My mum gave birth to my baby
‘Tracey is my baby. I did it for her to be a mother’
Pulling my school jumper on in the changing rooms, I listened to the group of girls whispering beside me. ‘The cramps are horrible,’ one said, as I stared at the floor self-consciously. They were talking about their periods, and I wanted so much to join their chats about tampons, tummy pains and mood swings. Only, at 16, I hadn’t started mine yet and was wondering if I ever would.
‘Why hasn’t it happened yet?’ I sobbed to my mum, Emma, then 38, that evening.
‘Let’s go to the doctor,’ Mum said. Thanks to her persistence, a few months later,
