IT FAILED — AND WE HAD A FIFTH BABY

AdAm Riley, 48, is married to Katrina, 46. He owns his own construction firm and she is a teacher. They live in Teignmouth,

devon, with their children Sophie, 17, Beth, 16, emily, 13, louis, 12, and James, nine. Adam says: In 2006, my wife and I were living in France with our four children. Financially, we didn’t think it made sense to have another baby — four undertens were enough of a stretch on their own! We figured it was better for me to go under the knife and recuperate over a couple of days rather than Katrina be out of action for several weeks if she had her tubes tied.

It wasn’t possible to have the operation in France, so I travelled to Birmingham in April of that year to have it done privately. Everything went well and, apart from being a bit sore for a few days afterwards, life carried on as normal. The doctors had warned us to wait three months before having unprotected sex, so we held out as long as we possibly could before making love.

To my relief, it all felt normal and I didn’t suffer from loss of libido or erectile dysfunction, as I know some men can after having a vasectomy. But alarm bells started to ring a few months later when Katrina, who was training for a marathon, started putting on weight rather than losing it.

She was ill one night after eating seafood, and that was when she admitted to me that she hadn’t had a period for a few months.

On a whim, she decided to do a pregnancy test. never in a million years did we expect it to come back positive. Shock doesn’t really convey how I felt when I heard that she was carrying our fifth child.

I felt confused: the doctors had told me the vasectomy had been a success. Surely it wasn’t biologically possible?

As it turned out, the vasectomy hadn’t worked, I wasn’t ‘firing blanks’ as I’d thought — and months later we had a bouncing baby boy to show for it.

It certainly wasn’t in our plan, but I don’t regret having a fifth child.

Without James, Louis — our second youngest — would have been our only boy, and with three big sisters that would have been quite a challenge growing up!

Although I definitely don’t want any more children, I wouldn’t have the snip again either.

It didn’t do its job the first time around, so why go through all that pain again?’