Victorian author Charles Kingsley got his feet wet with The Water Babies, a children’s novel which many of us oldies read as youngsters or watched the Disney film in the seventies which offered a liberal interpretation of the novel. Whether the idea came from the eccentric writer’s friendship with a wasp he once saved from drowning or whether it triggered the vision of a softer, enveloping underwater sanctuary is anyone’s guess.

Are you expecting a girl or a boy – that is the question? And do you want to know? That’s another question! And if you do want to know, do you want your friends and family to know too? So many questions – but everyone is different. Some mums and dads in waiting want to savour the 40 week moment and wait to be surprised in the delivery suite, others want to know early...

As we countdown to the joys and delights of the festive season, the stress naturally begins to build, however much organisation and planning has gone into your pre-Christmas preparations. How much harder then, if you have a new born baby or one due this month – after the initial euphoria and the thrill or that very first cuddle along with the overwhelming love you feel for your little miracle, the reality starts to set in.