Julie Hayward spots a baby

I’ve decided that I’m am going to avoid one of the most popular topics that’s in the press at the moment – if you have no idea what I’m talking about, if I say Kate Middleton, maybe that will give you a clue. I think there’s going to be a lot of baby talk over the next few months. What I do want to talk about is spots, and for me spots are loosely related to babies…

When I was a girl, many moons ago, on capturing my first proper boyfriend at the of 17, I was determined to pop my cherry, or in plain English, lose my virginity. So I bucked up the courage to see my family doctor; believe me, it took some nerve to do that. She’d been my doctor since I was 5 and she had seen me through Chicken Pox, Measles and other childhood illnesses.

When I told her that I had wanted to go on the pill she gave me a disapproving glance and said you don’t want the pill at your age but you have mild acne on your chin – I’ll give you a course of antibiotics to clear it up – no wonder viruses are becoming so resistant now, as that was over 30 years ago and they’ve been dishing them out willy nilly ever since.

Anyway, after the doctor’s visit I slunk off, overcome with embarrassment about my spots and frustrated about my lack of contraception.

I headed straight to the nearest chemist and purchased a concealer for my spots. What I should have done was get myself to the local Family Planning Clinic, as they were called in those days, but after the cringe-making experience at the doctors I didn’t have the courage to.

So I threw caution, responsibility and my knickers to the wind and didn’t bother with contraception and surprise, surprise, eventually I became pregnant – so you see, for me spots and babies do have a connection.