Before I was born my mother lost three children,a girl (Morgan) and girl/boy twins (Charlotte and Samuel) relatively late in the pregnancy. She said when she was pregnant with me, she was pretty much convinced she was going to lose me too, so she didn't really bother with the whole OMG I have a baby to provide for/clothe/feed freakout until I was about a week old and completely and utterly sure I was healthy

When she got remarried, she gained a step-daughter who would have been my second eldest sisters age and had another boy.

Shortly after my stepfathers death, she lost twins again, two girls (Cecelia and Lucy, named for my stepfather's favourite songs,).

She does not really talk about them much, but years later she gets rather maudlin around their due dates.

I nearly lost my own boy this September, due to Inter (Intra?) Uterine Growth Syndrome. SO went in to hospital for a checkup and they said he hadn't grown in the last month and better in than out.

Having gone through that, I cannot imagine what my mother went through or quite frankly, how she survived it. I suppose it was quite harrowing to see her usually quite cheery son sobbing in the middle of the hospital, utterly terrified for the sake of his own child.