Meghan and Harry’s Happy News & My Pregnancy Sixth Sense

I was delighted to read the news of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex’s pregnancy today but if I’m honest, I’d sensed it weeks ago. In fact, I weirdly have the ability to sense when most women are pregnant or will be, be they celebrities, total strangers and close friends too which utterly baffles me as much as it might well baffle you. I’m just sad my intuition doesn’t quite work on the lottery numbers!

I know this will sound utterly bonkers but I’m rather like a living Russian doll when it comes to pregnancy and babies: hang out with me for too long and you might just find yourself up the duff. Gosh that reads badly but it’s true. My son, Oliver, 8, recently recounted learning of the Egyptian Goddess of Love and Motherhood at school which made me wonder if I’m some sort of modern day fertility queen.

I am laughing at the absurdity of this but many fellow mums often tell me they’ve been bestowed with a pregnancy sixth sense after having kids themselves. You read the cues because you’ve been there before. The subtle change in face shape-the rounding of features, the obvious and often slight protruding of the tummy in the early months and some say simply, the look in the eye of the mother.

…I’ve always been maternal, even as a child I would babyfy my own younger brother and I loved nothing more than looking after my younger cousins and the babies of family friends.  I even recall helping to care for the kids at the craiche I attended myself, as a child.

I’m an empath so that no doubt plays a part and perhaps my doctor friend was right in saying that my big, animated features might well make kids think I’m a big baby myself-bahaha!

Truth be told, I’ve never met a child who didn’t like me and over the years some quite bonkers things have happened to confirm this. At uni, the children in my street (about twenty of them) would wait for me to come home from lectures every day so they could chat to me. My house mates jokingly referred to me as the Pied Piper. The little girl who lived next door even started a scrapbook with newspaper cuttings from local papers who’d written about my filmmaking.  I genuinely loved hearing about the kids’ day and giving them my time and attention, something they seemed to crave.

Far more surreal occurrences happened over the years such as the time a little girl I’d never met before, left her Mum to come over and hug me as I was walking along, minding my own business in East London. Then again, when a toddler turned to give me his hand, sensing I was scared on a domestic flight in South Africa. Or the time I saved two children’s lives years apart as cars were heading towards them. Crazy but wonderful.

…When it comes to my pregnancy sixth sense, this appears to have revealed itself after my first pregnancy.  I’ve dreamt many a time that a friend or acquaintance was pregnant only to find they are, with some totally unaware prior to my dream, with that prompting them to take a test.

My friend Julie didn’t know she was pregnant when I called to tell her I’d dreamt three nights in a row she was. She took the test and found it was positive. I’ve dreamt she was pregnancy every time she was.

Time and time again, my pregnancy sixth sense has never failed me. I accept this sounds nuts and if I were reading this about someone else, I’d be furiously shaking my head in disbelief but these are the facts.  I’ve not once predicted someone was pregnant to find it not be true.

I could tell the Duchess of Cambridge was pregnant with Prince Louis before her announcement just from photos I saw of her at Wimbledon. The same applied when I saw pictures of Meghan weeks ago and what would have been early on in her pregnancy, even telling close friends I was certain she was pregnant. One, Louise, even texted me today to tell me I must be psychic.

Take the other week. I met up with a close friend and on the morning before we hung out together, I had a vision she was pregnant. Turns out she was. UTTERLY BANANAS.

Can you relate? There must be more fertility queens (!) out there predicting pregnancy too?

…I can’t wait to follow Megan’s pregnancy journey. Every time a royal has a baby, they inspire more to follow suit (maybe my husband might get the message), and I love that Megan represents the many women who have their first child in their late 30s and early 40s. My close friend Amancay Tapia has written an unmissable piece in the Independent on how the archaic term for a geriatric mum needs to end. Read it here.

I’d love to read your thoughts.