy was having a busy time at work, and I wanted him to go on paternity leave having left everything in good order. I also decided it should be at night as I wanted Caitlin to sleep through it, and it was a blistering summer and I couldn't face the idea of labouring in the heat of the day.”

With such a long list of requirements, it seems unlikely that Heather should have been able to fulfil them all. However, on Friday 2nd July she drove to Holborn with Caitlin to meet Andy for a picnic lunch. “Straight after lunch, I felt an overwhelming impetus to get home. Once we were home I whizzed around the house cleaning up, then put Caitlin in front of the TV and had a bath, while reading a hippy natural childbirth book I’d dipped into once or twice during my pregnancy. I ended up reading it from cover to cover until my mind was completely awash with positive thoughts about my ability to get bubs out with no bother at all.”

“Bizarrely, I then decided I had to make date scones. Really had to. And the minute Andy walked through the door, I demanded, fishwife style, that he get Caitlin to bed immediately and went up to our room to watch TV. Ten minutes after Caitlin was in bed I started to get contractions – which I initially thought were a sore tummy from having eaten too many date scones.”

“The minute I felt it was all happening, I started ordering Andy about – ‘get the birth pool out, get a stop watch ready, plug in my computer so I can hear my playlist’ – and then put myself back in the bath, where I stayed until labour was well established.”

“My assigned midwife was off duty, so I had another couple of lovely ladies from the same practice. Initially, it was a bit odd, as I was still in control enough to feel self-conscious and wanted to be left alone to concentrate. I could hear Andy chatting to them and making cups of tea, and I felt like I was wasting their time and being a bad hostess!”

“At around midnight all notions of politeness and decorum went out the window. I had got out of the bath, because the midwives wanted to examine me and they had also suggested that it would speed her arrival if I managed to keep mobile, which I  
dutifully did, leaning on Andy whenever I needed to. It was a very introverted experience – I spent the entire labour talking to myself in my head, and allowing all the hippy birth book's positive empowering messages dominate my thoughts.”

“Some of the time though, I found myself thinking 'This is barbaric, hideous, and foul - how do women all over the world do this on a daily basis? I’m definitely   
not having any more kids!'  My music playlist did provide some relief, though, because some of the songs brought back such vivid memories of different times in my life.”

“We didn't end up using the birth pool, because I couldn't face getting wet again. Just before Harper was born, the midwives reminded me that I’d consented to have a student at the birth, and a few minutes later another kind face popped up at the door and delivered the baby. It was a little crazy saying our hellos after she had caught my baby! Even weirder, just as Harper was making her entrance, I saw flashes of light – I had apparently also told the midwives at an ante-natal appointment that I would like them to take photos! Let's just say the outcome is not pretty. We have the photos saved in a folder on the computer entitled ‘graphic birth photos - do not open’!”

“Harper was born at  2:45am, while 'I see you baby (shaking that ass)' by Groove Armada played – I had thought it would be funny and it was! I had saved the gas  
and air until the  final stages, and it was just enough to take the edge off the final  pushes.”

“By 3:30am we were cuddled up in bed having tea and toast. The very best part of it all, though, was when, at about 4am, just as the midwives were leaving, Caitlin came out of her room, and called her daddy to ask for some water. I called her into our room and said 'I've got a surprise for you!', she came in and her face lit up as she exclaimed 'my baby sister!' That's when I really blubbed.”