STARING at the test with her groceries surrounding her feet Samantha Crammond couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
It was her 46th birthday and it was the biggest surprise she would receive that day – a positive pregnancy test.
It was on her 46th birthday that Samantha Crammond discovered that she was pregnant[/caption]
She had not been expecting to get pregnant again later in life[/caption]
She discovered she was expecting in a Tesco toilet[/caption]
Samantha, now 47, first gave birth in her early 40s and thought that would be her one experience of nappy-changing days.
But when she discovered she was pregnant in a Tesco toilet on her 46th birthday, she was stunned.
“I really wasn’t expecting it, even though we weren’t being particularly careful,” Samantha, from Essex, says.
“I went to Tesco with my partner Andy to get breakfast and I had a gut feeling so I got a pregnancy test.
“I did it in the toilet at Tesco.
“I was standing over the bin ready to drop it in and it came up saying pregnant. I was shaking.
“I was happy, but at my age you worry. It was hard to celebrate until tests had been done properly.”
Samantha, who works in admin for a finance company, tried not to get her hopes up after previously suffering a miscarriage.
But despite the initial nerves, she was never worried about being an older mum – and wasn’t interested in letting other people’s judgement cloud her experience.
Her daughter Elvie was born on December 17, 2024, weighing a healthy 8.8lbs.
The 47-year-old says: “Some mums worry about what other parents at the school gate think – I literally couldn’t care less.
“Anyone that knows me probably says that I’m young at heart. I wasn’t worried.”
In fact Samantha says that her older age puts her in a better position than younger mums.
“For me personally, I travelled a lot – my life revolved around travel and I’ve partied hard,” she says.
“I’m completely happy to do this, whereas if I’d been younger it might have been different.
“I’m also much more patient. Mentally, it’s much better having a baby when you’re older. Physically, not so much.
“I don’t mind the night feeds or anything like that, it’s just the fact my body hurts.
“I get a bad back and my knees and my arms hurt from carrying her around all the time.”
She argues that being an older mum makes her a better mum[/caption]
She was 47 when she gave birth to Elvie and says because she had got her partying out of her system she was ready for motherhood[/caption]
While she’s aware that she will be an older mum she is pleased that her son Zephyr will have a sibling to grow up with[/caption]
Samantha, who is also mum to four-year-old Zephyr, knows some people make assumptions when they see older mums – but she’s too content to care.
And while her second pregnancy came with a long list of complications, including an underactive thyroid and gestational diabetes, she’s not letting any of it define her experience.
At one point, she was injecting insulin daily and struggling to breathe as fluid build-up pressed on her lungs.
When Elvie was born at 37 weeks via a planned C-section, over a litre and a half of fluid came out during delivery.
Samantha says: “The fluid was squashing my lungs.
“Over a litre and a half of fluid came out.
NHS list of risks associated with being an older mum
- Greater difficulty in initially conceiving a child, with the personal and psychological difficulties that this can cause
- Increased risk of complications for both mother and infant during pregnancy and delivery (although the actual size of the risk may be small)
- Greater risk of general maternal health problems, such as high blood pressure, which can contribute to complications
- Higher risk of miscarriage in women above the age of 35
- Higher risk of having twins or triplets, which is itself associated with higher risk of complications
- Increased chance of having a baby with a congenital abnormality, such as Down’s syndrome
- Increased risk of pre-eclampsia
- Increased risk of complications during delivery, such as prolonged labour, need for assisted delivery or Caesarean section, or stillbirth
“I didn’t enjoy being pregnant at all – I was considered high-risk.
“I just wanted to have it over and done with, as terrible as it sounds.”
Samatha has thought about the future, especially when it comes to growing older alongside her kids.
She adds: “We’re going to be older parents, that’s just a fact – but I didn’t want Zeph growing up without someone to share it with.
“Let them judge – I’m not here to live life on anyone else’s timeline.
“I don’t really think about [being an older mum], everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.
“I do get some of the reasons, but I’m a better mother now than I ever would have been in my 20s.
“It’s not about being the youngest mum at soft play – it’s about being present, being calm and showing up every single day.
“I’m more chilled, I don’t sweat the small stuff, I just enjoy them.”
I know who I am now – and that makes me a better mum than I ever could’ve imagined
Samantha Crammond
Samantha says that becoming a mum has totally changed her outlook on life.
“I know who I am now – and that makes me a better mum than I ever could’ve imagined,” she says.
“It’s really weird, before, the only thing I ever wanted to do was be away from home.
“Whereas now, my happiness is at home with them.
“And being older, I wouldn’t have felt like that if I had had them earlier.
“I just felt like I still had things to do. Now, I can give it my everything.”
She certainly doesn’t care about what other mums at the school gates think[/caption]
Samantha says that being at home with her kids is where she is now happiest[/caption]
