It was to be that we would have to travel to St Mary's children’s hospital in Manchester a few days later to get a more thorough scan. Lindsey also needed to have an amnio * to ascertain if any further complications were apparent. This was carried out within a week and showed everything else was fine. If things showed that there were more problems, I dread to think what they would have advised.

* AMNIOCENTESIS: Procedure used in prenatal diagnosis to obtain amniotic fluid which can be used for genetic and other diagnostic tests. Informally called an "amnio."

We were desperate for more answers on the many questions we had. The one big important question that no one could ever answer was..."Would our baby survive?" Lindsey trawled through the internet, typing "Diaphragmatic Hernia" into possibly every search engine available. It's a natural reaction to go surfing for info and we just wanted to find sites that would fill us with hope and optimism. Along with some good sites were some that we wished we'd never opened. Some gave lower survival rates and filled us with fear. But we had to be realistic; our baby had a serious condition. Our baby was due in 4 months time and we wondered just what would happen at birth.

On our visit to Manchester, the radiographer, Dr Russell was fantastic, putting our minds at ease but again giving nothing away while scanning. She told us again a similar 40% figure and drew us a diagram of a Diaphragmatic Hernia. We expected this visit to tell us whether baby would go full term and be born. To our delight and relief Dr Russell saw no reason why baby shouldn't be born although she could not predict the outcome. We left for home and waited the long 4 months unknowing of what lay ahead. Our baby would have to be born in St Mary's in order to go straight to intensive care at birth.

Somehow we had to have a bit of faith and in a time of need stuck regular prayers in. We have a large family and many friends who proved invaluable in boosting our spirits. Even the most unreligious of us said prayers for the first time since primary school assembly. Because of the TV program we took part in, we were known by friends of friends, colleagues of families and total strangers in the local supermarket. The hard part when being asked when baby was due and knowing if it was a boy or girl. Sometimes we would tell them of our diagnosis and sometimes we just didn't want to mention it. It was often and understandably met with sympathy.