JULES FALLON

Model agent 1st Option Models, three children Hand yourself over to the experts, and leave your dignity at the door. Nobody talks about the aftermath — to be prepared for the pain when you’re peeing and moving your bowels. Your first bowel movement is worse than labour in my experience. But why don’t we talk about it and warn each other?

My third didn’t go the way the other two had. When I went to get a scan done at 15 weeks, I remember them saying “well Jules, the good news is that one foetal heartbeat is alive”. I had twins, I had lost one just that week. That was horrendous, I was pretty devastated. Then six months into my pregnancy, I had 12 days of excruciating pain. I actually didn’t want to live any more, only that I had two other children. I ended up at Holles Street, with Rhona Mahony at the front door waiting for me. She had a team of, at one stage, about 24 people in the room working on me. I had preeclampsia toxemia. If I hadn’t gone to the doctor that day, most likely I would not have survived that night. When they took her out, she was smaller than the palm of my hand. I didn’t see her for a couple of days because I was so sick. And then eventually they wheeled me up in a wheelchair. She was connected to so many machines. There were needles in her feet, in her hands. But we definitely won the lotto. Because they warned me that she would most likely have cerebral palsy, communication problems, problems with her eyes, a whole list of issues. And there is nothing wrong with her at all. We had a few stints in hospital. The first year and a half wasn’t too easy, but now when you look back, it was a walk in the park in comparison to what I did see with other babies. We’re so lucky to come out the other side with the perfect six-year-old. They let us sign out of the system when she had turned two years and five months. They said, go off and live your life. She is genuinely a walking miracle.