But the teacher from Rosedale Close, Gossops Green, who suffers from a rare heart-shaped uterus, had her dreams come true when the postman came last week.

Vicky, 31 – whose condition means pregnancies can't run full term – said she'd been through hell losing one baby before both Bethany, 2, and Oliver, seven months, were born weighing less than a bag of sugar.

She explained: "It was more frightening with Beth who was born at 27 weeks because we were transferred to Carshalton, St Helier.
"They managed to stop my labour for a couple of days but she still only weighed 2lbs 2oz.

"We were hoping that it would be a little longer with Oliver but he only managed another week."

Mum Vicky and dad Nick, 32, added: "We didn't see him at first because I had a caesarean section.

"He was born at 4am and we didn't see him until 10.30am. The caesarean was the scariest bit because we'd been through the rest before."

Both babies suffered health problems after birth – Bethany needed an operation for a heart murmur at just four weeks and Oliver was taken into a London hospital at Christmas with respiratory infection bronchiolitis.

Full story and pictures in the Crawley Observer