Mother Of All Surprises

I went to bed with a hangover, but woke up with a shock…

- Lucy Bryant

Celebrating my 18th birthday, I was having the best time out clubbing with my friends.

Raising our drinks together, we all clinked our glasses of prosecco.

‘Happy birthday, Ebony,’ they all screamed at me.

We had a great night, dancing and drinking until the early hours.

Usually, a night out didn’t affect me the next day.

I was one of the lucky ones that didn’t get a hangover.

But in the days after my big celebrations,

I started to feel extremely unwell.

I prided myself on being fit and healthy and studied sports physiotherapy at college.

But after the night out, I had a splitting headache.

‘I’m going to bed to sleep it off,’ I told my mum, Sheree.

I felt awful and two hours later I couldn’t bear the pain in my skull any longer.

‘Mum!’ I called.

She came up to my bedroom, but a wave of nausea washed over me and I dashed to the bathroom to be sick.

But suddenly, my body started to convulse and just moments later everything went black…

Coming to, my eyes slowly blinked open and I realised I was in a hospital bed.

Mum was sat beside me, her face looking concerned.

‘Oh Ebony,’ she said, ‘I’m so glad you’re alright. I thought we were going to lose you.’

I had no idea what was going on and couldn’t remember what had happened to me.

But there was no time to think about it.

Just at that moment, a nurse appeared at my side, cradling a little bundle.

Leaning over me, she placed it on my chest.

‘Here’s your precious baby girl,’ she said.

I looked down and to my shock there was a baby lying there.

‘I don’t have a baby,’ I said to the nurse, thinking she must have made some sort of mistake.