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Michelle Brooks, 28, from Hastings, was a ticking timebomb-one move could have ended everything...

- VIVIAN IROANYA & ANAIS SEELY

Dumping the tea bag in the bin, I knew a cup of tea would be the best way to soften the blow of what I was about to say.

And with my partner Perry, 27, coming through the front door, at the start of 2021, it was perfect timing.

‘I’m pregnant,’ I admitted.

Spitting his mouthful of tea all over the kitchen, you could say it was a shock.

Especially as we already had a hectic brood of four children ruling the roost – Bridget, now nine, Mia, now six, Rhys, now five, and Jack, now two.

‘What are we going to do now?’ Perry laughed.

Only, as much as it was a huge shock and unexpected, it was what it was, and we were happy.

The kids couldn’t wait – Bridget was excited about being a big sister again.

And with this pregnancy the same to every one I had in the past, completely textbook, it meant that my nesting instincts kicked in.

Being a self-confessed organised freak, I’d managed to set up the nursery, finishing it by six months pregnant.

Despite feeling the usual pregnancy symptoms, there was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary.

That was until September 2021 came around…

With Perry at work, I’d woken up to make a cup of tea.

Only, reaching up to the top shelf for the bag of sugar, I lost all feeling in my right arm.

Going completely dead, the sugar bag came tumbling down, taking the cup of hot water with it.

So, without second guessing, I called the one person who I thought would take me seriously.

‘I just don’t feel well,’ I confessed to my nan. ‘I don’t want anyone to say it’s just pregnancy, because it’s not.’