On the 29th September 2016 myself and my husband Neil went to our 12 week scan which is when we discovered we were expecting twins! We already had Leo 7 and Mia 6 so we were doubling our brood, which was quite a shock. Other then the usual morning sickness and a small bleed at 14 weeks my pregnancy had been pretty straight forward with regular scans every 2 weeks due to the twins being identical so sharing a placenta. At 17 weeks we took Leo and Mia to a private gender scan, they were so excited to find out if they would be getting baby brothers or sisters…we found out we were having girls, Neil and Leo were going to be outnumbered! We went to asda on the way home so Leo and Mia could pick an outfit each for when the girls were born. Early hours of Wednesday 18th January i woke up to my waters going, I was only 27 weeks 6 days...

BNU student nurses play a vital role on our hospital wards and in our communities. When BNU marketing officer Laura Wright had sudden pregnancy complications, it wasn’t just doctors and nurses who helped her, student nurses played an important role in getting her through one of the most turbulent times in her life. This is her story and the BNU student nurse Lottie who helped her.
Around the time of International Nurses Day, I always find myself reflecting on the NHS and the amazing care our doctors, nurses and other key workers provide for us.  Nurses can often be a patient’s greatest advocate, caregiver and friend during scary times – and I experienced this first-hand during one of the most challenging times of my life...

After an uncomplicated pregnancy, it certainly was a shock to end up in the labour ward five weeks ahead of our due date. I hadn’t started maternity leave yet, and just that weekend my friends had thrown me a baby shower and we had gone to our first class of the NCT course. Thankfully, I had already packed a hospital bag, had birthing preferences for pretty much every eventuality and had been practicing hypo birthing techniques – so I felt relatively calm considering the circumstances!

I could feel that our baby (we didn’t know the gender) was in breach, so I asked for this to be checked as soon as we arrived...

We were looking forward to the birth of our son so much. We had planned for what we thought was every eventuality, we had been to some awesome antenatal and hypnobirthing classes and felt confident and positive.

Stoke Mandeville were monitoring us closely as Ted’s ‘due date’ was the 22nd May and we were into June and he hadn’t made an appearance yet...