The baby question...

Once upon a time, babies were tangible evidence that a man and a woman had been intimate, but with the huge advances in medical science, this is not necessarily so any more. Baby making options have exploded and our romance stories are keeping up with the times... because no matter how they are conceived, babies will always tug at our heartstrings, won’t they? 

In Expecting Miracle Twins the first book in my Baby Steps to Marriage duet, my heroine Mattie is undergoing a surrogate pregnancy for her best friend Gina, who’s only thirty but must have a hysterectomy.

I’ve asked myself if I could have done that – had a baby for someone else, and while I’d like to think I that I could be that generous, I’m not sure. It’s a huge thing to do, isn’t it?

I think it’s truly heroic.

I love stories where characters take that big step and do things we might hesitate to do in real life, so I felt quite inspired to write Mattie’s story, and I was more than willing to make things harder for her by adding the unexpected complication of a cheeky, charming and intriguing hero – Jake Devlin.

Then, while I was in the middle of writing Mattie and Jake’s story, I discovered that my daughter-in-law was expecting twins.

So began a very exciting and scary time for our family, and a particularly trying time for my daughter-in-law as the doctor warned her that she would not go full term and that she needed complete bed rest.

On a Monday morning, six weeks before the due date, my son rang to tell us we should come straight to the hospital. The babies were about to be delivered by Caesarean section.

All four prospective grandparents gathered in the waiting room, trying to chat and appear relaxed. It seemed an age before Richard appeared, dressed in hospital scrubs, complete with paper cap, beaming from ear to ear with the news that all was well. Identical twin girls had arrived safely.

Before long, Milla and Sophie were wheeled into the nursery. Two auburn haired sweethearts, in the same crib, holding hands. I looked at those two tiny, brand new human beings clasping hands and thought how amazing it must be to be born a twin.

Of course, I couldn’t resist including twins in my story.

Truth is, I’ve always been mad about babies. In another lifetime, when I was a stay at home mum with four young children, I was always talking babies, and the husband of one of my friends actually joked that his wife could get pregnant simply by talking to me on the phone.

So you can imagine how much fun I had writing Mattie’s story and then a totally different experience for her friend Lucy in The Bridesmaid’s Baby.

What about you? Have you had babies? Are you planning to have babies? Do you just love reading about them, or does the whole idea of babies make you want to run for the hills? I’d love to hear.

Barbara Hannay

www.barbarahannay.com
wwwbarbarahannay@blogspot.com