There were quite a few things I didn't know about having children, before I had children. I didn't know you had to relinquish sleep, getting plastered, and using the loo alone for the foreseeable future. I didn't know that parenting involved such high levels of patience, guilt and housework. And I didn't know that my children's birthdays, especially their first birthdays, would be a day that was also for me, a day to get misty eyed as I remembered the last hours I held them tight within my body, and a time for turning over and over in my mind the story, from the first stirrings of labour to the moment of their birth. Another thing I didn't know before I had children is that giving birth can be one of the most incredible, exciting and empowering experiences of your life. During my first pregnancy I was filled with fear, absolutely dreading the act of bringing my child into the world, which to me seemed impos...