However much a couple are looking forward to becoming parents, seeing that little blue line for the first time is often a surprise. “We were literally speechless!” Says Louise. “Although we were trying for a baby, we were shocked that it had happened so quickly.” Louise and Graham had been together for nearly six years, married for two and had just started trying for a baby. “I’d been feeling queasy for a few days, which is very unlike me, and I did think that maybe I was pregnant – but then I thought that I wouldn’t feel sick so early in a pregnancy. We didn’t even do the test properly – we did it in the evening, and didn’t leave it for two minutes – and even so, it came up positive. We just could not believe it.”

Once the shock had worn off, Louise threw herself into planning for Poppy’s birth. “I treated our impending arrival like a little project – I was very organised and had spreadsheets for everything! At each scan the midwife said the baby was a girl, and, although they couldn’t one hundred percent confirm it, and I was convinced it was a boy, we still went ahead and bought lots of pink things and decorated the nursery pink too. Once all my to do list items were green I felt ready for her arrival and I was very excited.”

Louise didn’t particularly enjoy the physical aspects of being pregnant. “I was commuting to London three days a week – feeling hot, tired, out of breath and sick. Although I enjoy my job, I was glad to put my feet up for a while before Poppy arrived.” And Louise’s first scan detected a worrying ovarian cyst. “It got progressively bigger throughout my pregnancy. No action was taken during the pregnancy, but it got so large that there were concerns that it might prevent me form giving birth naturally, or burst and make me go into labour early.”

Louise was, anyway, a little apprehensive about giving birth. “At some points during the pregnancy I wanted to know lots about labour – I even looked at clips of water births on You Tube, but then I would start to get worried and block the thought of labour out of my mind completely.”

Fortunately Louise reached her due date without incident, and went into labour naturally, on the morning of the 7th October. Graham and Louise went into the Princess Anne that evening and by the early hours of the following morning, Poppy had arrived. “It was painful, but over and done with quickly, for which I was thankful! I also felt very grateful for Graham’s support throughout the labour. I kept saying to him 'tell me to breathe,' and I remember him saying how proud he was of me.”

On the way home from the hospital Louise had her first parenting panic. “Poppy had really bad hiccups in the car, I was so worried that it wasn’t normal to have bad hiccups that I wanted to turn back to the hospital!” However, once she was back at home, Louise started to relax. “It was lovely, we had flowers and cards. I was starving, and my mum made me the best cheese on toast I’ve ever tasted!”

Unfortunately, the cyst on Louise’s ovary did not shrink after Poppy was born and in December she had surgery to remove it. Because the cyst was found to contain some cancerous cells Louise later also had to have the ovary removed; but she is hoping that this won’t stop her from expanding her family again. “We would like to be lucky enough to be able to have a brother or sister for Poppy in the future, so fingers crossed I will still be able to fall pregnant.”

In the meantime, she and Graham are making the most of their new lives as parents. “It’s so rewarding, and Poppy is developing such a lovely character. There are some days when being a parent is hard work, and I think I’ve mastered one thing only to have to move on to the next thing. But I think Graham and I work really well together – we listen to advice from friends and family, but ultimately we do what we feel is best for our family.”